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The Mum Who Got Her Life Back
Fiona Gibson
The laugh-out-loud Sunday Times bestseller is back and funnier than ever! Perfect for fans of WHY MUMMY DRINKS.When her 18-year-old twins leave for university, single mum Nadia’s life changes in ways she never expected: her Glasgow flat feels suddenly huge, laundry doesn’t take up half her week, and she no longer has to buy ‘the Big Milk’. After almost two decades of putting everyone else first, Nadia is finally taking care of herself. And with a budding romance with new boyfriend Jack, She’s never felt more alive.That is, until her son Alfie drops out of university, and Nadia finds her empty nest is empty no more. With a heartbroken teenager to contend with, Nadia has to ask herself: is it ever possible for a mother to get her own life back? And can Jack and Nadia’s relationship survive having a sulky teenager around?A gloriously funny and uplifting new book perfect for fans of Gill Sims and Jill Mansell.
The Mum Who Got her Life Back
FIONA GIBSON
Published by AVON
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Fiona Gibson 2019
Cover design © Lisa Horton 2019
Cover [photograph/illustration] © Shutterstock (http://www.shutterstock.com)
Fiona Gibson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008310967
Ebook Edition © [month] [year] ISBN: 9780008310974
Version: 2018-12-20
For my fabulous friend Miss Jackie Brown
Queen of Fife
With thanks …
To the amazing Jackie B, who manages a Mary’s Meals charity shop and let me spend a day nosing around, talking to volunteers and rummaging in the back room. I couldn’t have written this book without your help, Miss Brown! To Kath Brown and Miranda McMinn at Woman & Home magazine for getting me thinking about Happy Empty Nesters (HENs) and inadvertently inspiring this book. To Jen, Susan, Laura, Wendy and Lisa (Kath, you were missed!) for celebrating with me in Ibiza when this book was done. To Wendy (again) for a detailed description of a certain type of pokey facial, which I used almost verbatim. To my brilliant editor Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks, publicist Sabah Khan and the whole fantastic Avon team. To my super-agent Caroline Sheldon for being the best in the business. Finally, all my love to Jimmy, Sam, Dexter and Erin, my lovely family who put up with me working crazy hours and very often talking to myself.
Table of Contents
Cover (#u14cf8bde-376d-5a2b-8694-12443eee065f)
Title Page (#ue95678f9-3914-58ef-8332-6fd5e9f25762)
Copyright (#u61f15b4c-d71c-5084-9efa-4ca83e8db9c1)
Dedication (#u332bf921-f411-5ba9-bbc2-80478b03c4f7)
Epigraph (#ue25711a9-2de0-560d-a87a-41e4e1249de7)
Part One: Things that happen when your kids first leave home (#u5299813c-a7c8-507d-91ef-0aacf4d9be5e)
Chapter One: Nadia (#u0f73f6ee-a468-5ca7-9f7b-fecca4d7c6da)
Chapter Two (#u0c0e8349-a0b4-5b60-9720-b719f478e71d)
Chapter Three: Jack (#u4152bdab-f67c-5c29-bddc-da7c96970f94)
Chapter Four (#u48ac7357-1809-5453-9c6f-49e212fc9784)
Chapter Five (#u7956ae9e-5322-563d-b19b-336fb9a91b8f)
Chapter Six: Nadia (#ua7d3b31b-d292-5384-a00a-ff6880ea1d4e)
Chapter Seven: Jack (#u1b02e88a-92c3-5f3e-8e91-152b1ac97edb)
Part Two: Sex and the Empty Nester: Things to Know (#u41f7dd31-21eb-5ffa-9120-ee599408fe52)
Chapter Eight: Nadia (#u541309cd-dd2b-5b3a-a3a6-72457bda44c5)
Chapter Nine (#u3b15e27c-0756-5592-a5b7-5393f0bfa283)
Chapter Ten (#u22b76add-7dc7-5101-bace-4be723533ca3)
Chapter Eleven (#ucef2eeb2-9d43-56aa-9a7c-baa0030a52ef)
Chapter Twelve: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Four: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Five: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-One: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Two: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Three: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Three: The key to a successful holiday with one’s grown-up child (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Four: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Six: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-One: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Two: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Four: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Five: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Forty-Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty-One: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty-Two: Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty-Three: Jack (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty-Four: Iain (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifty-Five : Nadia (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
By the same author: (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Part One (#u192a1730-9355-5b49-a75f-7d22cf501df3)
Things that happen when your kids first leave home (#u192a1730-9355-5b49-a75f-7d22cf501df3)
• You keep checking to see if they’ve texted to say they’re managing without you. They haven’t … because you’ve only just moved them into their student halls and are still sitting in your car, in the car park.
• You realise it’s no longer necessary to buy those two-kilo bags of potatoes. They just go green and start sprouting.
• You also stop buying The Big Milk and switch to the smallest carton. How tiny you are! you think, the first dozen times you spy it in the fridge.
• Friends say things like, ‘You might miss them at first. But when they come home on visits they’ll trash the place, and you’ll be relieved when they go back to uni.’ How harsh, you think. I love my kids. I’ll never think of them in that way.
• You realise you could now have sex in your own home without worrying about the kids overhearing. Or perhaps you’re thinking more along the lines of, Shall I redecorate to mark this new chapter? Perhaps your mindset is less ‘shag pad’, more ‘upgrading of cushions’. Either way, it’s pretty thrilling.
• Towels remain on the towel rail and the loo roll sits, unmolested, on its holder.
