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Time After Time: A heart-warming novel about love, loss and second chances
Hannah Mary McKinnon
‘A very clever idea! if you’re thinking what if about reading this, then think no more, pick this up now!’Have you ever wondered ‘what if?’When Hayley Cooper goes to sleep wishing for a different life, then wakes up in bed with her first boyfriend, she can’t believe her eyes. She hasn’t seen Chris in over twenty years – but now she’s married to him. And Hayley is in for a few more romantic surprises . . .Over a single weekend, Hayley lives her life time and time again, and as each of her former loves resurface, Hayley starts to realise that there’s some truth in the saying ‘be careful what you wish for.’ Yes, the past two years with her husband Rick have been tough, but is the grass always greener?Time After Time is a fresh, funny novel, which explores the romantic paths that could have been and the ones who (almost) got away. . . Perfect for fans of Laura Barnett and Dani Atkins.
HANNAH MCKINNON
Time After Time
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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published by Avon
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
The News Building
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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins 2016
Copyright © Hannah McKinnon 2016
Hannah McKinnon 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 e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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.
Ebook Edition © June 2016 ISBN: 9780008191849
Version 2017-11-14
To Robert, Leo, Matt & Lex – with love, always
Table of Contents
Cover (#u01dffc45-4bc8-5b29-9769-dd109c4a77b1)
Title Page (#ua406fd9f-05c4-59f1-be23-1dcf29411885)
Copyright (#ua416a486-e316-5b1a-9f8c-9e698ec64f31)
Dedication (#u1a5cdf08-d14a-5c2b-b527-8f46a33ac676)
Chapter 1: A Blast From The Past (#ude179c0e-2c31-5d17-862e-d5e3b0a72b03)
Chapter 2: Going Nowhere (#u5e876561-b8cc-5787-949c-0278dc22f956)
Chapter 3: Let’s Play Pretend (#u32a19d3f-a1aa-5f47-82ea-c3a30051bc99)
Chapter 4: Any Second Now (#ub026b224-6fa4-5799-b43e-9324f721e098)
Chapter 5: 1988 It Was Genius (#ua4057a93-5f7d-5e64-8a27-98b4111e80a5)
Chapter 6: A Different Life (#u906b0359-b7d9-5556-8e9a-3a4664462ecc)
Chapter 7: 1988 Here Goes Nothing (#u92145102-44b6-5bc6-bdf1-d9a672ba14d2)
Chapter 8: Smoke And Mirrors (#u50296c2a-2f0b-510c-abeb-5fc0817de7c1)
Chapter 9: 1990 Got to Keep Control (#u49703def-ecac-58a8-a70a-4f1c4fcd9a08)
Chapter 10: Long Way Home (#u64459961-7669-5a46-a08e-df59b01dc806)
Chapter 11: 1990 My Girl (#u5c801fbd-2b67-50f6-a482-76317d6bdcac)
Chapter 12: Some Things Never Change (#u87870c51-e47e-555a-907c-9fcc8e3fad57)
Chapter 13: 1993 a New Chapter (#uc724a63a-38cd-531c-acca-55bfdfdc53e4)
Chapter 14: Anywhere But … Where? (#ude28253a-cd13-5c90-ab01-456821622d2a)
Chapter 15: 1993 New York, New York (#u7a25582c-78d2-5618-a236-06f74a3e8763)
Chapter 16: Mind Games (#u27d2bceb-cc21-5f54-9fc4-0df576ac3995)
Chapter 17: 1993 Smooth Operator (#ua3c0b26d-9f1d-5eb4-bbb8-c9265f31cdf6)
Chapter 18: Living The Dream (#u071f2053-d60d-5210-8356-bbb46220a5f2)
Chapter 19: 1993 Sweet Little Lies (#u540bb146-8a9a-542e-aeb3-301bc2eece38)
Chapter 20: How The Other Half Live (#u0b612a47-a3ba-5c97-88f4-4abb714cb10d)
Chapter 21: 1995 Moving on Up (#u63385c68-5768-5632-9e23-2d458fd66656)
Chapter 22: Nothing But The Truth (#u6434d3cc-4237-5625-a777-ad48adf47c95)
Chapter 23: 1995 All That Glitters (#uc07fce11-52c5-5600-9aa8-c11972d3b004)
Chapter 24: A Perfect Lie (#uc9b40b11-8040-561d-ae5c-63e73e9059cf)
Chapter 25: 1996 Definitely Not, Baby (#u535cdf25-2710-5637-8a42-668a2ada2fe7)
Chapter 26: Freefalling (#u5ee93e79-723d-5538-83d8-daa5f61c39af)
Chapter 27: 1996 Everything I Do (#u3f2dc6d3-fdfc-5ed4-a920-1b052036d5f8)
Chapter 28: I Wonder … (#u3384a471-deb7-521f-9585-03a0a01e5ff9)
Chapter 29: 1997 Same Old, Same Old (#uad28e10b-cb42-5d80-ba59-13ee32e028e6)
Chapter 30: Hold Me (Back) (#u00b71934-310c-547f-b87c-28ffe9294898)
Chapter 31: 1997 It’s So Easy (#ue49139c3-c991-53ca-9ec3-228679a3a650)
Chapter 32: Round Two (#u5ce5177f-5192-5a9f-8f38-131c5d823ace)
Chapter 33: 1998 Single White Female (#ud21a10a8-19df-58cb-a321-183b2862d4e0)
Chapter 34: The One Who Got Away (#u9ac51b7a-e867-5ad2-9077-ed56e4dddbf4)
Chapter 35: 1998 Sláinte (#u4eca61ed-ae35-5e33-98a0-961f2064e8cc)
Chapter 36: Happy Families (#u82924eeb-3b0b-5c04-96e9-ffe82c961a08)
Chapter 37: 1998 It’s Their Party … (#u5a1c770c-c6a7-5641-a2a3-08a96589d386)
Chapter 38: The Wake-Up Call (#u8a20c276-0235-5dc3-97df-a04137589b44)
Chapter 39: 1998 Fly Away (#uea55292a-100b-54f5-b3d5-cfce0b5cb6c9)
Chapter 40: Daddy’s Girl (#u0926da78-7639-53ed-82f3-7b0c15953769)
Chapter 41: I Want to Go Home (#uf8ac14a7-d54c-5ae9-b4a6-018dc255e1e8)
Chapter 42: 1998 – 2000 Kid in America (#u6eb7b614-ad73-5ab3-a7fa-392bb045ab03)
Chapter 43: 2000 Head Over Heels (#ueb919f27-918b-5856-8ff7-f259b6b36d54)
Chapter 44: One Way Ticket (#uee808135-21ff-599e-aa22-5445298798dd)
Chapter 45: 2000 Hung Up on You (#u43c1ccd6-29fa-51da-a68f-6c04069324dd)
Chapter 46: Crisis Central (#uf4b5bdac-0cf5-56bc-abb0-8b28501cb359)
Chapter 47: 2000 The Glory Days (#ub37da847-fd55-5b0e-979a-5389b361264d)
Chapter 48: Mirror, Mirror (#ua867f34a-9336-5141-9af7-23a39ab12510)
Chapter 49: 2003 The Slippery Slope (#uc10c8f22-6ffc-5609-9b42-428a62985fcf)
Chapter 50: No Going Back (#u5ec77c44-41ae-5436-bdfe-b5a651fddf41)
Chapter 51: Begin Again (#u401680a2-08f7-577d-b575-96a18ebc5a2e)
Chapter 52: Dragon’s Den (#uca43fac4-9d48-51e1-a87c-10599845ebfb)
Chapter 53: Finding Chris (#ue471f43e-be44-5b6f-a1ea-731e292308a7)
Chapter 54: Finding Ian (#u1f31b143-d9a5-51b8-8038-cab489935b49)
Chapter 55: Finding Matthew (#uaba897a9-3665-5dd4-b3c6-ad1938aa1845)
Chapter 56: Finding Sean (#u399faf52-efaf-58ff-8d2a-8c8711918e3c)
Chapter 57: Finding Home (#u06ed79e5-81ea-50e2-a345-d6a19f4844ce)
Author q&a (#u62184611-8350-571b-9c2f-1f5853ef03b7)
Acknowledgements (#u7530abab-3dc3-5be2-b8d5-c238b253119c)
About the Author (#ud24162ac-943a-589a-9cba-e3c8818f753e)
About the Publisher (#u77092a69-a075-59e0-960b-36a92b91d72d)
CHAPTER 1 (#u44c5e8f4-7bb9-5319-9fd3-4c96bfb56795)
A Blast From The Past (#u44c5e8f4-7bb9-5319-9fd3-4c96bfb56795)
It was the odd silence that woke her.
Where are the kids?
Hayley tried to burrow back into Sleepland. Fat chance. She’d become too much aware of her tongue that was stuck to the roof of her mouth. It felt like she’d been chewing on a ball of fuzzy felt rolled in a slice of Gouda.
‘Ugh,’ Hayley groaned, her eyes still tightly shut.
She remembered getting a taxi back from Ellen’s but her throbbing head didn’t make sense. They hadn’t had that much wine, surely? Hayley briefly wondered if her best friend felt equally queasy. Then her stomach rumbled, a sure indication of how late it might be.
Breakfast is going to be fun. Serves me right for getting back so late.
Hayley squinted, barely able to make anything out in the dimly lit room. She looked at her old-fashioned Mickey Mouse alarm clock that ticked loudly. Her parents had bought it for her fifteenth birthday as a joke because nothing short of a sledgehammer ever seemed to wake her. She’d used it ever since.
Mickey’s glow-in-the dark gloves showed five minutes to nine.
Where are the kids?
She couldn’t believe they weren’t up yet. It was total bliss that she’d got an extra hour and a half of much-needed sleep. As she rubbed her head again she heard Rick’s gentle breathing next to her. Her husband had always been a quiet sleeper. She was the snorer – he’d even recorded it once on his phone and played a frighteningly realistic warthog impression back to her with a grin on his face.
It’s not like him to be in bed this late on a Saturday morning.
