{"id":310415,"date":"2025-10-17T09:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310415\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T09:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:51:13","slug":"extract-from-till-death-do-us-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310415\/","title":{"rendered":"Extract from Till Death Do Us Part"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Gasp inducing”, “page turner”, “the best book I’ve read for ages” – these are just a few of the comments about Till Death Do Us Oart by Laurie Elzabeth Flynn, which was chosen by GH’s reader panel as a Reader Favourite in our Good Books Autumn Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Set in the vineyards of California\u2019s Napa Valley, this atmospheric thriller has twists and turns galore. Ten years after Josh drowned on honeymoon, his widow, June, starts to see him everywhere she goes\u2026 <\/p>\n

Read an extract below. <\/p>\n

What to read nextPrologueSeptember 2012<\/p>\n

He stepped out of the sea , the ocean pooling under his feet like a fallen cape, waves packing the sand into brown sugar. My husband, a phrase that still seemed foreign to me. Nobody had thought we would last beyond a month, maybe two, once the lust started to flatline. You barely know him, friends had warned me after a diamond ring encircled my finger so much sooner than anyone expected.<\/p>\n

Everyone would hate that we eloped, but our spontaneous ceremony on the beach in Santa Barbara had been perfect. I\u2019d worn a simple linen dress and held red-mouthed hibiscus flowers. Humidity had curled the ends of our hair, the crown of my head beginning to bleach from the sun.<\/p>\n

A day later, we had yet to tell our loved ones. We wanted it to be only us for a little bit longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should come in next time,\u201d Josh said as he sat down and toweled off beside me.<\/p>\n

I straddled his lap, my fingers resting on his damp shoulders. \u201cYou swim too far. It stresses me out when I can\u2019t see you anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

He kissed me, long and hard, his thumbs hooked into my hips. When he pulled away, his eyes were playful. \u201cI love you for worrying about me, June Kelly.\u201d My new name felt like a novelty. \u201cBut you don\u2019t need to. Nothing bad is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believed him. After all, he had been right about everything else.<\/p>\n

But seven days after I was pronounced his wife, I became Josh Kelly\u2019s widow.<\/p>\n

Chapter oneJuneProspect Heights, BrooklynAugust 2022<\/p>\n

I know it’s coming before it actually happens. We\u2019re underneath a sprawling elm in Prospect Park, eating a picnic lunch Kyle packed\u2014 baguette and sliced pears and Comt\u00e9 cheese the shade of caramelized butter, paired with a notoriously hard-to-find Australian bottle that I\u2019d mentioned was one of the best orange wines I\u2019d ever tasted. It\u2019s the wine that tips me off, from a small husband-and-wife-operated natural winery in Victoria, too special for a regular lunch.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t get down on one knee, because I told him I didn\u2019t want him to. I wanted casual, just us. No dimly lit restaurant, no audience of family and friends. His hand reaches behind his back, where he must have been hiding the ring box in his pocket all morning. The ring itself is not a surprise: we picked it out together, a one-carat oval diamond on a thin gold band. Its design is simple and classic, something I knew I wouldn\u2019t question five or ten or thirty years from now.<\/p>\n

\u201cJune Emery, you know how much I love you. You\u2019re my best friend and the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I\u2019ve never been so sure about anything, and I\u2019ll do whatever it takes to make you as happy and loved as you make me feel. Do you think . . . will you marry me?\u201d he says, his smile almost sheepish, as though he\u2019s afraid I\u2019m going to respond with anything other than a resounding yes. We\u2019ve been together for six years, and marriage has been on the table for at least two of them. It was a conversation Kyle was ready to have long before I was. Now, in the warm late-summer air, his question lingers between us.<\/p>\n

I pause for only a second. \u201cYes. Yes! Of course I will.\u201d My hand extends, and he slides the ring onto my finger. It\u2019s a perfect fit. My nails are buffed and polished a neutral pink. I suspected, when he asked me yesterday if I wanted to spend Sunday afternoon at the park, that he had something planned, and the minute I saw the wine, I was certain that this was it. That we\u2019d leave engaged.<\/p>\n

Kyle embraces me tightly, my face embedded in his soft flannel shirt, which is his weekend-casual uniform when he\u2019s not in suits for work.<\/p>\n

Tears burn my eyes, and when I pull away, he notices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d cry,\u201d I say, holding my smile steady. \u201cThey\u2019re happy tears, I promise. This just feels so right.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it does feel right, me and Kyle. But the tears aren\u2019t simply those of happiness. My intense emotion in this moment has nothing to do with Kyle and everything to do with a past he isn\u2019t part of, a version of me that preceded him. The other ring, the one I wore before, a tiny cluster of diamonds I\u2019d thought was the most beautiful piece of jewelry I\u2019d ever seen. The one I continued to wear for years after Josh was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d Kyle says, brushing his thumb under my eye. \u201cThis is different for you than it is for me, and I get it. You don\u2019t have to pretend otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nestle under his arm, grateful beyond words that he\u2019s this understanding, this forgiving. A lot of men in Kyle\u2019s situation might feel like they were perpetually competing against a ghost, locked in a comparison game they had no chance of winning. I half-heartedly dated a few guys in the years after Josh, but they never stuck around, either because they sensed my hesitation or because they didn\u2019t want to live under the weight of my trauma. Kyle has only ever been thoughtful and patient. He\u2019s so good to me that sometimes I fear that I don\u2019t deserve him. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou absolutely deserve him,\u201d my best friend, Phoebe, has repeated more than once. \u201cYou of all people deserve to find love again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, because this isn\u2019t my first time feeling that I\u2019ve found the one. <\/p>\n

This won\u2019t be my first wedding. The happiest day of my life was followed a week later by the worst day imaginable. Until Kyle, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get that second chance at passionate, true love.<\/p>\n

Kyle tips up my chin to kiss me, his lips soft and yielding. My fianc\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn<\/p>\n

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