Vacation

By Jane Green

In this witty, deeply honest tale of married life, New York Times bestselling author Jane Green delves into the heart of the holidays—and the winter of one woman’s discontent . . .
 
Just when she’d sworn off men for good, Sarah Evans met Eddie. Sarah was a magazine editor, living in Manhattan, and loving her life—except for the heartbreaks. A successful real estate developer, Eddie was a breath of fresh air, a meeting of minds—and bodies. Soon came wedded bliss, baby number one—and the proverbial move to the suburbs . . .
 
You just sit there like a slob while I do all the work. Nine years later, this is increasingly what goes through Sarah’s mind when she looks at Evan, propped in front of the TV with a beer, ignoring their two children. The truth is, she misses her old life. She misses the old Eddie. She can’t help wondering if she’d be happier alone . . .
 
When Eddie’s job sends him to Chicago indefinitely, Sarah shocks him by suggesting a trial separation. But she knows it’s just a precursor to divorce—even if Eddie chooses to think of it as a “vacation.” Yet a lot can change—on both sides—as time goes by. And once Christmas arrives, Sarah and Eddie might re-discover gifts they’d forgotten they had . . .

Previously published in This Christmas.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Release date: Oct 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781420151268

Jane Green

The author of eighteen New York Times bestsellers and nineteen USA TODAY bestsellers, Jane Green is a former journalist in the UK and a graduate of the International Culinary Center in New York. Her many novels include Jemima J, The Beach House, Falling, The Sunshine Sisters and, most recently, The Friends We Keep, and she has published one cookbook, Good Taste.

Book preview

GREEN

C

HAPTER

1

Sometimes in life we get stuck. Sometimes in life we think we know exactly where we’re headed, what we’re looking for, how to get there, but once we reach it we don’t know where else to go.

This is how it is for Sarah Evans. Sarah who appears to have everything in life she could possibly need: a husband who is a successful real-estate developer in Manhattan, a perfect 1960s colonial in a picture-book-perfect small town in upstate New York, and two beautiful dark-haired children—Maggie and Walker.

They have been married for eight years, but Sarah doesn’t think about their wedding very often these days. Occasionally, when she dusts the enormous black-and-white picture sitting on the mantelpiece, she will pause as she gazes at her younger, happier self, and at the man she thought she was marrying. But her mind has emptied itself of the happy memories, the laughter they once shared, and looking at that picture she may as well be looking at two strangers.

Because this is Sarah’s overwhelming feeling when Eddie, her husband, is at home.

A stranger. Estranged. Strange.

Her happiest times or, rather, the times when she most fully feels herself, are when Eddie’s at work. Then she can operate as a normal person. She can vacuum the family room and drink gallons of coffee as she turns Z100 up to full blast and sings along to the Black Eyed Peas and Usher.

She can dance around the kitchen as the children sit at the kitchen table, wide-eyed with delight at how silly Mommy is, giggling as they play with the chicken nuggets and—in a bid to try to get some vegetables into them—corn salad, and if she’s very lucky, peas.

Sarah can, and does, meet with her friends for impromptu coffee and conversation. She can put her feet up in front of the Cooking Channel and scribble down delicious-sounding recipes, vowing one day to actually make them.

She can sit at the desk in the kitchen, sifting through the ever-mounting piles, making phone calls, organizing household bills, getting on with the work of being a wife, mother, and household manager.

Occasionally Sarah will still try to delegate an odd job to Eddie, each time praying that he will actually do it, that somehow if he manages to fulfill her wish it will mean that their marriage will get back on track, that she, or they, will find happiness again, but each time Eddie forgets, and with a sigh of irritation Sarah finds herself adding another job to the next day’s to-do list.

None of her friends realize quite how unhappy Sarah is. It isn’t as if she sits around weeping, but this sense of dissatisfaction, of unease, of knowing that her life wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, follows her around twenty-four hours a day, climbs out of bed with her in the mornings, scrubs her back in the shower, and keeps her company as she goes about her day until they both climb into bed at the end of the day, exhausted and preparing for more of the same the next day.

She did used to be happy. She knows that at some time in her life she used to be happy, but it was such a long time ago, and she’s become so used to feeling the way she feels now, to this feeling of being stuck, that the memory of actually being happy has almost entirely faded away.

But today, as she dusts the mantelpiece, she stops as she wipes the cloth over the glass covering her wedding picture, she takes the picture over to the sofa and sits down, staring beyond the glass to nine years ago, when she was twenty-seven, the features editor of Poise!—a young women’s magazine—living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and loving every minute of it.

She’d been dating a series of unsuitable men, had just finished a heartbreaking affair with a journalist at GQ, and had sworn off men completely.

No, she kept insisting to her colleagues, this time I mean it.

And of course doesn’t it always happen when you least expect it, when you’re adamant that this time you really don’t want it. That was exactly when Sarah met Eddie. When she thought a relationship was the very last thing in life she needed.

On their very first date it had been, Sarah used to say, a true meeting of the minds, never mind the overwhelming physical attraction she felt to this dark, slim, confident man. From the minute she saw him she loved his brown eyes, his floppy hair, his slow smile, although she didn’t let on until their first actual date.

In those early days every time Eddie showed up at her apartment to pick her up, or they met in restaurants for dinner, Sarah would feel her heart skip a beat when she saw him, a heady mixture of excitement and anticipation.

She thought she was going to marry him but she didn’t know she was going to marry him for sure until the first time they slept together. Sarah had never had so much fun in her life. She wasn’t performing, wasn’t worrying, and she knew then that she never wanted to be with another man ever again.

They married less than a year later—a stylish and intimate wedding at the Cosmopolitan club, and the first three years were a whirlwind of fun city living, seen through the rose-tinted eyes of a couple in love.

Sarah loved the city, loved everything about the city, but when she became pregnant they started driving out to the suburbs on the weekends—just for a look around—and there was something about a white clapboard colonial with a picket fence and roses growing up an arbor that Sarah started to find increasingly appealing. Before long her fantasies were less about fitting into her favorite Ralph Lauren shift, and more about creating a proper home for her new family.

She gave up her job three months before Walker was born and attempted to settle into the house of their dreams before the big day.

In those early days it was much like playing a giant game. Sarah used to feel that she was playing house; pretending to be a grown-up, pretending to be her mother. She would study cookbooks and come up with recipes, even though prior to that Sarah had never cooked anything other than scrambled eggs—even that was rare—but once they moved into the suburbs Sarah was determined to do what every good suburban housewife should do: have delicious, nutritious meals prepared for Eddie when he got home.

Eddie would walk in the house, delighted at how well Sarah was adapting to the suburbs, thrilled at how she was cooking and making a home for them, and they would sit at the dining room table talking about their day, and saying over and over again what a great decision this was, how happy they were to be out of the city, away from the noise and the pace and the stress.

Sarah would never have admitted it but even then she wasn’t completely honest with herself. She did love her new house—loved the space, and the large kitchen, and stairs—stairs! But she missed walking everywhere. She missed the convenience of the city; running out of their apartment whenever they needed something, and always being able to find it within a couple of blocks, any time of the day or night.

She missed the noise of the city, missed the noise of their clanking air-conditioning unit so much that Eddie came home one day with a white-noise machine, and they’ve been sleeping to a background of loud crackle ever since.

And she missed her friends, even though once Walker was born she realized that they were living in different worlds, that although she enjoyed living vicariously through her old friends—mostly colleagues on the magazine, all of whom were still single—once they’d caught up on one another’s lives there wasn’t that much in common anymore, and none of them were particularly interested in her life as a new mother.

They rarely made it out to see her, and Lord knows she didn’t have time to get on a train and go and see them, not with a baby in tow, so filled with animosity she reluctantly joined a mommy and me group and much to her surprise started to meet women whom she liked, some of whom actually became friends.

By the time Maggie was born, Sarah and Eddie were definitely out of the honeymoon period. Those gourmet meals that Sarah used to cook were long gone, replaced by hot dogs, chicken fingers, and take-out pizza. Eddie gets home far too late for Sarah to cook and then wait for him, so she usually eats with the kids at around six, and Eddie now grabs something either in the office or on the way home.

Eddie

Reviews for Vacation

[booksandbutter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book very much. I always like her novels and will read more of her in the future.

[magst_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not their best effort! I was really unhappy with this book. I normally love anything that Jane Green has participated in, but this book just did not live up to my standards.

[irenes_510702 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Includes a cute follow-up to The Wife of Reilly in this book of short stories.

[karenhorvath · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I usually love Jane Green, but all of the stories in this book are downers. During the holidays, I want something heartwarming, not stories about bad marriages. The cover is misleading, it looks like a Christmas card. They could Title this "This Christmas:You will be depressed"

[janrex_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice variety of short romantic stories with Christmas as the uniting theme.

[madforbooks · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

When I requested this book from the early reviewers program I did not notice there were stories by authors in addition to Jane Green. Therefore, I was disappointed to find Ms Green's story so short as I have enjoyed her longer novels. The story in this book did not correspond in style to what I have read of her writing previously. This offering was pure fluff and even the holiday setting didn't make it more interesting or appealing. Unfortunantly, the same can be said of the other two holiday tales. My advice is to save your time and skip this book.

[cyncie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I RECEIVED THIS AS A FREE BOOK TO REVIEW, AND WAS DISAPPOINTED TO SEE THAT IT WAS A RE-PUBLICATION OF THE THREE AUTHORS' CHRISTMAS STORIES FROM 2005. I HAD ALREADY READ THE STORIES, BUT RE-READ TO GIVE OTHER READERS BENEFIT OF THE REVIEW. THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME I HAD THIS EXPERIENCE WITH BOOK OFFERINGS. REMEMBER, LIBRARY THING, YOU HAVE AVID READERS AT THIS WEBSITE AND REPRINTS AND REPACKAGING OF OLDER STORIES ARE THE PITS. THE STORIES ARE ENTERTAINING AND WELL-WRITTEN, BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO GET NEW MATERIAL. CYNCIE

[marcyjill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, but it isn't exactly an early review since the book came out a few years ago. I guess this is a reprint. Anyway, "This Christmas" is a collection of 3 "feel good" holiday short stories. Each story is entertaining and enjoyable and I would have liked it if they were three complete novels. I've read most of Jane Green's novels, and her story "Vacation" lived up to her usual standard of funny, but real stories. It tells the story of a couple who have grown apart and are on the verge of divorce. Being that it is Jane Green, you know the story comes to an uplifting ending.The second story, "The Second Wife of Reilly" by Jennifer Coburn was good, but my least favorite of the three. I felt like there was a lot going on that I had somehow missed. When I finished and realized it was kind of an afterward to Jennifer Coburn's novel, "The Wife of Reilly" it made more sense and made me want to read that full novel. The third story, "Mistletoe and Holly" was my favorite. I could easily see it becoming a holiday movie. It was real and funny and romantic in all the right places. I would absolutely like to read more from Liz Ireland. Overall the collection makes for nice, relaxing holiday reading when you need a few moments to relax.

[dissed1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This Christmas is a fun collection of holiday-based love stories by authors Jane Green, Jennifer Coburn and Liz Ireland. These ladies know their business and show it well in each of these surprising stories. Vacation, by Green, is the tale of a couple at odds with each other and the pressures of a stale relationship. Frustrated and fed up, Sarah forces Eddie into a separation, but each learns the value of their marriage, and changes are made, before coming to a final decision about their future.The Second Wife of Reilly, written by Coburn, tells the story of a young widowed mother, embarking on a second marriage. Sarah's relationship with Reilly seems picture-perfect, so why is she so concerned that his ex-wife will try to win him back? Sarah and her pals come up with an outrageous plan to find her a new love, before she realizes what she's lost. It's a humourous story, but affecting too, as Sarah delves deeper into her past to find the real reasons for her worries.The compilation's final chapter, Mistletoe and Holly, authored by Ireland, is pure entertainment. Holly has a handsome, successful boyfriend to take home to her family for Christmas, but things aren't quite what they seem once she arrives. Ireland keeps her reader guessing until the very end: will Holly make a stand to keep her model man or listen to reason and follow her old friend, Isaac down lover's lane?I found all three stories truly fresh and enjoyable. Though they are old stories, repackaged to prompt interest in other works by these authors, they've lost nothing in the transition. Highly recommended for a cozy holiday weekend.

[amusedbybooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really excited to get the chance to read a holiday story this year. I am not the hugest fan of holiday fiction but every once in a while I get in the mood. Maybe it’s because I needed an extra jolt of holiday spirit or something so when this was sent to me for review I squealed with glee. Awesome, just what I needed. However, upon opening it, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. Why? Well the stories totally stressed me out!I’ll break it down for you, this here is a collection of three short stories. One each by the above named authors. It appears as though they were all originally published back in 2005 so I think they may have slapped a new cover on this and called it a new book so don’t be alarmed if you’ve read these stories before. I however, have not so I wasn’t too disappointed to have been given it although I was surprised by the copyright date.The first story was probably the best of the bunch. Jane Green’s is entitled “Vacation” and it is about a wife, Sarah Evans, who has become disillusioned with her life. Not the newest story out there but one I could get behind. She loves her children but she misses the satisfaction she used to get from her job and her life in her city and she is not happy with how her and her husband had grown apart. His job sends him to Chicago and this gives them a much needed “vacation” from each other to decide if they should make their marriage work, just in time for the holidays. What was good about this short story was you could empathize with Sarah and her plight and if you are a Jane Green fan (which I am) you’d want to read this one. The second story was by Jennifer Coburn, a new to me author, and was entitled “The Second Wife of Reilly”. From what I can gather Coburn has written a novel called “The Wife of Reilly”. I haven’t read it and I probably won’t because the second wife was vapid and obsessed with the first wife. It was the holidays, she was 6 months into her new marriage to a great guy and was so obsessed with his first wife that the book couldn’t talk about anything else. I found myself saying ‘just go to therapy already’ or ‘why did you marry him then?’The final short story was by another new to me author, Liz Ireland. “Mistletoe and Holly” was set up to be this story that I could get really excited about. A couple that had just started dating, Holly and Jason are about to spend their first holiday together at Holly’s parents house. Holly has talked it up as normally being over the top, yet when they arrive it all becomes a bit of a disaster. Normally, this would be something I could relate to and crack up over. Except when it’s the middle of the holidays and you, yourself are dealing with families and running from one thing to the next you want to escape reality (not that this was actually happening, I’m just saying) not be totally stressed out by a story in which everything that could possibly go wrong did. It was totally making me paranoid!So, here we have a collection of Christmas stories in which all three were a bit depressing and one was good. I think there are probably better collections out there. However, at the holidays we are all probably so highly strung we are all looking for something different in our reading!

[cats57_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unfortunately, this book is being misdescribed in that it is an 83-page NOVELLA and not a complete book. As of this review, both Amazon and Goodreads have incorrect information on this book. The original novella is found in the book: This Christmas.For the most part, I merely like Ms. Greens' writing. It keeps me reading and amused. Nothing earth-shattering about any of her books -just good, reliable, dependable, and entertaining reading. And this novella is no different!It is an amusing story of a woman who gets to that part of her life where she just starts questioning almost everything. Most of us have been at that point one time or another. The big thing she is questioning is her husband, and because of that, they decide to take a little vacation from their marriage. Now the husband is questioning their marriage but in a good way.There is a small issue at the end where we seem to skip a few steps, but nothing major. I also have an issue with British writer's not doing their homework when writing a book set in the United States and using BritSpeak in place of Americanisms.All in all, an excellent novella that is heartwarming, amusing, and just perfect when you need a quick read.*ARC supplied by the publisher.