Between Us

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Praise for Mhairi McFarlane Dedication Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Chapter 75 Acknowledgements Keep Reading … About the Author Also by Mhairi McFarlane About the Publisher Guide Cover Contents Title page iii iv 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 BETWEEN US Mhairi McFarlane Copyright HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023 Copyright © Mhairi McFarlane 2023 Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023 Cover illustration © Maja Tomljanovic Mhairi McFarlane 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. Source ISBN: 9780008412487 Praise for Mhairi McFarlane ‘My heart always soars at a new Mhairi novel, I love, love, love her. She’s so great at treading the narrow line between humour and loss. I read this with delight and envy’ MARIAN KEYES ‘Gorgeously romantic, as well as a story about friendship and grief and loss; I never wanted it to end’ BETH O’LEARY ‘Funny, charming and smart’ LUCY DIAMOND ‘Gorgeous, funny, life-affirming’ JENNY COLGAN ‘Funny, poignant, full of insight … a triumph’ KATIE FFORDE ‘A luminous, heart-achingly beautiful love letter to friendship’ JOSIE SILVER ‘An effortlessly brilliant read – will have you laughing when you shouldn’t and sobbing when you least expect it’ GIOVANNA FLETCHER ‘So funny, so sad in parts, and just so sharp and heartwarming’ LIA LOUIS ‘Witty, moving and original. I will read anything Mhairi writes, she is the master of thought-provoking romantic fiction and I adore the characters she creates’ SOPHIE COUSENS ‘Funny, sad and entirely unputdownable, full of compassion and hope, and blissfully, wonderfully romantic’ CRESSIDA MCLAUGHLIN ‘Laugh-out-loud funny, devastatingly moving, and delightfully swoony, all at once. McFarlane is in a league of