Page 96 of Snowed In with You

‘Don’t you want to wait for Nate?’ asked Jonno.

‘No,’ said Lucy. ‘I look like a crying bag of shit, and I can talk to him tomorrow.’ She gave Willem and Alex a hug, and took a minute to say her hellos and congratulations to Andrea and Felix as they appeared up the stairs. Alex had told her that Andrea was going to be singing with Nate on his European tour, so maybe she’d see them again soon. Maybe.

‘Sasha, I need to go,’ said Lucy, as she reappeared from the bathroom. ‘Will you give Nate a message for me?’

‘Sure,’ said Sasha.

‘Tell him I had to go back to Bristol, but I’ll be waiting for his call tomorrow.’

Sasha smiled and pulled out her phone. ‘Why don’t I give you his new number, so you can tell him yourself?’

‘No, I trust you,’ said Lucy. ‘And he knows where to find me.’

‘Yes, he does.’

‘Thank you,’ said Lucy, giving her a hug.

‘Safe travels, Lucy,’ said Sasha, which made her think of her final conversation with Kristoff, and what a turning point that was. ‘We’ll miss you at LUNA.’

‘Well, I’m sure you’ll see me around.’

‘I’m sure I will,’ said Sasha. ‘Take care of her, Jonno.’

‘Always,’ said Jonno, taking Lucy’s hand and leading her back down the stairs.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

‘Well, that was quite a night,’ said Jonno, relaxing for the first time in an hour as they pulled off the slip road onto the M4 in Hammersmith. The exit from the breathtakingly expensive underground car park near the concert venue had taken forever, followed by a slow crawl through west London to the motorway. It was now nearly midnight, and Lucy was already planning to suggest a quick stop at Heston services to get Jonno jacked up on coffee.

‘Yeah,’ said Lucy, squirming in her seat at the memory of the ten minutes she’d spent making out on the sofa in Nate’s dressing room. Her face actually hurt from grinning.

‘I really hadn’t expected your stupid idea to go to plan in quite such style.’

‘You and me both. We actually excelled ourselves.’

‘Hey, don’t give me any credit,’ laughed Jonno, wafting her away. ‘I just held one end of your stupid banner.’

‘It was a very important job,’ said Lucy.

‘I feel bad that you have to leave. Felt like it was turning into quite the reunion party.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ shrugged Lucy. ‘You’ve done enough for one day, and I’m going to talk to Nate tomorrow.’

‘So, where did you leave things? What’s the next chapter of the Nate and Lucy love story?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Lucy. ‘I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be OK, but I’m not sure exactly how the story goes yet.’

‘Is Nate Lambert about to enhance his superstar swoon narrative by falling in love with the beautiful woman who shared the avalanche adventure where it all began?’ said Jonno, in his movie-trailer-guy voice.

Lucy laughed. ‘When you put it like that, it’s a pretty good story.’

‘I mean, him ending up banging Taylor Swift would also have been a pretty good story. But I like your version better.’

‘Yeah, me too.’ She paused, trying to process everything that had happened in the past few hours. ‘I think I’m going to be away a lot, over the next few months.’

Jonno nodded. ‘I assumed as much.’

‘But I’m going to try for the job in London, rather than New York. I’m not ready to be that far away. From Nate, or my family. Or you, for that matter.’