Page 5
Claire: Alright. I’m in.
Her thumb hesitated only a moment before she pressed the send button, and a rush of excitement rippled through her limbs. She was actually doing it. She was going to England for Christmas.
She bit her lip and grinned, tapping the phone against her chin before it buzzed.
Melody’s return text blazed across Claire’s screen.
Melody: AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I’m so so so so so excited!!! Okay, I’m coming over right now to book the tickets with you so you can’t back out. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. We are going to have the best time ever!!!! I can’t even. AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Claire beamed. She’d definitely made the right choice.
Now all she had to do was hope that this Christmas would beat out her past Christmases—puking on a cruise last year or being cheated on the year before by another jerk boyfriend.
Spending the holiday in London would have to be better than that.
TWO
Claire stared up at the seatbelt sign on the airplane, willing its light to turn off. Most of the passengers had already removed their restraints, standing from their seats and gathering their belongings to dart off the plane as soon as the door opened, but she remained seated.
“Please sit down while the plane is in motion,” requested the flight attendant at the front of the cabin, her French accent rising above the loud humming of the slow-moving plane.
No one seemed to heed the attendant’s advice apart from Claire. Claire didn’t understand why obeying the rule was so difficult. She wanted to get off the flight more than anyone, especially to be rid of her wouldn’t-stop-eating-black-licorice, next-seat neighbor.
She’d tried to distract herself for the duration of the flight with her Kindle full of new books, but even the Darcy-like men she’d read about weren’t strong enough to withstand the awful smell pluming toward her like the exhaust from a dilapidated, oversized truck.
She glanced to the man next to her again as he wiped his sticky hands on his pants, leaving behind glistening smears of licorice. He was one of the passengers still standing, despite being told not to. Typical.
After another few moments, the plane finally came to a stop, and the seatbelt light turned off. A muted bell sounded above, and the pilot spoke over the intercom in another thick French accent.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London Heathrow Airport. Local time is 11:35 AM. The temperature is four degrees Celsius. On behalf of Air France and the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for joining us on this flight. We wish you all a pleasant stay and look forward to seeing you on board again.”
Claire drew a deep breath of relief, only to have it end prematurely in an involuntary shudder as another whiff of black licorice assaulted her senses. The man must have devoured over three bags from France to Great Britain, slapping his gums next to her as she’d attempted to smell the peppermint Chapstick on her lips instead.
Fortunately, only another moment ticked by before the man shoved his way into the aisle and shuffled down the cabin.
Finally. She drew a deep breath and released it with a satisfied sigh. She’d made it. After a ten-hour flight from Colorado, a four-hour delay in New York, then another in France, she’d finally arrived in the U.K. Now all she needed to do was make it through customs, collect her luggage, and find Melody.
Preferring to wait until the herd had passed down the aisle instead of trying to shoulder her way in, Claire pulled out her phone to text her friend, who had arrived in England a few days before.
Claire: Finally landed!! Sooo excited!!…You’re going to be on time, right?
She smiled to herself, sending a devil grin emoji before pulling on her coat, a draft of cold, English air sailing through the plane.
Not a moment passed before Melody responded.
Melody: I was going to welcome you to England until you made that joke. YES, I’M HERE ON TIME.
Melody: Although you have Aunt Tasha to thank for it…
Claire grinned again, zipping up the sides of her boots she’d loosened on the flight. Finally, she straightened to look out of the window.
She hadn’t been able to see much of the view on the flight in, what with the gray clouds cloaking the skies and a heavy fog hanging over most of the airport. Even now from the window, only the runway was visible with a few bare trees in the distance.
Claire was just itching to admire the green hills and stone walls she’d only ever seen in period dramas—North & South, Doctor Thorne, Poldark, she’d seen them all—but Melody had promised her plenty of gorgeous sights, so Claire wouldn’t allow herself to worry too much.
“Care to leave the plane, luv?”
Claire started, turning as a man with gray hair and a friendly smile motioned her toward the aisle. His English accent—the first she’d heard during her travels—slipped around her shoulders and wrapped her up in a warm embrace.
