After the plane crash, after everything that had happened, I realized how much I felt at home in Manchester. Even though I hadn’t planned on staying, I was definitely thinking about it now. It was going to be so hard to go back to New York, to the hustle and bustle of jaded urbanites every day, especially after being in such a beautiful and relaxed city, so close to some of the most gorgeous parks I’d ever seen.
My phone beeped once and I looked down, smiling as I saw a text from Lizzy. When we’d gotten together the other night, we’d had one of the most honest talks that we’d ever had. Even though we were close, we didn’t often spend a lot of time talking about our emotions and how we felt about things, because I wasn’t exactly comfortable sharing my anxieties with my younger sister. I thought it would make me a bad sister. Instead, I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure Lizzy felt like she had a strong, fearless role model.
“I was so afraid,” I’d said to her when I’d let myself into the flat. “I was so afraid to get on that plane, I couldn’t go without letting Jay know how I really felt about him.”
Lizzy looked at me with wide eyes. “Are you kidding?” She reached over and lightly cuffed me on the side of the head. “My big sister, afraid to tell some jock asshole how she feels?”
She winked at me and I felt a blush spreading over my cheeks. “Hey, just because I called him a jock asshole a month ago doesn’t mean anything now,” I replied.
Lizzy stuck her tongue out at me. “So, where are you going to live? And don’t say New York, because people will literally want to kill you if you take Jay away from Manchester United.”
I laughed wryly. “I couldn’t see myself living in New York and being happy ever again, honestly,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “That city is just so unhappy and jaded. At least with all the people I know there, anyway. I don’t know why I used to idolize the place so much.”
Lizzy smiled. “I remember that. You had posters of New York in your dorm room!”
I laughed. She was right—in college, I’d been completely obsessed with the idea of moving to the city. I shook my head. “I just don’t think I can go back,” I said. “Or at least, I don’t think I can go back and have things be the same as they were before.”
Lizzy batted her eyelashes at me until I was choking back laughter. “And leave your precious Jay?” She fluttered a hand to her chest, then closed her eyes and pretended to faint. “I doubt you could, Kate.”
“It’s not just him,” I said, although that was maybe only half true. “I really like this area. Even some of the foods that I wasn’t a fan of before are growing on me.”
Lizzy raised her eyebrows at me. “You’re telling me you want to try blood pudding now?”
I shook my head quickly. “Maybe not that,” I said, before she could suggest any other number of things. “But there’s something magical about being here.”
“I know,” Lizzy replied. She folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t want to go back to the States, either. I want to stay here and finish university in Manchester. Then maybe I can get a job and I won’t have to go home.”
I frowned. “Isn’t it hard for Americans to emigrate to England?”
“Maybe if my older sister marries a famous football player, I won’t have to try very hard.” Lizzy pouted at me and folded her arms over her chest. “I mean, you would do that for me, right?”
I laughed. My cheeks were burning bright red. Marry Jay? I’d barely known him a month! And yet…..it wasn’t the craziest idea I’d ever heard. It definitely wasn’t the worst, either.
“He’s different,” I said, barely aware of the dreamy tone that was slipping into my voice. “He’s different from any other guy I’ve ever been with. He’s…considerate. And he’s kind. He doesn’t do things just so people will know he’s doing them.”
“That’s good,” Lizzy replied. “And I know he’s a nice guy, Kate. You wouldn’t be with anyone who treated you like crap. At least not anymore.”
Crying over other guys seemed like a thing of the past. I didn’t know how Jay and I were going to end up, but I had to believe that we would succeed, somehow. Even though we lived an ocean apart from each other, we’d find a way to make everything work.
I had a feeling this email from my producers would be a defining moment in our relationship, and I looked up at Jay anxiously as he finally exited the shower.
“Hey there,” he said. He swatted me with a towel and made a face at me as he posed naked. “Fancy this bloke, do you?”