It was almost impossible for something you’d dreamed about for so long to live up to your expectations, even orange Twirls weren’t that good, but kissing Evan Carden was the most overwhelming, heart-stopping experience of my entire life. Every dream, every fantasy, every impossible scenario I’d spent the last few weeks cooking up in my mind, none of them even came close to the way it felt when my lips met his. The books, the songs, the movies, none of them could have described it fully and it wasn’t their fault, words just couldn’t do it justice. Everything stopped and sped up at the same time, the room spinning around us even as time stood still.

I felt Evan’s mouth smiling against mine, his hands against my cheeks, warm palms cupping cool skin and I wrapped my arms around his neck to pull him closer. I’d waited long enough. His hands moved into my hair, pulling it lightly away from my face, and I gasped, shivers running all the way down my spine as my mouth opened to his, body to body, heart to heart, all tangled up in front of the tree.

‘In answer to your text, I’m having a perfect Christmas now,’ Evan said as we broke apart, my lips already aching and swollen. ‘You wouldn’t believe how much time I’ve spent thinking about this.’

‘I would believe anything you told me,’ I replied, combing my hand through his hair then pulling him back in for another kiss.

And even though it felt like a happy ending,

I knew in my heart,

it was just

the beginning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As ever, I owe this entire book (and let’s be frank, so much more) to my agent, Rowan Lawton. You’re the best agent, cheerleader and friend I could ask for. I’m so proud that you choose to work with me.

This year more than ever, you only have a book in your hands because of the grace, tenacity and editorial wizardry of Lynne Drew. Lynne, I’ve said it a thousand times, I cannot imagine doing this without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. More thanks to Sophie Burks and Lucy Stewart for keeping me on the straight and narrow, to Felicity Denham for continuing to be the actual best (verified fact), to Hannah O’Brien, Rachel Quin and Maddy Marshall for your tireless hard work and putting up with my constant stream of theoretical nonsense, to my copyeditor, Charlotte Webb, and to Holly MacDonald, Isabel Coburn, Alice Gomer and everyone else at HarperCollins – THANK YOU. I will inevitably miss off a thousand* people who deserve individual appreciation, but whether you’re in sales, marketing, publicity, production, legal, art, design, customer service, logistics or anywhere else in the entire company, please take it from this recovering Hammersmith-ite, your contribution to this process does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.