“Hey, Will. How’s it going?”

Will turned to his left and grinned. “It’s going great, actually.” Okay, that was enough. Jules didn’t want any details of her brother’s sex life, especially now that it included Lucy. He must have caught her expression. “Hey, since we’re up, I’m going to, uh … go make tea or something. Here.” He handed the phone back to Lucy and Jules saw lights come on in the cabin and heard a kettle starting to boil.

Lucy looked off camera, then back at her and Chloe. She flashed a huge grin, her shoulders lifting in a silent “Squee!”

“Lucy, you are adorable,” said Chloe.

As Lucy and Chloe chatted about Penham, Jules watched her friends closely. She had loved these women as sisters for as long as she could remember, and she missed them immensely. They were as important to her as her parents, as Will, as …

Did Matt belong on that list? Perhaps …

“Hey, guys?” she said, interrupting Chloe’s lengthy account of all the delicious food she’d been eating. Two pairs of eyes looked at her expectantly. “Sorry, no big announcement, or anything, just … I miss you guys like crazy.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Chloe.

“Me three,” added Lucy.

“So, next time we travel, it’s together, right?”

“For sure.”

“Absolutely!” declared Lucy.

Chapter 32

Chloe

“I’ve been ruminating,” Archer said, his hands at ten and two on the steering wheel of his vintage MG.

“About?”

“Well, lots of things, actually, but this one in particular is related to the film.”

“Ohhh, the Capels’s love story. I love the Capels’s love story.” Chloe had once made fun of the giddy lovestruck fools who loved everyone and everything. Now she was one of them. She thought back over the conversation with the girls that morning and giggled quietly to herself. She was surprised they hadn’t asked if she’d been body-snatched. Who are you and what have you done with our friend?

“Yes, I know you do,” replied Archer as he lifted the hand at ten o’clock to capture hers and bring it to his lips.

She threw him a coy look over one shoulder, then turned to watch the passing scenery outside her passenger window. She was amazed that only minutes after turning off the M25, one of the largest ring roads in the world, encircling one of the largest cities in the world, they were already surrounded by pastoral scenes, with mist settling into valleys and flocks of grazing sheep oblivious to the wet weather.

“So, you’ve been ruminating,” she prodded.

“I’m thinking of a dual narrative, perhaps one of the characters as an older person, having just lost the other and coming to terms with that loss …” Chloe sucked in a sharp breath. “What’s wrong?” he asked, glancing across at her. “You don’t like that approach?”

“No, it’s not that. I think it would be a great way to tell the story. I’m guessing the other timeline is them meeting and falling in love?”