“Oh, yes, please.” Lucy felt the sting of tears. As lovely a time as she was having, it really did feel odd being away from home at Christmas.

“Right, now I have some news—some good, as in very good, and some not so much, but first … Lucy, I have a bone to pick with you.” Chloe’s change in conversation was abrupt, as it often was, but Lucy wasn’t prepared to have both her best friends mad at her. What had she done now? Chloe continued, “When were you going to tell us that Archer Tate grew up across the road from your parents?”

Jules, who was succumbing to the wine and had nearly nodded off, sat up, fully alert. “Hold on, what? Seriously?” How had Chloe kept something this juicy quiet until now?

It took Lucy half a second to catch on. “Ooohhh, right, Alan … yes, sorry, but I didn’t think of it to be perfectly honest.” Lucy knew—of course, she did—that he was incredibly famous now, but to her he was just the boy she knew from the village.

Predictably, when she was old enough to succumb to typical teenaged angst and longing, she’d had a crush on him. She’d been about thirteen, if she remembered correctly.

It was right about the time when she’d stretched to her current height and he to his. There was a sort of solidarity in being extremely tall teenagers amongst their peers, even if she was a fluffy-haired redhead with constantly pink cheeks and he already looked like someone out of a boy band. He was too young for Take That and too old for One Direction, but he’d had that carelessly handsome look, even back then.

What had sealed the crush, however, was how kind he was—just a very nice boy, really. She blinked the memories away. “So,” she ventured carefully, not knowing if she was still in trouble, “have you met him yet?”

Chloe nodded. “Yes, actually I have met him. And he’s an absolute sweetheart.” Lucy sighed, hoping she was off the hook. This conversation was almost more than her sore head could bear. “But here’s the thing—”

“This is like if there was a Hemsworth living down the hall from you and Ash,” interjected Jules. She lingered on the thought, considering which one she’d prefer, Liam, Chris, or Luke? Liam. Definitely Liam.

“Sure, Jules, but I—” Chloe made a second attempt to explain her current, confusing situation.

“Hold on,” said Lucy, “But how did you meet him? And where?” Lucy had a sudden image of Chloe peeking through the windows of the Tates’s house and stifled a giggle. “You didn’t find out and then go skulking about the village to ‘accidentally’ run into him, did you?” The giggle took hold.

“You will be pleased to know that I did not. It was a complete surprise. It was because of the Christmas Fair …”

Chloe went on to tell her tale, starting with Dierdre’s foot stuck down a rabbit hole and finishing with the Capels’s reunion. Lucy wiped tears from under her eyes with her ring finger and Jules blew her nose loudly.