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hrista’s screams as the helicopter dipped down over the city were like food to his soul. She was clutching his arm so tightly it felt like the bone was turning numb. But, despite the vice-like grip on his limb, the pain in his chest had gone. Even as he thought about it, nothing happened, no twinges, no aches, nothing. It was like he was free from it all. That’s what happened when you lived in the moment. You could almost forget everything else.
    Christa’s eyes were on stalks, watching the sparkling lights of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Trump Towers, as they flew around the boroughs. The Empire State, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, its iconic Art-Deco style tapering up to almost meet them in the sky never failed to impress at night, particularly from their vantage point. Circling some of the most well-known buildings in the city, almost close enough to touch … he could see how it made Christa feel. He knew she was experiencing something she’d always wanted to do, a life’s dream – because of him. That meant something. It was one wish she would never forget making, because it had come true.
    ‘This is amazing!’ Christa shouted above the roar of the engine.
    Oliver nodded his head, took her hand from his arm and linked their hands together. ‘So, what do you want to do next?’
    She turned her head away from the cityscape for a moment and directed her gaze at him. Smiling, she replied. ‘I think I’d like you to see the inside of my hotel room.’
    ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ he answered, edging towards her.

6
    Heathrow Airport, London, UK

    ‘ I s Dean meeting you at the airport?’ Rita asked, shaking a Fisherman’s Friend into her hand before popping it into her mouth.
    ‘I don’t know yet,’ Hayley said, pushing the cases a few more inches in the queue for check-in.
    ‘What? You’ve not arranged it?’ Rita’s voice was shrill. ‘You’re going to be arriving at night. You have to have someone waiting for you.’
    ‘I just didn’t want to bother him straight away when we can easily get a cab.’
    They were going to be staying with Dean. His large, expensive, beautifully decorated bachelor pad was going to be their home for the holidays. Without this offer there would be no way this trip would be affordable. But the truth was, as soon as Hayley started asking more of her brother he would give it and then some. Dean was generous to a fault and the whole trip would be taken completely out of her hands. She didn’t want that. This was her and Angel’s adventure, even if it had to take place on a shoestring budget.
    ‘A cab .’ Rita said the word like it would be driven by the leader of a terrorist organisation.
    ‘Yes, Mum. And it will be fine. It will be just like the one we used to get here, only smaller and yellow, probably driven by someone who talks more Brooklyn than Billericay.’
    ‘But why would you do that?’ Rita continued.
    This was why she’d wanted to leave her mother back in Wiltshire. A pleasant goodbye at the broken gate, air kisses and hugs neither of them really meant, then away. Liberty. That sounded mean. Hayley swallowed and offered her mother a smile, deciding to change tack
    ‘Angel, do you have any more George Washington facts you’d like to share from your special dictionary?’
    ‘He was born in Virginia and he didn’t have any children,’ Angel said, thumbing the pages.
    ‘I expect Dean has company cars at his disposal. He needn’t have come in person.’ Rita unzipped her patchwork leather handbag. ‘I’ll give him a call.’
    ‘No!’
    Hayley surprised herself with the volume of her voice. She put her lips back together and tried to subconsciously tell her body not to let the colour red she felt hit her cheeks. The couple in front of them did a surreptitious glance backwards. There was only one thing for it.
    ‘Sorry.’ She let out a breath. ‘Sorry, Mum, I shouldn’t have shouted. It’s just we’re