The Two Lives of Lydia Bird(108)

He breaks first.

‘I changed the ending.’

‘You did?’

He walks towards me, almost within touching distance. ‘You were right. There’s more than one happy ending for everyone.’

I swallow hard. ‘Did the studio prefer it?’

‘They love it,’ he says softly, his lashes rain-spiked as he looks down.

‘And you?’ I sit on my hands because they’re desperate to reach for him. ‘Do you love it?’

He lifts his eyes to mine again.

‘I was worried it might feel too fairy tale,’ he says. ‘Too clichéd. But it doesn’t. He tells her he’s loved her for as long as he can remember. That he wants her to be his Friday nights and his Christmas mornings, and that every love song he’s ever written has been about her. He tells her he wants to be the one who holds her to sleep every night. That he wants his happy ending to be with her.’

I slide off the window seat and step towards him.

‘And then, because she told him there’s more than one happy ending for everyone, he kisses her.’

‘Wow,’ I whisper. ‘It sounds like a smash hit. I love it.’

I reach for him and he folds me inside his coat, close enough to feel his heart banging against mine. The studio will probably set the final kiss outside in torrential rain and lay a romantic soundtrack over it, but they’ll never come anywhere close to capturing the reverence in Jonah’s eyes as he lowers his head, or the tremble of his mouth when it touches mine, or the beautiful ache of our slow first kiss. It isn’t the bittersweet teenage kiss that never happened. It’s adult and electric, soft yet urgent. I hold his face between my hands and press myself against him, and he sighs my name and lifts his head just enough to be able to look down at me. We stare at each other, breathless, wondrous, and I realize it isn’t rain on his eyelashes. He’s crying.





Acknowledgements





Huge thanks to Katy Loftus, editor, genius and friend, and to the brilliant team at Viking for your continuing support. Thank you more widely to everyone at Penguin, notably the mighty foreign rights team for sharing Lydia around the world.

I’m immensely grateful to Hilary Teeman and the fantastic team at Ballantine in the US. How lucky I am to work with you, your input and support means a great deal to me.

Many thanks to my overseas publishers, I’m honoured to work with you all.

Thank you to Jemima Forrester and everyone at David Higham for your help.

Much love and thanks to Kathrin Magyar for your generous charity bid to have your name appear in the book – I hope you approve of your character!

I must say a special and affectionate thank you to all of the people who have shared their stories with me, both online and in person. Grief is such a difficult subject to talk about – you have informed, inspired and touched me beyond measure.

I am, of course, unendingly grateful to everyone who reads Lydia’s story. Thank you for choosing to spend your time with The Birds, for chatting to me on social media, and for helping to spread the word. I’m unfailingly blown away by your fabulous pictures and blog posts.

Last, but not least, my family, past and present. This book in particular has been richly informed by you all, you lovely, crazy bunch! A word or a glance here, a laugh or a memory there – you’re all fabulous and I love you lots.