Page 76 of Snow Going Back

No, because she’s a nice person who looks for the good in people,the angel countered.

‘No,’ Kate whispered furiously. ‘I’m just a fool.’

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she pulled it out with trepidation. Seeing it was Amy, she felt a wave of relief and swiped to answer the video call.

‘Hey! Merry Boxing Day, you gorgeous thing, you!’ Amy cried with a cheerful smile.

Kate had thought she had her emotions under control, but suddenly seeing her best friend’s face after the last two awfuldays seemed to break through the dam holding them in. A hard lump formed in her throat, and tears filled her eyes.

‘Kate?’ Amy’s smile dropped, and she leaned in closer to the screen with a deep frown. ‘Oh my God,Kate, what’s happened?’

Kate shook her head as the tears began to fall. ‘I, ugh… I don’t know.Everything.’

‘OK, lovely, I’m going to need a little more than that,’ Amy said. ‘Where’s Lance? Is he with you? What’s happened?’

Kate closed her eyes for a moment and wiped the tears off her cheeks, more replacing them a second later. ‘Justso much.’ She sighed, wondering where to start. ‘I’ve called off the wedding.’

There was silence on the other end of the phone as Kate took a deep breath and waited for Amy to shout at her.

‘Good,’ Amy responded, nodding seriously through the phone.

Kate blinked, surprised. ‘What?’ she asked slowly. ‘That wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I thought you loved Lance? And why don’t you sound surprised? Did he already tell you?’

‘No, he hasn’t told us,’ Amy said, then stood up and crossed the room. ‘And yes, I do love Lance, butyoudon’t. Not enough to go through with this, anyway. And it’s all going to be fine. I have a wedding escape plan ready to go. A built-in back door to most of the arrangements that I didn’t tell anyone about. So don’t worry, OK? I’ll sort everything.’

‘What?’ Kate asked, unsure whether to feel amazed or horrified by this.

‘Yeah.’ Amy rifled through a drawer and pulled out a notebook. ‘I had a go-bag ready for you, for the day, too.’

‘That’s…’ Kate shook her head incredulously.

‘Kate?’ Amy sat back down and looked at her with a sad smile. ‘I stayed quiet about the engagement because I thought you’d want to marry Lance. It was only at the party afterwards that I realised things weren’t right. You looked so, I don’t know…trapped.’ She shook her head. ‘You flew out the next day, and the only time I’ve seen you since, we’ve had other people around and we’ve been running around sorting this wedding…’ She sighed. ‘So I planned the wedding and just made some room for an exit in case you needed one.’

Kate nodded miserably. ‘It’s just been crazy, you know? And it all happened so fast, and everyone was really happy about it?—’

‘Just not you,’ Amy said quietly. ‘So what’s the situation now? Have you postponed it or…?’

‘No.’ Kate shook her head with quiet resolution. ‘We’re over.’

‘Oh!’ Amy’s eyebrows shot up,thispart surprising her.

‘Lance and I just want completely different things,’ Kate explained, running a hand back through her long dark hair. ‘He wants the perfect house, the two-point-four children, the stay-at-home wife…’ She trailed off with a grimace. ‘That just isn’t what I want.’

‘And whatdoyou want?’ Amy asked.

Snippets of the last two months flickered one after the other through her mind. The things she’d learned about Cora, and about life. The things she’d planned as she lay awake contemplating life on Christmas Eve. ‘I want to make a difference. I want to wake up every day and feel like I’m helping other people. Like I’m making things better.’

Amy nodded. ‘Yeah, that sounds like you.’

‘Does it?’ Kate asked.

‘It does. You’ve always wanted to save the world, remember? That’s why you got into law. Do you remember when we were kids, you’d agree to play weddings with me, but only if I played heroes with you after?’

Kate laughed at the memory. ‘I do. I wanted to fly so badly.’

‘You made me call youSuper Kate, the bad-guy hunter,’ Amy reminded her.

Kate tilted her head with a look of appreciation. ‘Not a bad play on words.’

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