Completely
Page 26
“I don’t.”
“Is everything all right?”
Cath smiled. “Everything couldn’t be more perfect. And if I had to talk to one more human being in there for one more second, I was going to throw myself off the roof.”
“I have felt this way in the halls of the Chamberlains. Many times. Where’s Neville?”
“His people tolerance is superior to mine. I left him with the nosiest of the great-aunties and fled into the night. What are you guys doing out here?”
“Running away,” Kal said. “You know a hotel we can run away to?”
“Not one with rooms, unless you go to London.”
“Can we get a cab?”
“There’s a bus,” Cath said. “What time is it?”
Kal checked his phone. “Seven forty-two.”
“How is it seven forty-two?” Cath asked. “How is it not midnight? I never should have let Nev talk me into this. You guys can save yourselves, though. The bus comes in six minutes. It’s, like, two transfers, and you’re at King’s Cross. Easy-peasy.”
“You’ve memorized the bus schedule?” Rosemary asked, impressed.
“Honey, I’ve been with Nev for years. Do you know how many country weekends are involved in dating a Chamberlain? Wait, who am I asking? Of course you know. So ask me how many escape routes I’ve planned out of this place.”
“How many?” Kal asked.
“No.” Cath shook her head. “That’s not the question. The real question is, how many times have I had to use them? And the answer to that question is four. Three times, I took that bus. I love that bus.” She took one last drag off the cigarette, snuffed it out, and hopped down off the wall. “I need to eat something.” She pulled Rosemary into a brisk hug, bussed her cheek, and said, “I love you guys. Thanks for coming to my wedding. Get the hell out of here before they eat you alive.”
She swished back into the kitchens, her dress trailing in the dirt.
“I wish she’d been around earlier in my marriage,” Rosemary mused. “I could have used a friend like her.”
“So…this bus?”
“Right. The bus. It’s at the end of the drive.”
“It’s a long drive.”
Rosemary leaned down to unfasten her shoes. “We’ll have to run.”
“Won’t that hurt your feet?”
Shoes dangling from her fingers, she smashed her mouth onto his and squeezed his bum. “It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. Come on.”
They rounded the corner of the house. The party had spilled out into the circular driveway and across the front garden, heated with portable elements, illuminated with twinkling lights. Rosemary spotted her daughter and Winston. She saw May and Ben in the crowd, alongside various ex-relatives from the years of her marriage.
More than one person called her name, but nothing had the power to pull her back when everything she wanted was in front of her.
Crumbled bits of asphalt bit into the soles of her feet.
The night air rushed over their skin, and they huffed and panted, running through the stitch in her side, through Kal’s laughter and her own ecstatic excitement, toward the lights of the oncoming bus.
Together. Alive.
Author’s Note
Completely is entirely the product of my imagination, but I took inspiration for the character of Yangchen Beckett in the very real accomplishments of Lhakpa Sherpa. In 2017, Lhakpa Sherpa broke her own record to become the first woman in the world to have summited Mount Everest eight times.
In addition, 2017 saw the largest number of permits ever issued to Everest climbers, with an estimated five hundred people reaching the summit—and several fatalities. Avalanches on the mountain in 2014 and 2015 took hundreds of lives; the 2015 avalanche and earthquake devastated Nepal and closed the mountain to spring summits for the first time in four decades. In this context, it becomes increasingly irresponsible to ignore the environmental fragility of the Khumbu region and the risks inherent in the prevailing policies. Experts agree that if something doesn’t change, it’s only a matter of time until the next major disaster on the mountain.
One of the pleasures of writing the New York Trilogy was the opportunity to introduce readers to different parts of the city. Truly took us to Brooklyn and a world of urban farming and beekeeping, while Madly is a fantasy of upper-crust financier Manhattan. In Completely, I was delighted to locate Kal and Rosemary in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, Queens—not only the epicenter of the Sherpa immigrant population in the United States, but also one of the most diverse neighborhoods on the planet, and entirely worth a visit.
With the New York series now at an end, I’d like to thank Shauna Summers at Penguin Random House and my agent, Emily Sylvan-Kim, for their support, patience, and sound advice. My partner, Mary Ann, inspired me, encouraged me, and propped me up throughout the long process of writing these books, and I could not be more grateful to have her in my life.
BY RUTHIE KNOX
Ride with Me
About Last Night
Room at the Inn (novella)
Roman Holiday (serialization)
The Camelot Series
How to Misbehave (novella)
Along Came Trouble
Flirting with Disaster
Making It Last (novella)
The New York Series
Truly
Madly
Completely
Writing as Robin York
Deeper
Harder
PHOTO: MARK ANDERSON, STUN PHOTOGRAPHY
New York Times bestselling author RUTHIE KNOX has published over a dozen titles in adult contemporary romance and new adult romance (writing as Robin York). Four of her books have been finalists for the RITA award, and her new adult title Deeper won the RT Readers Choice Award. Ruthie has been translated into German, French, Italian, and Portuguese and has made multiple best-of lists in romance, including a Library Journal best book of 2014. She is a co-founder of Brain Mill Press, a social-justice-based publishing house.
ruthieknox.com
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