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Rewrite the Stars
Emma Heatherington
‘A gorgeous will they/won’t they love story, with depth and surprising twists’ Sun ‘A proper winter heart-warmer’ Heat ‘If you’re a fan of Jojo Moyes, you’ll love Emma Heatherington’s beautifully written – and also not predictable – Christmas novel’ Yahoo’s Top Books for October A stunning Christmas romance for fans of One Winter Morning. From the moment they meet one December day there’s something between Charlotte Taylor and her brother’s best friend, Tom Farley. But Tom’s already taken and Charlie has to let him go… It’s another five years before their paths cross again only a secret from the past forces Charlie to make a choice. She promises herself she’ll never look back… The years pass and Charlie moves on with her life but she can never forget Tom. He’s always there whispering ‘What if?’. Can Charlie leave the life she has built for one last chance with Tom? Or is the one that got away not really the one at all…? Readers love Rewrite the Stars…! ‘Romantic, cosy and a book that can be read cover to cover in one day because you just can’t put it down’ Yahoo ‘I really enjoyed 'One Day in December' by Josie Silver, so when I read that fans of that book would enjoy this one I already had plenty of expectations in my head… this book absolutely smashed through all those expectations and I love it even more’ Amy A ‘Would have read it in one go if I didn’t have to go to work!’ Carla ‘A definite WOW book’ Sue, Netgalley ‘I absolutely loved this book and was so gutted it had to come to an end’ Shirleyann ‘Absolutely adored this book. I'm a psychological thrillers type of girl generally but every now and then I need something to break up all the crazy and this was a very welcome distraction’ Laura S ‘Touched my heart in a way few others have’ Michelle, Netgalley ‘A wonderfully written Christmas love story which isn't predictable and really enjoyable’ Nicola S ‘An emotional rollercoaster’ Jane B ‘This story will tug at your heartstrings’ Jennifer H
REWRITE THE STARS
Emma Heatherington
Copyright (#u3bef4420-0626-5735-b5de-5581cef46422)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Emma Heatherington 2019
Emma Heatherington asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008355630
Ebook Edition © 2019 ISBN: 9780008355647
Version: 2019-07-23
Dedication (#u3bef4420-0626-5735-b5de-5581cef46422)
For my wonderful children who are the bravest and the best
Contents
Cover (#ubcf35464-fd5a-50d1-83a0-c92361f660b1)
Title Page (#u8c29e474-1ad9-50b9-a33b-30589d338110)
Copyright
Dedication
Author’s Note
Epigraph
i
ii
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Also by Emma Heatherington
About the Publisher
Author’s Note (#u3bef4420-0626-5735-b5de-5581cef46422)
A key theme of Rewrite the Stars is Charlotte’s love of music and her desire to fulfil her passion of song-writing. I’m a huge music fan and my very first writing efforts were in the shape of some very cheesy pop songs written on my synthesizer when I was about 12. What do you mean you’ve never heard of my big hits ‘Mystery Man’ and ‘The Boy Next Door’??!!!!!
When I was writing this book, the idea came up that there could be an actual song featured that readers could listen to afterwards – I’m being careful not to give anything away in the form of spoilers, but thanks to Claire Fenby, Emily Yolland and Iona Teixeira Stevens for the enthusiastic chat about this when Jade and I were over at HarperCollins in London. The seed was sown and as much as I love writing lyrics myself, I thought the book deserved something a bit more polished!
So, I began scouting around for existing songs that would suit the story, but then something even better happened … an amazing song was written especially for the book by one of my favourite songwriters, Gareth Dunlop, whose compositions have featured in films including Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me and Safe Haven, as well as (drumroll) … ABC’s hit series Nashville! I am still pinching myself. The book has its very own song!
I’m absolutely thrilled to bits that Gareth took the time to write and record the song ‘You’ which features in such a poignant scene in Rewrite the Stars. It really is a beautiful, mesmerising and moving song, and even better than I could ever have dreamed of.
A huge thanks to Dianna Maher of Moraine Music Group, Nashville for helping to make this happen – Dianna, you might notice a very subtle thank you in the form of a character being named after you in the story! Most of all, thanks to Gareth for suggesting a brand-new song instead of using something already out there, for following my brief and for coming up with something so wonderful. I’m so honoured to have your beautiful lyrics, melody and voice attached to my work.
And on that note, I urge you all to go and find the song ‘You’ by Gareth Dunlop via his website (www.garethdunlop.com (http://www.garethdunlop.com)), then close your eyes, think of your special someone, kick back and give your heart a treat!
Emma x
Epigraph (#u3bef4420-0626-5735-b5de-5581cef46422)
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
i (#u3bef4420-0626-5735-b5de-5581cef46422)
Dublin, December 2010
I was twenty-two years and nine months old when I first fell in love with Tom Farley.
Elbow-deep in a sink full of suds in our student kitchen, I watched him come in through the back door with my brother Matthew, steal my heart on his way past with his old-school, movie-star-type swagger and I knew my life was never going to be the same again.
My mother used to joke about how I was born cynical, and I was definitely way too sceptical to believe in love at first sight, but this person’s very presence hit me like a bolt of lightning.
He turned my head like no other man had done before, and like none would ever do again.
Tom Farley, with his mega-watt smile, tousled brown hair, dark stubble on a chiselled jawline, the cheekiest dimples you ever did see and bold, devilish eyes of turquoise green, made me weak at the knees. Maybe the attraction was in knowing he was musical, like me. Maybe it was his rugged, ruffled, rough-round-the-edges good looks, or maybe love at first sight did exist and I was now living proof and the latest victim of the old cliché.
Whatever it was, I found myself instantly hooked.
‘What on earth are you wearing?’ my brother Matthew snorted, clearly showing off in front of his new friend. Matthew didn’t have much room to talk when it came to fashion. He was sporting a pair of lilac spray-on jeans with a hideous see-through lemon linen shirt that clashed with his cranberry-coloured hair. Between the two of us, we certainly looked like the circus had come to town.
I glared out the window onto a red brick wall that divided our terraced house from an identical row behind us, turned down James Blunt who was aptly singing his number one hit ‘You’re Beautiful’ and desperately thought of something smart to say in return, but my head was too busy spinning with unadulterated lust.
I was speechless.
My glow-in-the-dark Disney-themed pyjamas with Doctor Marten boots at three in the afternoon was all a bit of an eyesore, but I was a student, on my day off, and how the hell was I to know that the man of my ultimate dreams would pass me by in a whiff of leather and tobacco when I was dressed like a clown?
Yes, Tom Farley, with his air of beauty and superstardom, had just rocked my world and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next, so I ignored my fashion crisis, took a deep breath and dried my hands quickly to go and take a closer look at him.
‘Stick the kettle on, will you Charlie?’ said Matthew when I reached the tiny sitting room where it looked like they were about to set up office. He called meCharlie, which meant he was really showing off now. No one ever called me Charlie. No one was ever allowed to call me Charlie.
I gulped and tried to compose myself in front of this absolute hunk of burning love who was now looking at me just as eagerly as I was at him. Late twenties, I guessed, no wedding ring which was a good start and, despite his bourbon rock-star looks, he had an air of shyness mixed with an inner confidence that made him all the more attractive. I could feel his eyes burn through me, so I looked around the room instead of directly at him to try to keep my cool.
‘Well, I would stick the kettle on, but I was just about to go—’
‘Where?’
Nowhere was the answer. I was about to go nowhere but there was no way I was going to be treated as the tea lady in this whole operation without a proper introduction.
A heap of vinyl with names I’d never heard of was stacked in the middle of the brown carpet, the room stank of stale, spilt beer and weed, while a cactus plant we’d named Jarvis Cocker (because it had prickles) looked as gloomy as the winter weather outside, but Tom Farley brightened up everything in my dull-as-dishwater world. Who was he? Why was he here? My brother was in the process of forming some sort of new age rock band, so I gathered they were here to talk business.
‘I’m OK for tea, thank you … Aren’t you going to introduce us, Matt?’ asked the dreamboat on the sofa and my mouth dropped open when I heard his voice for the first time.
He had the most delicious, gravelly, deep American-Irish accent, which sounded so deeply mysterious in comparison to my own plain old Irish twang. This man, this absolutely gorgeous being, was becoming more appealing by the second.
‘Oh, sorry, this is Tom Farley, our drummer in Déjà Vu,’ said Matthew, finally remembering his manners. ‘He’s probably the best drummer in Dublin.’
Probably the best-looking drummer in Dublin, I’d have added to that sentence, not that I knew many drummers in Dublin or anywhere else for that matter.
Tom held up his hands in a display of modesty.
‘Tom, this is my sister, Charlotte. The bossy baby of the house I was telling you about,’ said Matthew.
I nodded a hello, not knowing whether to thump my brother for calling me bossy, even though it was him telling me to ‘stick the kettle on’, or to hug him for bringing this piece of heaven into my life. Then I stuttered out a proper hello and giggled in a girly way that made me want to thump myself.
‘Nice boots,’ said Tom the drummer, looking me up and down. ‘Snap.’
He pulled up his faded blue jeans ever so slightly to show off identical cherry-coloured Doc Martens and my heart sang. It was destiny. It had to be. He ran his fingers through his tousled hair. I may have swooned out loud. I clenched my own empty fingers, wishing they could touch his hair, too.
‘We’re holding a meeting here shortly,’ said Matthew, clearing his throat. ‘You know, about the new band?’
