The Unexpected Life of Carnegie Lane Read Online Free PDF Page A

entire package together, shoving what he could back into the envelope. He held onto the last fifteen pages of that story for grim death as he followed his sister down to the underground car park. Once on the road, he continued reading as Kat called everyone to let them know they were on their way. At one stage, she turned on the radio. He reached over, without looking up and turned it off. The music was wrong for the story. He just needed to read the ending with nothing but his own choice of sound setting a background tone.
    Five minutes out from their destination he read the final word. He was overwhelmed with emotion. It had been a long time since he had read a book and loved it, and he had never read one that resonated with him quite the same as this one had.
    “That was fantastic…I’m finished…wow.” He said to no one in particular. He was muttering to himself.
    “Thank god for that.” Kat replied genuinely under her breath, as they waited at the lights just before the turn into the International Flight Departure area of Heathrow Airport. Nate put the pages on his lap and then started rumbling through the envelope looking quickly for the bio page of Carnegie Lane. He pulled out the photo and had another look. This time, she didn’t look like an average forty two year old woman with tired eyes. She looked beautiful. He turned his Blackberry back on and waited for it to boot up.
    A myriad of ding dongs greeted him as his frantic missed messages began piling in. He opened the address book, copied the address, phone number and email details of Carnegie Lane into it. Then he put everything back into the envelope as neatly as he could and placed it on the back seat of his sisters’ car. He didn’t know why he so desperately needed to know where to get hold of her, or even if he ever would. All he knew was, right now, he needed to know that he could find her. Somehow, she had begun to matter.
    They pulled into the departure drop off zone and Kat started unloading her brother as best she could surrounded by screaming girls who were amazed that he was there, arriving through the front door. Security guards realizing what was happening moved in to allow a path through the crowd and the flashes from the cameras began.
    Nate gave his sister a hug and apologized for not really spending that much time with her. He thanked her for the opportunity to read the story. He told her somehow it had just changed his life. Katalie rolled her eyes and hugged him back. She figured that he needed space from his world, and if reading a possibly poorly written manuscript would do it for him, then so be it.
    The folder that now contained the mixed up pages of Carnegie Lanes’ book slipped from the seat in the back of Katalie Bowman’s car and fell to the ground, disguised by a million things that had managed to become permanent travelers. Katalie almost had a wardrobe in the back and amongst it were papers, books, folders and the occasional fast food coffee cup. By the time Katalie made it home, she forgot all about that manuscript as she wearily made her way up to her flat and crawled into her bed. It had been a very… long …day.
    The following night, to a crowd of hundreds, Nate Bowman and his band Sheeva’s Disciples played enthusiastically. He held the microphone out for the crowd to sing the chorus of his latest hit. He had forgotten for a moment the words and the story that had haunted him the night before and long into the following day. That was until he made it to the final verse in his new song. The very same song he had sung in his head as he read the final words of Carnegie’s manuscript.
“ Be still my heart, I’ll find another love for you”
    As the crowd roared, his band went off stage to have a quick break and wipe the sweat from their eyes while Nate picked up an acoustic guitar and began playing with his fans. He sang acoustic bits out of previous hits he knew they wanted to hear. He sang choruses of covers to