Page 57 of Hit For Six (Balls and Banter #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Monty

He could only hope that Squiffy was his lucky charm.

If the sight of them together didn’t melt Lola’s heart, then nothing ever could and Monty would have to accept that it really was over.

He’d move to London. He couldn’t handle bumping into her in Bath.

London would make sense where his training was concerned and it had the added advantage of putting the miles between him and his parents, Joanna and ‘Jules’.

His apartment would sell faster than a Mitchell Starc bouncer at The Waca.

Aunt Sal, Saskia and co could come to visit in the holidays.

Monty scuttled past a group of middle-aged women who started giggling at his appearance, until they saw a little marmalade cat being wheeled along behind him and awed so loudly, it reverberated through the station, causing heads to turn and people to run after him with mobile phones. Great, now he had a whole new fanbase.

He tried to bat them off, but it was hopeless without his trusty Kookaburra.

Now it was impossible to think with all this chaos trailing behind him and everybody fawning over Squiffy.

Monty did a three-sixty turn, his eyes landing on the taxi sign, and suddenly he remembered his first idea upon arriving at the station.

He headed outside, crossing his fingers that the queue would encompass dozens of the last hour’s arrivals.

The crowd followed behind him in fascination.

Evidently none of these people had ever been to Glastonbury– the town or the festival.

Monty was hardly dressed in wings and a cape riding a broomstick with a pet salamanca snapping at his heels, or whatever daily equivalent was en vogue in the UK’s quirkiest place.

But after a deft scour of the lengthy line, Monty could only rake a hand through his hair in desperation.

Lola was nowhere to be found. He wheeled Squiffy back inside the building.

What if she was meeting somebody inside?

Where was the most likely rendez-vous point?

Monty slapped his forehead. Could there have been a more obvious answer?

He upped his pace, desperate to lose his new friends, who seemed to have recruited yet more followers, and made his way to the Paddington Bear statue.

Everyone huddled around Monty, documenting his actions next to the oblivious bear as he panned the area, searching for a flash of Lola.

Resignedly, Monty shifted his gaze back to Paddington, who was more concerned about scarfing his marmalade sandwich.

Surely he could give him a clue! Monty wheeled Squiffy closer in the vain hope of some animal magic.

But the bronze sculpture simply gazed to Monty’s left.

Which was Paddington’s right… Aka the Eastbourne Terrace.