Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
T he hotel dining room was reasonably busy, but they spotted Frannie and Jake straightaway, sitting with Kylie and Dev.
“Morning!” Anna said cheerfully.
Dev winced. “Not so loud,” he said, clutching a mug of coffee with both hands.
“How’s everyone feeling?” Warren asked.
Frannie smiled. “I think we’re all doing pretty well, except for Dev. Hayden didn’t look too hot either,” she added as an afterthought.
“I’m surprised he’s up.” Anna glanced around for him. Usually, he’d be the last to bed at the end of the night and the last to emerge the following morning.
At least today she didn’t have to endure the torture of watching him arrive with his girlfriend and force herself not to imagine what they’d been up to in their hotel room.
“You just missed him,” Kylie said. “He grabbed a quick coffee and headed off. Apparently, he’s in the middle of some big work project that he needed to get back to. He said to say goodbye. ”
Anna forced her lips into a smile, then turned to Warren. “Are you hungry?”
He nodded, and they meandered through the tables to the buffet at the side of the room.
As they took a plate each, Warren leaned close to her ear. “Are we happy that we missed Hayden this morning or not?”
The question amused her and also made her ponder her feelings on the matter. “It’s a relief,” she said, taking a bread roll from a basket. “Without him around, I can relax and enjoy breakfast with my friends.”
He followed her to the hot buffet items. “Does it make me a bad person that I’m a little disappointed I don’t get to watch him squirm with jealousy at the sight of us together?”
Anna smiled as she spooned scrambled eggs onto her plate. “I really don’t think he was jealous.”
“Then you need to get your eyes checked.” He added sausages to his plate and served her a couple. “I wonder if that’s why he left early – so he didn’t have to watch us pawing at each other over breakfast.”
“I don’t think we’d really have been pawing at each other.”
“I definitely intend to paw at you.”
She laughed as she reached the end of the buffet table and poured them both orange juice. “Hayden’s already left, remember? We can cool down the act.”
“I thought you were mostly concerned with making sure your friends don’t give you pitying looks.”
“I suspect they might pity me if you inappropriately grope me during breakfast.”
Suddenly, he was right in front of her, staring down at her with hunger in his eyes, which she’d swear had nothing to do with the food.
“I was thinking along the lines of affectionate touches.” He ran his fingers down her upper arm in a way that made her breath catch. “Your friends are watching,” he said, right before he gave her a lingering kiss.
When he picked up his orange juice, she fought to get her butterflies under control, then followed him across the room. He was right that her friends were watching. When they all whipped their gazes away and fell quiet, it was clear they’d been talking about them, too.
For once, Anna didn’t mind being the subject of their conversations.
After a lively brunch, Anna and Warren fell into a comfortable silence for the drive back to Chipping Campden.
Staring out of the window, watching the rolling fields slip by, Anna reflected on how much easier the party had been with Warren there. And how much she’d enjoyed it.
“What have you got planned for this week?” he asked when they were almost back at Chipping Campden.
“I have another Christmas market next weekend,” she said.
“And the online shop has been getting a steady stream of orders, so I’ll need to work on replenishing my stock – making more wreaths and candles.
Oh, and I have a thing tomorrow evening…
” Her stomach plummeted at the thought of the event which she’d spent the last few weeks wishing she hadn’t agreed to.
“A thing?” Warren asked, lifting an eyebrow as he slowed at the traffic lights.
She gave a small shake of her head. “A wreath-making workshop.”
“Like the one you did at the hotel last year.” He frowned. “You’re doing it again this year, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Although I wish I hadn’t agreed to it. The one tomorrow is a private party at someone’s house. It’s the woman’s sixtieth birthday, and she thought wreath-making would be fun to do with her friends. When she emailed me about it a month ago, it seemed like a good idea.”
“And it doesn’t any more?”
“No. I hate doing this stuff.”
“I thought it went really well when you did it at the hotel last year?”
“It was fine in the end, but public speaking really isn’t my thing, even when it’s a small group.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be a nervous wreck.” Her stomach already felt queasy and would likely stay that way for the next thirty-six hours until it was over and done with. “I always think it’s unfair that Carla got all the confidence, and I got none. I’d like to be brave like her – she’s not scared of anything.”
Warren pulled the car away again, joining a queue of traffic. “I wouldn’t describe Carla as brave. Cocky and self-assured maybe, but not brave.”
“I think being cocky and self-assured makes her brave.”
He shook his head. “If nothing scares you, there’s no need to be brave. But I happen to know that Carla isn’t the least bit brave. If something scares her, she doesn’t do it.”
“Maybe,” she conceded. “I just don’t think there’s much that scares Carla.” She chewed her lip as she pondered it, but couldn’t come up with anything.
Warren grinned. “She’s scared of driving on the motorway.”
“That’s true. But I’m not sure that really has a huge impact on her life.”
“Apart from that one time it took her a week to drive to London on A roads.”
Anna laughed loudly. “It wasn’t a week.”
“Perhaps not, but it took her way longer than it needed to. She also recently called me at ten o’clock at night, freaking out about a spider in her bathroom. ”
“She’s terrified of spiders,” Anna said, nodding.
“My point is that if something scares her, she avoids it. You do things even though they scare you. I think that makes you the brave one.”
She shook her head. “I’d still like to have her confidence.”
“Her confidence makes her loud and annoying,” Warren said, eyes on the road ahead.
“Hey!” Anna gave his arm a gentle punch. “Don’t be mean.”
“It’s true,” he said, amused. “Don’t pretend you don’t agree.”
“Sometimes she might be a bit much to deal with,” she agreed. “But I’m her sister. I can say these things. You shouldn’t.”
He grinned as he geared down at the junction.
“Did she really call you to come over and remove a spider from her flat?”
He nodded once. “Personally, I think being nervous about making a speech or standing up in front of people is perfectly normal. Freaking out over a daddy longlegs is pathetic.”
“It is a bit ridiculous.” She could imagine Carla making a big drama of it.
Her attention went to the familiar sand-coloured buildings that lined the main street through Chipping Campden. A few minutes later, Warren turned onto a side street and then onto her road.
“What time do you have to be at work?” she asked.
“I’ll go straight there.”
She felt a tinge of disappointment when he stopped the car in front of her building. “Thank you for coming with me.”
“You’re welcome. I enjoyed it.”
“I’m glad. I kind of wish I’d started taking fake dates to these events ages ago. It was fun.”
“What will you tell your friends? Are you going to confess?”
She bit down on her lip. “I’m not sure. I’ll probably tell the girls the truth. The other option is to say we broke up, but then I’ll be stuck with the pitying looks again.”
“They seem like a really nice bunch.”
“They are. I’ll figure something out.”
“So we’re done with our pretend dating?” he said, tilting his head.
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“That was the easiest relationship I’ve ever been in. No drama.” His lips twitched. “Apart from you accusing me of flirting with the waitress.”
She smiled weakly. “I suppose this will be an amicable breakup too.”
“I hope we’ll stay friends,” he said, mock serious.
When she waved him off, she couldn’t help but think that the end of a fake relationship shouldn’t really leave her feeling so disheartened.