Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
D espite the slightly tense atmosphere, dinner was over far too quickly.
Anna pushed her bowl away and leaned back in her chair, considering how to get Warren to relax again, and how to draw the evening out.
If they were at her place, it would be easier – she could offer dessert and suggest a drink, but here she should probably just follow Warren’s lead.
He’d been working all day, so maybe he was tired and wanted his space.
That might be why he’d clammed up on her.
“That was delicious, thank you,” she said when he took the empty bowls to the sink.
“You’re welcome.” He turned the tap on and reached for the washing-up liquid. When his phone buzzed on the counter a moment later, he craned his neck to check the display, then muttered a curse.
“Everything okay?” Anna asked.
“It’s just my mum. I can call her back later.”
“I can help…” Hopping out of the chair, she picked up the phone and swiped to answer it before moving it to his ear.
The look on his face made her flinch. So much for lifting his mood .
“What did you do?” he grumbled, pulling away from the phone.
“Answered for you,” she whispered. “Since your hands are wet.”
“That wasn’t–” He cut himself off as a quiet voice emanated from the phone. “Hang on a sec, Mum.” He sighed as he wiped his hands on a tea towel, then took the phone from Anna and said hello into the phone. “We’re just eating dinner. I’ll call you back later.”
Whatever his mum said made Warren frown and rub at his temple.
“Yeah, I’m with Anna. I’ll tell her you said hi.
” He sat back down at the table, giving Anna a weary look while he listened to his mum.
“Fine,” he finally said, then moved the phone from his ear and tapped the screen before setting it on the table. “You’re on speaker.”
“Hi, Anna!” his mum said cheerfully.
“Hello.” Anna sank onto the chair opposite Warren and leaned towards the phone. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Sorry to disturb your dinner…”
Anna flashed Warren a look, and he threw his hands up, then jabbed a finger at her in a gesture that she couldn’t decipher but which made her want to laugh.
“I just wanted to say again how lovely it was to meet you,” Jen went on. “Also, I don’t know if Warren mentioned our upcoming trip to Bath. I told him to invite you.”
“I didn’t invite her,” Warren said impatiently. “I already told you I can’t make it, so why would I invite Anna?”
“I thought you might change your mind. It’d be lovely if you came with us. You haven’t joined a family trip in forever.”
Warren rubbed the back of his neck. “I have to work.”
“Can’t you take a couple of days off? We’ll be there for the week, but you could just come for as long as you can manage. Selena would like to see you, and it’d be good for you to spend some time with Joshie. ”
“It’s a busy time at work,” he said. “I’ll visit in the new year as usual.”
“Just think about it. Maybe Anna would like a nice festive break in Bath. It’s lovely at this time of year. You could do some Christmas shopping.”
“I haven’t been to Bath in ages,” Anna said, then stifled a laugh at Warren’s menacing glare.
“It’s beautiful,” Jen said. “The house is just outside of Bath. In the countryside – lovely and peaceful. We always go for a little break before Christmas. It’s a family tradition. Warren hasn’t joined us there for years, though. Have you even been since the hot tub was installed?”
“No,” he muttered, then gave Anna a gentle kick when she widened her eyes and mouthed ‘hot tub’ with mock excitement.
“Just say you’ll think about it,” his mum said.
“Okay. Sure. Well, we’ll discuss it, and I’ll get back to you. We’re going to finish our dinner now.”
“Yes, get back to it before it’s cold. I’ll talk to you soon.”
There was a chorus of goodbyes before Warren jabbed at the phone to end the call.
“I can’t believe you just outright lied to your mum,” Anna said.
He threw his hands up. “And I can’t believe you answered my phone. Why would you do that?”
“Sorry.” She giggled at his look of outrage. “I thought you were annoyed about not being able to answer it because your hands were wet.”
“No. I was annoyed by the call. I had no intention of answering it, even if I wasn’t washing the dishes.”
“Sorry,” she said again. “I’d never dare to ignore a call from my mum, so I kind of assume other people are the same.”
Warren smiled. “To be honest, I’d never dare ignore a call from your mum, either. ”
“How often does my mum call you?” Anna asked, assuming he was being hypothetical.
“Far too often!” He grinned. “It’s not as much since Erin moved in with Lewis.
I guess she gets the brunt of it now. It used to be that if Lewis didn’t answer the phone, Fiona would call me as though I was his personal secretary.
Sometimes I suspected she didn’t even bother trying to call Lewis and just called me first. She’d ask me to pass on a message if she knew it was something Lewis would say no to. ”
Anna chuckled. “She’s a nightmare sometimes.”
“I far prefer phone calls from your mum to my own.” His eyes glazed over, and he looked momentarily lost in thought before he stood abruptly. “Do you want a drink? There’s tea or coffee… or possibly beer…” He opened the fridge, then nodded decisively. “There’s beer.”
“I’d love a tea,” she told him, happy that he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get rid of her. “Do you have a variety of flavours?”
He rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a hotel.”
“Do you, though? Because I can absolutely imagine you having a quaint wooden tea box with different flavour tea bags.”
“I don’t,” he said, taking two mugs from the cupboard. “I feel as though it’s a luxury best saved for hotel stays.” He filled the kettle, then got back to work on the dishes.
When the water had boiled, Anna moved to make herself useful.
“This mug is beautiful,” she said, eyeing the unique ceramic mug with the words ‘world’s best chef’ etched neatly on one side.
“Lewis got it for me,” he said idly.
“Cute.” She poured water over the tea bags and got milk from the fridge.
Once he’d finished the dishes, she handed him a mug and wandered over to the living room with her own.
Lowering herself onto the couch, she looked up at Warren and caught the troubled look on his face.
“Sorry. I’m making myself at home. Did you want to sit at the table? ”
“No.” He sat beside her, looking momentarily unsure of himself before he reached for Anna’s mug.
She watched in confusion while he set it on the coffee table in front of him and put his mug close to her.
It took a moment for her to figure out what was going on, and when she did, she bit down on her lip to smother a laugh.
“Did I take the wrong mug?” she asked, then pressed her lips together as the laughter crept up her throat.
“It’s my favourite,” he said sulkily. “And you’re not even a chef, so it’s inappropriate for you to take that one.”
“You’re kind of surprising, you know?” She relaxed back onto the couch and flicked her gaze to him as he picked up the mug, which he was apparently so attached to. “By the way, what family trip did your mum just invite me on?”
Ripples erupted on the surface of his tea as he snorted a laugh. “It’s a trip to Bath. They always go before Christmas.”
“And they stay in the same place?”
He nodded.
“And it has a hot tub?”
“Apparently it does now. It didn’t when I was a kid.”
“How long have you been going there?”
“As long as I can remember.”
“It must be quite nostalgic, then?”
“I suppose so.”
“But you’re not going?”
He sipped his tea and shook his head. “No.”
“I’m sure you could get an extra day or two off if you speak to Lewis.”
“I could,” he said. “But time off isn’t the reason I’m not going.”
“So that entire conversation with your mum was basically lies? ”
“It’s either lie, or tell her I can’t stand the thought of spending more than a few hours with my family.”
“Is it really that bad? I know you argued with your dad, and I can see how they might not be the most relaxed people to spend time with, but they also seemed perfectly nice when I met them.”
His eyebrows drew together. “It turns out they’re much more bearable when there’s someone else around. I may need to recruit you for every family visit in the future.”
Warmth spread through her stomach, which had nothing to do with the tea. “Does that mean I get to go to Bath to do my Christmas shopping?”
“No! Even you would get sick of my family after more than a few hours. I wouldn’t subject you to entire days and nights with them.”
Anna smiled. “Your sister’s going?” she asked gently.
“Yeah.”
“Do you get on with her?”
He swayed his head from shoulder to shoulder. “We used to get on well when we were kids. These days I don’t see much of her.”
“And who is Joshie?”
“My nephew.” His eyes lit up. “He’s four, and he’s the only one who makes it at all tempting to go.”
“Maybe you should go,” she suggested. “Surely a couple of days with your family can’t be that bad. And it might be worth it to spend time with your nephew.”
He curled his lips in a frown, considering it.
“It’s almost Christmas. You’re supposed to spend time with your family.”
He lifted a solitary eyebrow. “Are you supposed to dread spending time with your family?”
“I think it’s pretty normal,” she told him. “When is the trip to Bath? ”
“The week after next.”
“You have Mondays off, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“So why not take the Tuesday off and go for a couple of days. You could drive back on Wednesday morning and be back to work in the afternoon.”
“In theory, I could.”
“I think you should go. It obviously means a lot to your mum.”
“I’d regret it an hour after I arrived. Also, thanks to you, I’d be bombarded with questions about my girlfriend.”
“You can explain that I’m just your friend.”
“That’s not really the issue. The problem is it will be stressful.”
“I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think.”
“Easy for you to say. You won’t be there.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to suggest she could join him, but a flood of nerves held her back. She could hardly invite herself on a family trip, no matter how appealing it was.
“I think you should go,” she murmured weakly.
He grinned at her over his tea. “And I think you should stop pestering me to go. It seems neither of us is getting what we want.” His eyes danced with amusement. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
He set his mug on the table and looked thoughtful. “I’ll go if you come and pretend to be my girlfriend.”
The look he gave her was full of challenge. If she was reading him correctly, he didn’t expect her to agree – it was his way of getting her to drop the subject.
“Okay,” she said idly.
His smile slipped, and his eyebrows drew swiftly together. “ Okay, what? ”
A buzz of excitement replaced her earlier nerves. “I’ll come with you and pretend to be your girlfriend.”