Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
D rinks were clearly flowing in the hotel lounge.
The cheerful chatter of the guests mixed pleasantly with the Christmas music and the pine scent from the Christmas tree, which permeated the air.
At the back of the building, the restaurant was empty except for a middle-aged couple sitting at the bar.
Through the small windows into the kitchen, Anna spotted Warren hunched over the bench at the back of the room, perched on a stool.
A couple of the younger kitchen staff stood chatting in the centre of the room.
About to push at the door, Anna stopped as she felt her phone vibrate.
Pulling it from her pocket, her pulse skittered at the notification of a message from Warren.
Quickly, she clicked into it, then rolled her eyes at the message, which simply wished her a happy Christmas. She supposed it was at least comforting to know he’d been thinking of her. Definitely a bit lacking, though.
Another message came through.
I’m sorry.
She waited while dots skittered along the screen, indicating he was writing another message .
I miss you.
That was a bit more like it.
“Happy Christmas to you,” she said as she crossed the kitchen.
Swivelling on his stool, surprise flooded Warren’s features. His eyes darted from her to his phone as though he might somehow have magically summoned her.
“I’m so annoyed with you,” she said, stopping in front of him and setting a gift bag on the counter.
He craned his neck to look around her and tipped his head at the staff in a gesture that clearly told them to scarper. They did as they were told and the doors swung closed behind them.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
She remembered Lewis’s request for her to go easy on him and held back on her verbal assault.
“I wanted to see you,” she said simply.
He reached for her hand, his fingers lightly caressing her palm. “I’m such an idiot.”
“I can’t really argue with that.” She ran a hand down his cheek. “Why didn’t you just ask me about Hayden?”
His eyes darted to her face. “What?”
“If you thought I was on a date with Hayden, why didn’t you just ask me about it?”
“I…” He withdrew his hand and rubbed at his brow.
“Oh. That isn’t the reason you’ve been ignoring me, is it?”
“I wasn’t ignoring you.”
“Right. You’ve just been busy.” She sighed. “Please explain what’s going on.”
“Lewis mentioned you’d been out with Hayden, and to be honest, it didn’t exactly fill me with joy to think of you out with him… but I assumed he’d got it wrong when he said you weren’t over your ex.”
“Of course he got it wrong. Hayden asked if we could meet up, and I wanted to hear what he had to say. But not because I had any thoughts about getting back with him. Things still felt unfinished between us, and before I started anything with you, I needed to draw a line under that part of my life. I went to dinner with him for closure.” She paused and pressed her lips together.
“Except then you went all weird on me, and it seems as though you don’t want to be with me, anyway. ”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what you’re sorry for,” she said through gritted teeth. “Do you just not like me that much, or are you moving away? What’s going on with you?”
“Why would I be moving away?”
She released a breath. “Lewis thinks you’re looking for a new job.”
“What made him think that?”
“Does it even matter? I want to know what’s going on with us, not talk about my brother.
” Anger simmered inside her. “You’ve been giving very mixed signals, and if you’re going to insist on playing games, then I’m just going to walk away now.
I spent two years feeling like I’m not good enough because of my ex, and I refuse to spend my time wondering if you even have feelings for me… ”
He shot off the stool to stand in front of her. “Of course I have feelings for you. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for weeks.”
“Then you need to explain what’s going on in your head.”
He looked her right in the eyes, then swallowed hard. “I guess you were right about me sharing some qualities with my family. There are things I need to tell you, but instead of talking to you, I just avoided the issue.”
“What things?”
“Stuff about my past.”
“Surely that’s why people date – to find out more about each other.”
“Yes, but…”
“But what?”
His arms circled her waist. “I don’t know.”
“Well why don’t you just tell me, and we’ll go from there. Or better yet, let’s go to my place and we can talk properly.”
“Yeah, okay.” He looked so forlorn that she felt a pang of sympathy for him.
“Is it really such a big deal? Do you have some sort of criminal past you need to tell me about?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Nothing like that.”
“Good.” She licked her lips, then pressed them to his. All her earlier worries melted away as he brought his hand to the back of her head and deepened the kiss.
The way he winced as he broke away wasn’t a great sign.
“What now?” she complained.
“I can’t go to your place this evening.”
“Why not?”
His eyebrows inched upwards. “I have a date.”
Anna only just refrained from rolling her eyes. “Is this a weird thing where you try to make me jealous and then tell me the date is actually with me?”
“No.” He winced. “It’s not with you.”
“Are you trying to tell me you really have a date?”
He nodded and at least looked remorseful.
“You have a date with a woman?”
He nodded again.
Anna stared at him for a moment, then she really did roll her eyes. “Is it with an old lady?”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “I always spend Christmas Day evening with Edie. Her family will have been over for lunch, but they’ll have left by now. She saves me Christmas cake.”
“I suppose if I have to lose out on you to anyone, I can cope with it being Edie.”
Warren rested his forehead against hers. “She’ll be waiting for me. I’d feel terrible not going. ”
“It’s okay.” Disappointing, but she’d get over it.
“Do you want to come?” he asked, eyeing her hopefully.
She didn’t even have to consider it. “I’d love to.”
“I should probably warn you that Edie may be slightly tipsy and she might crank the music up and insist on us dancing around the kitchen with her.”
“I think I can cope with that.” She reached around him for the gift bag. “I got you something.”
Taking the bag, he sank back onto the stool and lifted out the gift in shiny red packaging. He eyed her curiously before tearing at the wrapping to reveal the wooden box filled with a variety of individually wrapped tea bags.
“So you can have a bit of luxury at home, too,” she told him as nerves fluttered in her stomach.
“I love it.”
“Do you?” It had seemed like a good idea before Frannie had eyed it up for the old women in her family.
“I really do. Thank you.” He set it aside and took her hand. “I got you something, too.”
“Yeah?”
Nodding, he pulled her onto his knee. “It’s not wrapped,” he murmured before his lips met hers.
Briefly, she got swept up in the kiss. Then she pulled back. “I thought I was getting a present.”
“Yeah.” He leaned in again. “Happy Christmas.”
With a hand on his chest, she stopped him with his lips millimetres from hers. “Sometimes your teasing is just annoying,” she said, while her mouth betrayed her by stretching to a wide grin.
“What teasing?”
“The type of teasing where you give me a kiss for Christmas.”
“What’s wrong with that? Don’t tell me you’re the materialistic type? ”
“I absolutely am.”
He curled his lip. “In that case, it’s a good job I bought you an actual gift.”
“Did you?”
“It’s in my car. Tied with a ribbon and everything. Shall we go and get it?”
Her lips grazed his. “I’ll just have one more kiss first, if you don’t mind?”
“Go on then.” He tightened his arms around her waist. “Since it’s Christmas.”