Chapter Eleven #2
The waitress still wasn’t looking in their direction. Resigned to her fate, Anna took a big gulp of wine and gave them the details. Ending with Dan’s comment that if there hadn’t been so many obstacles in the way, I’d be chasing you, Anna Dalton.
‘Do you want to be chased by him?’ Gabby again. She always asked the killer questions, whereas Faith was more let’s have a chat and by the end I’ll end up knowing all I need to know.
‘If circumstances were different, like he said, then yes, I think I would.’
‘Wow. He must be nicer than his recent press coverage then.’ Gabby dived into her handbag and drew out her phone.
A few taps later she was reading the headlines Anna had read.
‘Playboy actor Daniel Ramsey goes off the rails following his axing from Love Surgery.’ After reading a few other choice snippets, she put down her phone and waggled her eyebrows.
‘Not exactly the type of guy I imagined for your first dip back into the dating game.’
‘Trust me, he’s a lot nicer than that.’ Both their eyebrows shot up and Anna sighed.
‘Okay, I’m aware how I sound. Truth is, I didn’t think I was ready to date another man, never mind kiss one, but .
. . when it happened it seemed so natural.
And lovely.’ She let out another sigh, this one more dreamy.
‘It was actually really, really lovely.’ But then she thought of Chris, and suddenly all the pleasure vanished, replaced by a heavy feeling.
Immediately, Faith reached across the table and touched her hand. ‘Don’t feel guilty, Anna. Chris would go nuts.’
‘I know.’ And she did. But it didn’t lessen the pain of knowing she’d never kiss Chris again.
Then again, the thought of never kissing anyone else again, of never experiencing that closeness, that intimacy again, brought its own type of pain.
‘Enough talk of Mr Ramsey. As I said, it’s not going anywhere. ’
‘Because he can see you’re not ready.’
‘Exactly.’ But she’d enjoyed the kiss. And his company.
And next Tuesday seemed an awful long way away.
‘He’s not in the right place either,’ she reminded them, and herself.
It was surely the more important point because seriously, this was Daniel Ramsey.
He might be flirting with her now, but he was hardly going to be hunting her down when his life picked up again.
‘So there really isn’t any point talking about it any more.
’ She glanced at Faith’s swollen belly. ‘A far more interesting topic would be Adam’s latest exploits as a father-to-be. ’
Faith patted her stomach and rolled her eyes. ‘Oh God, that man is a nightmare. I swear if he could keep me in a locked room and wrap me in bubble wrap, he would.’
Adam had been married before, and he and his wife had lost their unborn child after an accident. Having experienced loss herself, Anna could understand Adam’s paranoia. If she ever did fall in love again, she thought she, too, would be terrified of life repeating itself.
The waitress finally came over and after they’d ordered, the conversation moved on to Christmas.
‘I forget, are you at home or in Devon this year?’ Gabby asked.
‘I should be at home.’ She alternated between Christmas with her parents in Devon, and Christmas at home with Bob and Val coming over.
‘But Chris’s parents are off to the Caribbean this year.
Apparently some friends are celebrating their ruby wedding anniversary and have invited their closest pals to share a villa with them. ’
‘Wow, alright for some.’ Faith shook her head. ‘I say that, but I wouldn’t swop Christmas in the Lakes for the beach.’ She gave Gabby a cheeky smile. ‘Unlike our Gabby.’
‘That was in the days when I was single.’ Before she’d met Owen, Gabby had hated Christmas and usually jetted off to the sun to escape it.
‘Now you’re married and besotted.’ Faith gave Gabby a wink before turning back to Anna. ‘So will you be going back to Devon this year?’
‘I suppose I could.’ Anna sighed, playing with her wine glass. ‘But Maisie doesn’t really enjoy it. She’s not close to my parents because she hardly sees them, and she finds it all a bit boring.’
‘How about coming to the hotel for Christmas?’ Faith reached across and patted her hand. ‘We’d love to have you both. And Nip and Tuck would go crazy to have their best pal around for Christmas.’
‘Really? There’s room?’
Faith rolled her eyes. ‘There’s always room for you and Maisie.
’ She darted a look at Gabby. ‘Hey, why don’t you and Owen come, too?
You know how fabulous Christmas is at the Old Mill.
Did I tell you about the time that it snowed so badly we ended up taking in all these waifs and strays, like a scene out of a nativity?
There was the pregnant lady, the sheep farmer who lives opposite, who I like to think of as the shepherd . . .’
As Faith began to tell the tale she somehow managed to get into every conversation around this time of year, Anna’s phone began to vibrate. She’d left it on the table, as she always did, in case Val and Bob had a problem with Maisie. Quickly she snatched it up.
Then drew in a sharp breath when she saw who was phoning.
Faith paused her monologue. ‘Everything all right?’
‘It’s not Val, if that’s what you mean.’ Her pulse began to race as she gripped the buzzing phone. ‘It’s Dan.’
Both her friends’ faces split into a pair of huge grins. ‘Well, flipping answer it then.’
* * *
Dan couldn’t say for certain why he was phoning Anna. He’d told himself it was to thank her for giving him the push to do something about Max, but in his heart he knew that was an excuse.
Somehow he’d not been able to get her out of his head.
‘Dan?’