Page 101 of A Chef's Kiss for Christmas

She nodded. “This feels like a really pointless conversation.”

“I’m sorry.” He squeezed his eyes closed, and she waited for him to say more, but he stayed quiet.

“Do you know what’s funny?” she said, unclipping her seatbelt and shifting to face him. “When I first met your family, you seemed nothing like them, but now the similarities are showing.”

She caught his puzzled look, but didn’t wait for him to question her before she continued. “If something makes them uncomfortable, they ignore it and avoid talking about it. Apparently, you do the same.”

She reached for the door handle and stepped out of the car. After grabbing her bag from the back seat, she returned to the open passenger door. “In case you’re wondering, it meant something to me. But I take it from your unwillingness to even have a conversation about it that the feeling isn’t mutual.” Tears stung her eyes, and a lump rose in her throat. “I’ll see you around.”

She closed the door with too much force.

Apparently, over the last twenty-four hours, she’d become someone who slammed doors.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she fumbled with her keys. Warren called out to her, but she ignored him and pushed through the door into the stairwell. It didn’t click behind her, so she wasn’t surprised when he called out to her again.

Continuing up to the first floor, she hastily wiped at her cheeks and dropped her bag on the doormat. Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and she’d just got the key in the lock when Warren took her elbow and turned her to face him.

“I’m sorry. I’m an idiot, okay.” Brushing his thumbs over her cheeks, he pushed her tears away. “I’m terrible at this stuff, but of course it meant something to me.”

“Then why did you jump out of bed as though you were being attacked? And why wouldn’t you talk about it?”

His hands remained cupping her face. “Because you’re my best friend’s sister, and a few days ago, I swore to Lewis that I only saw you as a friend.”

“Was it the truth?”

His chest expanded as he inhaled. “I don’t know if I was lying to him or lying to myself. In my head, I thought we could keep things platonic. I didn’t even let myself imagine you’d want anything else.”

“Do you want things to stay platonic?”

He tilted his head. “No. But it’s complicated. I need to speak to Lewis.”

“You could have said that before.” She pressed her lips together and tasted the salt from her tears.

“I could, but I freaked out, and obviously I’m not great at communicating.”

“Obviously,” she said, managing a smile. “I can talk to Lewis. He won’t care, though.”

Warren shook his head. “I need to talk to him.”

“Okay.” She leaned her head, pressing her cheek into his hand. “Why don’t you speak to Lewis, and when he tells you he doesn’t have an issue with you dating his sister, you can call me and ask me out on a date?”

“Yeah.” His thumb grazed her jaw. “I like that plan.”

“Good.”

“Good,” he repeated, but didn’t make any move to leave.

“Are you going to kiss me again? Or do you need permission from my brother first?”

He shot her a mock scowl, then leaned in and kissed her softly.

Chapter Forty-One

When her phone rang on Thursday afternoon, Anna jumped for it – fully expecting it to be Warren. Disappointment squeezed at her chest when it wasn’t his name on the screen.

She contemplated not answering, but she’d already ignored one call from Hayden. She may as well find out what he wanted.

“Hi,” she said, thinking that if he was calling to talk about what he’d said to her at the party about wishing they hadn’t split up, he had exceptionally bad timing.