Page 117 of A Chef's Kiss for Christmas

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 Ihad 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?”