Page 49 of A Chef's Kiss for Christmas

Frannie glared at him and hissed his name again.

“You weren’t asking good questions,” he told her. “I don’t understand what’s going on.” Again he looked at Anna. “You’re telling meyou’rethe one who hasn’t moved on, and you think we pityyou?”

Anna shrugged. “It always feels awkward when we’re all out together. That’s why I invited Warren.”

“But that makes no sense,” Jake said.

“I just thought if it looked as though I was with someone…”

“Yeah, yeah. I understand that bit.” He leaned forward, jutting his chin out. “What I don’t understand is how you got to the conclusion that we feel sorry for you. Because as far as I’m concerned, it’s Hayden who never moved on.” He looked at Frannie. “It’s Hayden we feel sorry for, right? I feel as though I’m in some weird parallel universe now.”

“Why would you feel sorry for Hayden?” Anna asked, eyes flicking between Frannie and Kylie while she waited for them to tell Jake he was confused.

“Because he never got over you,” Kylie said, as though it was obvious. “He’s practically a workaholic, and whenever we all meet up, he has to bring some random woman as a buffer.”

“No,” Anna said, her brain firing wildly.

“Yes!” Frannie argued. “Whereas you always turn up as though you haven’t got a care in the world. You even chat with his random dates as though it doesn’t bother you to see him with someone else. Plus, your business is booming, and you’ve been doing great since you two broke up. He’s just been a sad mess.”

Anna shook her head, trying to make sense of the conversation. “He was the one who broke up with me,” she pointed out. “He didn’t want to be with me any more.”

Her three friends stared at her, and she had the feeling she was missing something.

“But when he realised he’d made a massive mistake, you refused to take him back.” Kylie’s eyes sparkled. “Which I think is awesome, by the way. I wish I were that strong.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anna said. “He never wanted to get back together.” Her mind flashed back to the party and him saying he wished they’d never broken up. That was the first time she’d had any inkling that he regretted the breakup, and she’d put that down to alcohol and a spark of jealousy over seeing her with Warren.

“The girls told him not to say anything,” Jake said.

“You seemed to be doing well again,” Frannie said, a hint of apology in her words. “We didn’t want him to mess you about and hurt you all over again.”

“Okay,” Anna said slowly, not sure whether to be annoyed with them for interfering.

“But he spoke to you anyway, right?” Kylie asked, looking about as confused as Anna felt.

“Sort of. Maybe… do you mean at the party?”

“When you broke up,” Jake said. “Ages ago.”

Anna shook her head. “He didn’t say anything.”

“Hedid,” Jake insisted. “He told us he did.”

“I think I’d remember.” Anna also suspected she’d be back together with him if that conversation had taken place.

Jake stared at her. “He said you wouldn’t entertain the idea of getting back together. That you told him he’d hurt you and you didn’t even want to be friends with him. That you’d just be polite when we were all out for the sake of group dynamics.”

A shiver ran down Anna’s spine. “When is this conversation supposed to have taken place?”

Jake shrugged and looked at Frannie. “Eighteen months ago, right?”

“Probably,” Frannie said. “It was about six months after you broke up. You’d just set up your online shop and seemed to be doing well. That’s why we thought he should leave you alone.”

Silence fell, and Anna took a large swig of her wine as she tried to get everything straight in her head.

“Didhe try to get back with you?” Kylie asked as she watched Anna.

“I don’t know,” she said, rearranging a previous conversation in her head and trying to figure out if she could really have got it so wrong. “He invited me out for coffee one day,” she said as that morning played out in her head. “He said he was sorry that he’d messed things up and that he hated how things were between us. And that he missed me.”