Page 97 of A Chef's Kiss for Christmas

Warren caught her eye from beside the coffee machine, but he looked away again quickly.

“It snowed even more,” Josh said, his bright blue eyes boring into her.

“Did it?”

“Yes. I’m going to play in the snow later.”

“That sounds like fun,” she told him.

Selena ended her call and looked over at her son. “You can’t play in the snow until the heating is fixed. You’ll never warm up again.”

“I don’t care,” he said. “I’ll just be a snowman.”

Anna smiled at his adorably cheeky grin.

“Do you want coffee?” Warren asked, clearly speaking to her, despite keeping hisback to her.

“No,” she replied curtly. She was actually dying for a cup, but didn’t feel like accepting anything from him after his abrupt departure earlier.

“Tea?” he asked, finally turning.

This time it was her who refused to make eye contact.

“I think I’m going to go outside and have a look at the snow,” she said, aiming the remark at Josh – the only person in the room she could bear to converse with.

His eyes lit up. “Can I come?”

“You’ll have to ask your mum,” she told him, then turned on her heel and left the kitchen to the sound of Selena arguing with Josh – and Tamara joining in too.

After pulling on her boots and coat, she headed for the back door and ignored Warren when he called out to her. This time the door slamming had nothing to do with the wind, and she didn’t feel a smidge of remorse about it.

Alone in the winter wonderland that was the back garden, she inhaled the icy air and let her gaze linger on the fresh layer of glistening snow piled up on every surface. The tree branches were impossibly loaded, and there was a calmness about the scene, which she hoped she could absorb.

“Anna!” Warren called from the patio, making her stop and turn. The patio door stood open behind him, and he was pulling on his coat. At the sight of him, any calmness she’d achieved was washed away by a surge of anger.

Without a lot of thought, she scooped up snow and squished it into a ball between her hands. She threw it directly at him.

Surprise flashed in his eyes as he narrowly dodged the snowball. Taking advantage of him being off guard, she grabbed more snow and took aim again. This time, he raised an arm to block it, and it hit his forearm with a satisfying thwack.

“What’s that for?”

“I think you know what it’s for?” She gathered more snow. “And I think you know you deserve it.”

This time when she threw, she got him on the shoulder, and he winced at the shower of snow that fluttered over his neck.

As she laughed, Anna felt immediately lighter.

“Don’t you dare!” she shrieked when he bent to collect snow himself.

He made a show of pressing the snow into a compact ball, and Anna had no doubt about his aim. With a peal of laughter, she turned to run as he drew his arm back. Her boot refused to grip on the icy ground, and she felt herself slip about a second before the snowball hit her on the back of the head.

The ground came up to meet her in a blur, and the shock of the snow on her face made her gasp. Her brain seemed to shut down, and she lay face down in the snow with laughter bubbling inside her.

“Anna!” Warren’s hand on her arm got her moving, and she rolled onto her back, blinking snow from her eyes to stare up at him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling beside her and brushing snow from her face.

“I’m fine,” she said happily.