How to Get Over Your Ex by Nikki Logan Read Free Book Online Page A

are we having?’
    ‘We could start your cooking lesson tonight. Something
informal.’
    ‘I live miles from here.’
    He smiled. ‘I don’t.’
    And just like that— bam! —she was
sober. Zander Rush was taking her back to his place. To feed her. To teach her
to make food. Something about that seemed so...intimate.
    ‘You know what?’ she lied. ‘I have some things to do tonight
before work tomorrow. I think maybe I should just head home.’
    ‘What about food?’
    If she was clear-headed enough to lie she was clear-headed
enough to catch the tube. ‘We’re one block from the station.’
    His smile grew indulgent. ‘I know. You drove us here.’
    ‘It’s on the same line as Kew Gardens. I used to catch it home
all the time.’ So she knew it well.
    ‘At least let me walk you to the station, then.’
    She shot to her feet. ‘That would be lovely, thank you.’
    He shook his head. ‘Still so courteous.’
    She shrugged. ‘Old-school upbringing.’
    ‘Traditional parents?’
    Her laugh was more of a bark. ‘Definitely not. My gran raised
me mostly. To give me some stability. My mother really wasn’t...well
adapted...to parenting.’
    He threw her a sideways look. ‘I’m the youngest of six to older
parents so maybe we were raised by a similar generation?’
    It took just a few minutes to walk down to the station and
something in her speech or her steady forward movement or her riveting, non-stop
chatter about her childhood must have convinced him she was fine to be left
alone because he didn’t try and stop her again.
    He paused by the white entry gate. ‘Well...’
    ‘You’ll be in touch?’
    ‘Casey will. My assistant.’
    Of course. He had minions.
    ‘She’ll pull together a schedule for the next few months, to
get us started.’
    ‘So...I guess I’ll see you at the first one, then.’
    ‘Remember, we’ll be strangers as far as anyone else is
concerned. I’m just your shadow. I won’t even acknowledge you when I
arrive.’
    Weird. But better. If they were doing these things together
she’d just get too comfortable. And that wasn’t a good idea, judging by how
comfortable she’d been for the past few hours. ‘I’ll remember. See you
then.’
    She stepped towards the ticket gate, then turned back and
smiled. ‘Thanks for letting me drive the Jag.’
    ‘Any time.’
    Georgia waved again and then disappeared into the station.
Zander turned and jogged across the pedestrian crossing, then ducked down the
commercial lane that led to the back of the garden of his nearby house where
they’d parked the Jag. Except she thought they just got lucky with a street park
convenient to his favourite bar, not parking in front of his house.
    He was really out of practice. Who took a woman to a bar, then
drank so that he couldn’t drive her home? Who let a woman ride the tube alone at
night?
    A man who was trying really hard not to feel as if he was on a
date, that was who.
    He’d first caught himself back at his office when she’d thrust
her hand out so professionally and he’d felt a stab of disappointment. What did
he expect, a kiss on each cheek? Of course she was all business. This
was...business.
    And this was just an after-hours work meeting. He’d almost
sabotaged himself by inviting her back to his house to eat, but it had just
tumbled from his lips. The old Zander never would have let so many hours pass
without taking care to make sure they’d both eaten. It had been a long time
since the new Zander came along. This Zander had perfectly defined business
muscle but it had come at the expense of social niceties.
    Any muscle would atrophy without use.
    And then the coup de grâce. Any
time . He could have said ‘you’re welcome’ or ‘think nothing of it’
but he went with ‘any time’. As though there’d be a repeat performance.
    He pushed through the gate to his property and started down the
long, winding path between the extensive gardens to the conservatory.
    Clearly something