'Tis the Season to Kiss Santa (Entangled Indulgence) by Kate Hardy Read Free Book Online Page A

always good friends, and maybe we should’ve stayed that way instead of getting together one night at a party. The next morning, we thought the choice was either stay together or lose the friendship—whereas maybe we should’ve just agreed to draw a line under what happened and just gone back to where we were before.”
    “It’s an easy mistake to make, mixing up friendship and love.”
    “You’ve done that?” she asked.
    He’d never been in love. He’d always kept himself slightly aloof from his past girlfriends, not wanting to repeat the damage of his childhood. “Not personally,” he admitted, “but I’ve seen others do it.” Uncomfortable with the subject, he changed it. “So have you got a short list of options? Things you’d like to do?”
    She shrugged. “I could open another restaurant, or start up a company specializing in desserts. Or I could maybe teach others how to do what I do—either at a catering college, or hold my own classes. Or even do it as a series of magazine articles. I’ve done a couple of interviews where the journalist brought a photographer along and they took shots of me making whatever. It was a lot of fun.”
    “And you’d do this in London?”
    Even as he said the words, Mitch knew that they sounded like an invitation.
    Was that his subconscious taking over? What he really wanted? For Ellie to stay and for him to get to know her better?
    “It doesn’t have to be London,” Ellie said. “Although technically at the moment I’m both homeless and jobless, Jeff bought me out, so I have enough money to make a bank serious about giving me the extra collateral I would need to set up a business. But it needs to be the right decision. I’m taking my time so I don’t make another mistake.”
    Did she mean in business, or personally?
    He knew it wasn’t a question he should ask. But he found himself looking her straight in the eye. “Was this a mistake?”
    She shook her head. “This was a Christmas gift.” She looked right back at him. “But is it just being offered for Christmas?”
    He’d asked her a tough question, so he could hardly complain that her question was tough. He blew out a breath. “I don’t know. On paper… You’re single, and so am I. So we could see where this thing takes us, for as long as you’re in the States.”
    “But?”
    Were his doubts that obvious? He grimaced. “I can’t promise you a long-term relationship. I’ve never done anything other than short-term.”
    “Why not?”
    He could change the subject again. Or he could be blunt and tell her that it was none of her business.
    Or he could tell her the truth. Speak of the thing he never, ever spoke about. Talk to the woman who’d judged him just a few short hours ago and found him wanting.
    Except now he was looking at the situation through different eyes and knew that yes, he had been wanting. Facing his past was the only way he was ever going to change that. Plus, this time, he knew that Ellie wasn’t going to judge, just as he hadn’t judged her. She was going to listen. Maybe she would tell him what she thought, in that direct English way of hers, but she’d listen first.
    “I hated living at home. Dad used to drink and Mom was always ‘walking into doors.’ There wasn’t a single day without a fight.” Even the memories put a lump in his throat. “I didn’t want that kind of life—or that kind of relationship—for me.”
    She reached across the table and squeezed his hand briefly. “I’m sorry. Have things between them gotten any better now you’re older?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t see them.”
    “Not ever?”
    She looked shocked. Not surprisingly, given how close she was to her family and the love that showed in her face when she spoke of them.
    Not all families were like his.
    And he didn’t want her to think that he was all bad. “I speak to them sometimes. I never forget birthdays or Christmas gifts.”
    “You just don’t want to go back there.”