Page 17 of Baby It's Cold Outside

“So you’d offer me a job if you opened a new restaurant?”

“Maybe. Though I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do yet.” For a moment, her eyes were filled with sadness. “One of the reasons I came here, as well as to help Betty out, was to take a break from London. So I’d have somewhere different to get my head together and think about what to do next.”

“You said your partner bought you out of the restaurant?”

She nodded. “Jeff wasn’t just my business partner. We met at catering college, and got married a couple of years before we bought the restaurant. I thought it was what we both wanted. But.” She sipped her wine. “I guess it was the seven-year itch.”

“The seven-year itch?” Mitch asked softly.

“He fell out of love with me and in love with one of our clients.”

Ellie’s voice was neutral, but her eyes gave her away. She’d clearly been devastated by the split. “That must’ve been rough on you,” he said.

She nodded. “But it was six months ago now, and I’ve had enough of the pity party. Jeff didn’t mean to hurt me. He couldn’t help falling in love with Miranda, and she couldn’t help falling in love with him.” She shrugged. “The divorce is through now. And I wish them both well.”

“That’s very mature of you.”

She took another sip of wine. “It’s the only way to think. Yes, it hurt when it happened, but it’s pointless being bitter about the situation. It’s not going to change anything. To be honest, Jeff and I were 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?”

&n

bsp; 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.”

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