She grinned at him. “Do you know that song was playing in my head during our balloon ride?”
“Really?” Quentin paused to consider the lyrics, which she’d forced him to memorize years ago after they saw the movie together—also against his will. “I can see that. It fits.”
“Perfectly.”
They smiled at each other.
Sobering after another moment, Lexi said, “What I’ve been trying to get at is that I need a change of scenery.”
Quentin’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
She sighed. “I think it may be time for me to leave Atlanta.”
Quentin went still. “Leave…Atlanta?”
She nodded slowly. “Don’t get me wrong. Ilovethe A-T-L. It’s my home, always will be. But there are a lot of painful memories here for me. Everywhere I look, I see reminders of demons I need to exorcise. Even this house feels like a prison sometimes,” she admitted, casting a troubled glance around the large gourmet kitchen. It was her favorite room in the house she’d once shared with her ex-husband, a sales executive she’d met at a nightclub several years ago.
Quentin frowned darkly. “I’ve told you to move, but you refuse.”
“I know. And you’re probably right. Ishouldmove. But I used to love this house, and I keep telling myself that if I’m patient, I’ll feel that way again someday.” She smiled wanly. “If only starting over were as simple as getting a new haircut and replacing my marriage bed.”
Something inscrutable flickered in Quentin’s eyes before he glanced down, absently peeling the label off his water bottle. “If you left Atlanta,” he said in a low voice, “where would you go?”
“I don’t know.” Setting aside her empty plate, Lexi drew her knees up to her chest. “Colby and Summer have been begging me to join them in New York for years. They share an apartment, but they said we could get a bigger one if I moved in with them.” She shrugged. “It might be fun to live under the same roof as my siblings again.”
“What about your job?”
“There are other Le Cordon Bleu schools around the country, so I could easily transfer to any one of them. Honestly, with my credentials, I could teach just about anywhere.” She paused. “Maybe even France.”
Quentin’s head snapped up.“France?”
“Sure, why not? I went to a French culinary school. I love the food, speak the language.” She smiled. “Maybe I’d move to Burgundy and open my own café, something cozy where I could work on my cookbooks when it’s not busy. Maybe Asha would let me rent a room in her château.”
“Wow,” Quentin said softly. “Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought, Lex.”
“Not before today,” she admitted. “But on the drive home from Mom’s I had time to reflect, do some soul searching.”
“Soul searching,” Quentin repeated without inflection.
She nodded.
Hazel eyes probed hers. “Was there anything else you…searched your soul about?”
Lexi held his gaze for a long, charged moment. “Not really,” she lied.
A shadow crossed his face.
Silence lapsed between them. Stretched uncomfortably.
Quentin was the first to break it. “Well, I should go,” he murmured, rising to his feet. “Got some briefs to look over.”
“Of course.” Lexi swallowed reflexively. “I’ll walk you out.”
She hopped down from the counter, prepared to follow him out of the room.
Without warning Quentin turned around.
Before she could react, he cupped her face between his big hands and crushed his mouth to hers. She gasped, the heat of his lips sending electric shockwaves through her system. Her hands jerked up to his chest to push him away, but her body overrode the mental command and her arms slid around his neck instead. He growled deep in his throat, the primitive sound igniting her blood.
