They walked back to the entrance, where Mitch’s Christmas trees were being snapped up and Nathan was able to direct someone to the Christmas tree farm as they wanted to select their own. And when both admitted they’d put a tree in their accommodation in the city, Amelia laughed. ‘I had no intention of doing so. I figured there would be so many to admire around Manhattan.’
‘Same here. I was going to make do with enjoying the tree in the communal lounge and the other in the dining room, but Scarlett was having none of it.’
‘Kyle hasn’t always had the best Christmases and I thought perhaps we both needed it.’
‘Why do you need it?’
‘Long story.’ She looked away as they walked across the street. ‘Why don’t we go to the café? Never mind your feet, my fingers are cold even through these gloves.’
‘New York winters are a shock to the system,’ he agreed. ‘I’ve heard February is worse.’
‘Still hoping for snow though,’ she smiled.
Seated in Marlo’s and welcomed by a woman called Enid who wanted to know their connection with the town, they ordered a couple of coffees and passed on any food when she offered and so she left them to it. ‘I’m hoping to take Scarlett for an Italian meal tonight, if it’s not too dull for her to go out with her old man. She might get a better offer.’
Amelia sipped her coffee tentatively but it was way too hot yet. ‘Are you asking me if Kyle already has plans?’
‘I suppose I am.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll keep him busy and I think he’ll be knackered anyway after working at the farm. I’m pretty tired myself after the early start, so I’m planning on Chinese takeaway from the place Cleo recommended. I’m going to eat it out of those quintessentially New York white cardboard boxes with the little metal handles.’
‘Sounds better than my idea. Maybe sitting in a swanky restaurant with my teen could be a step too far.’
‘Are you inviting yourself?’
‘I promise I wasn’t. And as much as Scarlett wants to see Kyle, she wouldn’t want me hanging around.’
‘Maybe another time.’ She was disappointed. Having adult company was nice. She hadn’t realised how taxing it would be emotionally to spend a lot of time not only with a teen but worrying about him too. Having Nathan there as a buffer and Kyle distracted with Scarlett would be a complete break from it all. Plus, Nathan was good company. And not bad to look at either. Cleo had been teasing her this morning about how long she’d chatted with him at the inn, but she had so much to focus on right now, getting involved would only complicate things.
He relaxed against the back of his chair. ‘Tell me then, why do you need to get away from it all?’
‘A couple of reasons.’ Her coffee was still too hot to hide behind so she settled for clasping her hands around it instead.
‘I’m a good listener, promise.’ He held up a hand to stop her listing all the examples of this not being the case at all. ‘Try me.’
‘I went through a breakup six months ago. Since then I’ve been a bit all over the place.’
‘You don’t seem the type of person to fall apart.’
‘I wouldn’t say I fell apart, but I’d been with Paul for five years and I really thought he was the one. He’s a few years older than me, he was more settled than anyone else I’d ever been out with, he had his own place, he wasn’t a lad who was going to cheat. I’d had that experience once before.’
‘What went wrong?’
‘I still don’t know. He said we wanted different things. To me, we wanted the same, but clearly somewhere along the line I got my wires crossed. He also thought I put everyone else first, before him.’
‘And did you?’
‘Sometimes, yes.’
‘Have you seen him since?’
‘No. I moved out of his place, back to my flat after I gave my tenants notice, and slowly I’ve been getting back to normal. But it was what you might call an abrupt breakup. Usually there’s a more specific reason or there’s an affair. I still don’t feel as though I fully understand why he ended it.’ She grinned and shook her head. ‘Would you listen to me? You’d think I was the only person who’d ever been dumped. He gave me his reasons, perhaps I’m just choosing not to see them properly.’
‘You need to talk to him again, find out for sure. Then you can move on.’
‘I don’t know, maybe it’s better to be ignorant.’
‘Give me your phone, I’ll message him.’
