“I thought you wanted to spend Christmas alone, Jon?” Archie asked.
“Plans change.” He shrugged. “The heating was out in Kit’s cabin, and so I offered her my second bedroom.”
“Ah yes,” his friend replied, not skipping a beat. “Howconvenient, that spare room.”
“Arch, I think it’s almost time,” a woman said, joining our group.
“Kit, this is my wife, Maddie,” he introduced.
Maddie gave me a quick greeting before her attention momentarily returned to her husband. “The kids are driving me nuts—” She cut herself short and directed a wild look back over to me. “Oh my God! Are you Kit Sinclair?!”
“Um…” I barely managed, my panicked gaze slipping to Jonah, his own brows raised as if caught off guard by the reaction.
To say I’d undersold the weight of my career to Jonah would be an understatement. It was hard. What was I supposed to say?Oh, actually I’m quite a big deal…
I had liked that he didn’t know, that I wasn’t a pretty thing for him to own. The way so many men treated me. I enjoyed being no one for him. Instead, I was a woman he’d met in a bar, somebody to share the holidays with. I didn’t want that to change.
Maddie took a deep breath before speaking again, a little calmer than before. “I’m sorry. That was very uncool. I shouldn’t be so loud, I’ve always admired your work.”
“Thanks.” I grinned, a little thankful she was no longer shouting. “It’s always good to meet a fan.”
I could sense Jonah’s body stiffening next to mine, as if trying to still himself from creating a distance between us. Was he mad at me?
Despite that, his hand still held mine, and slowly the grip began to ease, relaxing.
“I mean, last season’sVoguespread you did was incredible,” she continued. “You have such power on the catwalk. Everyyear, I want to come down for London Fashion Week but never actually make the journey.”
“Oh, I promise it’s incredibly overrated.” I shook my head. “Nothing but hangry models and demanding designers. Paris Fashion Week, however, that’s where it’s at.” I winked.
“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve been on at Arch for us to run off to Paris for the weekend.”
Her husband let out an exasperated sigh. “I told you, I’m more than happy to dump the kids at your mum’s for the weekend. You’re the one that feels bad.”
“Have you met our children? They are three little terrors. They’ll send my mother to an early grave. I don’t know how Jonah survives coaching them.”
I can’t help the grin. “You should do it. It’s a beautiful city.”
I managed to spare another look at Jonah, his expression more collected than it was, like with time he’d put it all together.
“Anyway, maybe we should get ready for the dip?” Archie nodded his head towards the loch.
“Absolutely,” Jonah replied. “We’ll see you over there.”
“Don’t take too long,” Maddie said, her voice playful as they walked away. “It’s so much easier running in as a group than watching everyone turn blue from the shore.” They headed back over, shouting marching orders at a group of three kids and trying to reclaim some control over the mob.
“So, are you ready to freeze?” Jonah asked, his voice lighter than I had expected.
I blinked, looking up at him strangely. Attempting to swallow down my discomfort, I asked, “Don’t you want to talk about what happened?”
He took a moment; for what, I didn’t know. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I stared at him, trying to figure out exactly how he felt, why he was so calm and collected. Why he wasn’t mad or freaking out.
“Is it a problem?” I asked. “About my job?”
He shook his head firmly. “Of course it’s not a problem. Why would it be?”
“I feel like I might have undersold everything,” I said, before joking, “I mean, a little.”
