Page 49 of You Had Me at Chocolate

Jude heard the door open at eight thirty and called, “In the kitchen.”

Clementine appeared in the doorway moments later looking tired but relaxed in dark blue jeans and a hot pink sweater that was all fuzzy and fluffy with a row of very distracting little pearly white buttons down the front.

He was thankful he hadn’t seen her before she’d gone for dinner. He’d have thought about nothing else other than how much he wanted to pop them open and strip her out of it…

Which was why the phone call he’d received earlier was a good thing.

“How was your meal?” he asked, returning his attention to what he was doing and not the sweater.

She sighed. “Lovely. I’m stuffed full.”

“You had dessert?”

“Of course.” The duh in her voice made him smile. “I had the brownie and your bark looked and tasted awesome.”

“Thanks.” He glanced up, keeping his eyes trained on her face. “I was happy with how it turned out.”

“And everyone was talking about your Cinderella carriage display across the foyer.”

He grinned. “I was really pleased with how that turned out.”

It had been his most elaborate so far as he warmed up his artistic skills for the grand extravaganza in three weeks. Yesterday, he’d met with Sage from Copper Mountain Chocolates and Viv from Delish and they’d been strategizing their windows, bouncing ideas off each other so Marietta could put its best foot forward in the competition.

“Did you see the latest notes I left for you?” She tipped her chin toward the orange plastic document folder she’d placed on the counter under the microwave overhang before she’d left for the hospital earlier.

“I did, thank you. I’m definitely going to be doing something with that bison pot roast recipe.”

“I thought that might appeal to the carnivore in you,” she said with a smile as she pushed off the doorway. “What are you doing there?”

Jude dropped his gaze to the multiple dots of chocolate on cooking paper as she drew closer. “Edwin was approached by a guy who wants to propose to his girlfriend on Friday night. The thing is, she’s severely visually impaired and he asked if we could somehow create a chocolate dessert in braille that spells out will you marry me.”

“Oh,” she said breathily as she pulled up beside him. “That is so cool.”

“It is.” The fuzz from her sweater brushed his arm and Jude realized how close they were standing, their hips almost pressing together.

“Is that the phrase there?” she asked, pointing at a piece of paper near his elbow.

“Yep. That’s, will you marry me in braille. And now I just have to work out what’s the best medium and chocolate consistency and required proportions to deliver the message with accuracy. There are braille molds you can buy but hand scripting is so much more personal, don’t you think?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

Jude made the fatal mistake of glancing at her as she glanced at him, smiling a smile that was full of admiration and her fuzzy arm was brushing his and he fought the urge to drop his head and place a kiss on those upturned lips. God knew he wanted to.

More than that it felt like the most natural thing to do standing here in her kitchen, side by side. He returned her smile.

“I suppose you’ve had a few proposal requests over the years like this?”

Dragging his eyes off her, Jude went back to squeezing warm chocolate from the piping bag. “Oh god, yes.”

“What’s the most memorable?”

Her gaze was hot on his knuckles as she followed his movements and Jude gripped the bag a little firmer as he continued his piping.

“A few months after Hey Jude opened, a guy asked us to bake one of our signature fortune cookies and slip the ring inside after which we managed just fine. The cookie was put on the plate and brought out at the end of the meal as arranged. The fortune strip had will you marry me on it and it was sitting on the plate, not inside the cookie. The plan was that she’d read the strip and he’d tell her to crack the cookie.”

“Oh dear,” she murmured. “This isn’t going to end well is it?”

Jude smiled as he piped. “It did not. Before he could say anything there was a bit of a commotion at the front of the restaurant which grabbed everyone’s attention and while everyone was gawking at it, she popped the cookie in her mouth and crunched into it.”

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