Page 57 of A Heart to Find
What could she do but open her mouth to receive his offer?
It was the polite thing to do!
Wrapping her lips around the fork, she closed her eyes in ecstasy. Notes of cinnamon and maple burst in her mouth, and she fought the temptation to call the waitress over to change her order.
“Isn’t that better?” he teased, serving himself a generous bite. “Don’t try to pretend that carbs aren’t the true love of your life.”
He looked so smug, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Hey, I could have changed you know.”
He shrugged and offered her another bite. She hesitated. But it looked so good and her belly overruled her good sense, so she leaned in for a bite, laughing around the fork when her swinging hair caught a drip of maple syrup as it fell.
She thanked him around an extra large bite and tried to wipe the sticky goodness out of her hair.
“You’ll smell like maple for the rest of the day,” Jared teased. “Maybe we can find a breakfast-for-dinner place, too.”
“Not the worst idea you’ve ever had…”
“Remember the days when we thought we were so sophisticated because we were having picnics by the river with our loaves of French bread and hunks of cheese?”
She smiled over her cup of hot cocoa. “And don’t forget the non-alcoholic fizzy stuff in the fancy bottles.”
“Of course. And how you’d act so giddy as if you were drunk from the bubbles.”
Her smile threatened to split her face in two. Images of him pulling her to a stand to dance by the setting sun with no music other than the drumming of their hearts played through her mind like an old-fashioned silent movie. Pulling her close for a kiss when the only urgency was the need to feel as though they were one person in their bubble of love. The way he’d text her as soon as she closed her door at the end of the night so she’d know he was missing her already.
Young love.
Irreplaceable.
Foolish, yes. But she couldn’t help but feel that familiar giddiness at the memory of having lived it.
“Nice mustache, Mr. Keira Holden.”
Jared’s smile was more teasing than nostalgic, and it took her a moment to float back to the present day and to realize he was making fun of her for a whipped cream mustache.
She licked away what she could, making silly eyes as she did so, and then blotted with her napkin to take away the rest.
“There’s no shame in thoroughly enjoying a cup of cocoa,” she admonished playfully. “Especially this. I’ve never had anything more delicious.”
He winked and nodded. “The only place that comes close to rivaling it is a tiny village chocolate shop in Belgium. You want to talk about hot cocoa that can transport you out of this world—this place has it. And this,” he held his cup up in front of him, “tastes almost exactly like it.”
“It’s so neat to think about how foods and drinks can vary around the world. I want to hear more.” She pushed her plate aside and leaned on her elbows. “Take me on a culinary adventure.”
And he did.
He gushed about the khichdi he had in India with its delicious pairing of lentils and rice. The fresh fish stew in Ireland. The curry in London. The peking duck in China.
“You won’t eat lobster but you’ll eat cute little quack-quack ducks?” She feigned horror and laughed at his expression.
“You’re sounding like a true kindergarten teacher now,” he joked.
“Okay, sorry. Tell me more.” The way his face lit up, she could watch him talk about the food he had experienced around the world all day.
He went on to describe the pelmeni dumplings he had made a special trip back to a food market in Russia to taste again. The koshari a family in Egypt had made him when he missed a bus and found himself stranded.
“And honestly, I haven’t been able to find anyplace that makes pho as well as this one tiny restaurant on an out-of-the-way Vietnam street. Would never have found it if I hadn’t embraced the notion of getting lost in every new place I visit.”
