Page 18 of Sweet Dreams at the Forever Home on Muddypuddle Lane (The Forever Home on Muddypuddle Lane #2)

Elijah surveyed the selection of sweet (ish) treats on the counter critically. They looked good enough to eat – but were they? He’d sampled so many, that he was now taste-blind, yet there were so many more he wanted to bake.

He was also exhausted, since it was gone nine p.m. and he’d been on his feet all day.

As soon as the shop had closed at its customary four o’clock, Elijah had popped into the salon and had a quick word with Kendra to check that Nora was okay, then he’d begun work on a whole new range of recipes, most of which he hadn’t had the necessary ingredients for, so he’d had to drive to the supermarket in Thornbury, and even they’d lacked a couple of items, so he’d had to do a mad dash to the health food shop in the precinct as well.

Then he’d set to, hoping he’d remembered everything.

Three and a half hours later, he had baked brownies, flapjacks, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter bombs, and he’d even made fudge. All of them with as little carbs and sugar as possible. Now all he had to do was to get someone to taste them and give him their verdict.

And he knew just the person.

The question he was currently asking himself was whether it was too late to go knocking on Nora’s door?

Possibly, but he didn’t want to wait. He was too wound up to leave it until tomorrow, and there was also the added problem that she mightn’t appreciate what he’d done. If that was the case, he’d prefer to have his efforts thrown back in his face in private, and not in the middle of the salon.

Making a decision, he boxed up a few of each and had just put the last of the selection into the box when his phone rang.

It was Andrea. He’d been hoping she’d call with an update on her dad. He’d sent her a text to say he was thinking of her, but hadn’t heard a peep from her until now.

‘How’s your dad?’ he asked immediately.

She sounded tired as she replied, ‘Not good. He’s fractured his hip, which I kind of suspected, and he needs an operation.

I expect he’ll be in hospital for a while.

In the meantime, I’ll try to get him a place in Honeymead, so when he is discharged, he can go there.

Whether that’ll be permanent, I don’t know.

What I do know, is that he’ll not be able to manage on his own for a long time – if ever.

I suppose we’ll have to see how it goes. ’

‘I’m so sorry, Andrea. As I said, if there’s anything I can do, anything you need…’

‘I hate to do this to you, but I’m going to need a fair bit of time off.’

‘No problem; I assumed that would be the case.’ How to staff the shop had been playing on his mind ever since she’d left earlier. He didn’t want to take anyone else on, but he might have to, even if it was temporary.

He’d think about that later, though.

For once, Elijah didn’t clean up after himself.

Although the kitchen wasn’t in too bad a shape considering the action it had seen this evening, it wasn’t up to his usual exacting standard.

Anything less than spotless was unacceptable, but this evening he was eager to get away.

He’d simply have to rise extra early tomorrow morning to give the place a good scrub before baking the first of the day’s loaves.

He didn’t mind. What he was about to do now, was far more important than grabbing a bit more sleep.

All he hoped was that Nora approved these new bakes, and he wasn’t about to make a complete fool of himself.

When Nora’s doorbell rang, she automatically checked the time. It was ten past nine, a bit late in the evening for uninvited guests, especially on a Monday, so before she answered it she peered through the spyhole. Then stepped back with a gasp when she saw Elijah standing there.

What did he want?

There was only one way to find out, so she opened the door. ‘Where were you today? Biscuit missed you.’ Damn, should she have told him that? It was better than what she’d almost said though, which was that she’d missed him.

‘Andrea wasn’t in. Um, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve brought you these.’ He held up a familiar-looking box.

Nora couldn’t begin to count the number of times she’d carried one of those white cardboard boxes from the bakery to the salon, careful not to jostle its sweet and usually gooey contents.

She glowered at him. ‘Is this your idea of a joke?’

‘No, of course not!’ He looked flustered now, the light from the hallway illuminating the sudden flush of colour on his cheeks.

‘I know you know, because Kendra told me.’

‘That’s why I’m here. I’ve been working on a batch of new recipes, and I thought you might like to try them.’

Nora snorted. ‘Dear lord, don’t you know that diabetics shouldn’t eat sweet stuff? And I’m trying to cut out carbs, too – and that means flour, in case you hadn’t realised. So no, I don’t want to try them. Sheesh!’

He held out the box to her. ‘The recipes I’ve been working on are suitable for diabetics – I hope. Can I come in? Please?’

‘You hope,’ she echoed flatly. ‘That’s not much help.’ She moved aside anyway and jerked her head. ‘Five minutes.’

When he sidled past her in the narrow hall, she smelt that familiar tantalising aroma of sugar and syrup which seemed to ooze out of his pores, and she ground her teeth together as the urge to kiss him swept through her.

Would he taste as sweet as he smelled, she mused, not for the first time.

She wouldn’t be surprised if he did, and wouldn’t that do wonders for her self-control?

Not. At the first taste, she’d want to gobble him up whole; either that, or devour every single thing in that box of his and beg for more.

He hovered in the hall by the door to the living room and she flapped a hand, urging him to go ahead of her, and kept flapping until he was safely inside so she didn’t have to squeeze past him again.

‘Well?’ she demanded, her hands on her ample hips. It struck her that she must look a mess in her fluffy pink pyjamas with equally fluffy pink slipper socks on her feet. And she dreaded to think what her hair was doing or how her face looked without any make-up.

She shouldn’t have answered the door. But it was too late now.

Elijah shuffled over to the dining room table that she rarely used, preferring to eat off a tray on her lap in front of the telly, and placed the box down gently. When he opened the lid, she caught another waft of forbidden deliciousness.

‘Hear me out,’ he began, before she had a chance to speak. ‘I’ve been doing some research, and I hope I’ve found some treats you can eat.’

Okay, now she was intrigued. ‘What sort of treats?’

‘After Kendra let slip that you’ve recently been diagnosed with diabetes – I’m sorry about that, by the way.’

‘My diagnosis, or that Kendra told you?’

‘Your diagnosis – although I hope you didn’t give Kendra a hard time, because it was an honest mistake.’

Nora wanted to growl at him, but she settled for a sharp, ‘I did not give Kendra a hard time.’

He smiled. She didn’t return it, and it soon subsided. ‘That’s a relief. I’d hate to think I was the cause of any trouble between you.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself.’

‘Anyway, I found a recipe for brownies that some famous doctor on the telly recommended, so I thought I’d give it a go since it’s supposed to be for people who want to control their blood glucose and also to lose weight – as part of a calorie-controlled diet, obviously.

I wouldn’t recommend eating six of them in one go. One would be enough.’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’

His expression told her that he wasn’t sure whether she was joking or not.

She wasn’t.

‘Do you want to know what’s in them?’ He picked up a small brown square and held it up.

‘Go on then, astound me.’

Elijah took a breath. ‘Almond flour – not wheat flour – coconut oil, eggs, dates, cacao nibs and cacao powder, plus a few other ingredients such as baking powder and salt.’ He held up a hand as she was about to speak.

‘The almond flour does contain carbs, but nowhere near the amount that normal flour has, and the cacao nibs are tiny, crushed pieces of cacao beans which is the purest form of chocolate. Apparently they’re a good source of antioxidants and contain loads of fibre.

As do the dates, which also give the brownies their sweetness – but don’t worry, dates are good for you,’ he added hurriedly. ‘Lots of fibre.’

Nora wrinkled her nose, unconvinced. It did look utterly yummy, but how could she trust that it wouldn’t send her blood glucose level rocketing?

Her GP had been adamant that she had to be very careful about what she put in her mouth, and she was fairly certain that brownies were on the naughty list.

‘I’ve checked the number of calories in each piece, as well as the carb content, fibre and protein,’ Elijah told her.

‘How did you do that?’

‘There’s an app you can download that’ll count the calories for you.’

That was news to Nora. Mind you, she’d never counted calories in her life, so it wasn’t surprising she hadn’t heard of it. ‘Show me.’

He already had his mobile in his hand. He passed it to her and she studied it in amazement.

‘Do you mind if I…?’ she asked.

‘Go ahead.’

As she worked her way around the app, she was amazed.

Gosh, this would be a game-changer. Yes, she’d still have to weigh and measure every sip and crumb that passed her lips (except for water), but she’d be able to see precisely the number of calories she was consuming, and all the sneaky carbs and sugar hidden in loads of different foods.

‘Wow…’ Despite herself, a smile spread across her face. Even if Elijah had brought forbidden food into her house, she would forgive him a hundred times because of this.

When she handed his phone back to him, she’d already decided to download the app, no matter the cost. Even if she had to live on leaves for the next month to afford it. Oh, wait a sec, leaves were exactly what she was living on!

‘Would you like to try a bite?’ Elijah broke off a morsel of brownie.

Nora snatched it out of his hand and stuffed it in her mouth. The burst of nutty chocolate sweetness made her groan in delight. ‘This is so good,’ she mumbled.

His face broke into a wide grin.

‘Can I have the rest of it?’

‘Don’t you want to try any of the others?’

Of course she did. And when he explained that the chocolate chip cookies were made with a small amount of eighty-five per cent dark chocolate and a nominal amount of artificial sweetener, and that the fudge was made with a decent portion of cream cheese, she was sold.

By the end of the tasting session, she was elated. ‘I can still have a treat now and again,’ she said, tears in her eyes. ‘Thank you so much.’

‘My pleasure. I mean it. I’ve had the best time this evening making these.’

‘Have you found your baking mojo again?’

‘I think I have.’

She beamed at him, and he beamed back. And suddenly she was in his arms and tasting him – and she wasn’t surprised to discover he tasted even better than anything that had come out of the little white box.

Nora’s eyes drifted shut as she lost herself in his embrace. His tongue found hers and her pulse pounded in her ears, her heart hammering so loudly that it drowned out the voice in her head advising caution as she lost herself to the kiss.

Elijah was the first to draw back. He was breathing hard and his eyes glittered. He dropped his gaze. ‘I didn’t mean for that to happen.’

‘Neither did I.’

‘I don’t want you to think—’

‘Don’t worry, I don’t,’ she interjected. To stop the tremble in her legs, she leant against the table and wrapped her arms around herself.

He swallowed, and she noticed that his jaw was tense as he rubbed a hand across his chin. She wanted to take that hand and put it on her breast. She wanted to kiss his neck, to run her fingers up underneath his tee shirt. She wanted to take him to bed and make love to him.

She did none of those things. ‘Thanks again for the cookies,’ she said, her voice stilted and formal.

‘You’re welcome.’ He sounded cold, a shock of chilled water dousing the heat of her desire. It was a clear rejection.

‘See you tomorrow at the kennels,’ she said. She needed him out of her house now, before she did something she’d regret.

Elijah gave her a long, steady stare. ‘No, I don’t think you will,’ he said.

Then he was gone, leaving her to spend the rest of the night and long into the morning wondering what he meant – when she wasn’t reliving the feel of his lips on hers.