Chapter One

      “Good morning, pretty ladies. I come bearing gifts on this picture-perfect spring day,” Damon says mock-formally, and bows. He steps through the doorway of the Gingerbread Café, brandishing an almighty postal tube like a sword. My heartbeat quickens at the sight of him. His wavy hair is lit by the sunshine behind casting a golden glow over him, like a spotlight.

      My only employee, CeeCee, fluffs her curls, before giving him a great big launch hug that nearly knocks him off his feet and makes him groan with delight. She’s a big bundle of southern exuberance, and is more like a friend and mother-figure to me.

      “And pray tell, what is it?” she asks, pointing to the plain white packaging.

      “Well, it’s not a shrilling turkey, let’s just say that.” He winks.

      I smile and glance over at the cash register where the God-awful bright yellow shrilling turkey he gave me at Christmas sits, like a mascot.

      Damon walks to me and lands a soft kiss on my cheek. Woozy, that’s how I feel when he’s near me. I go jelly-legged and google-eyed, not my best look. It’s so easy to get lost staring at his face, his lips. I fight the urge to launch myself at him too. Who knew love could feel like this? A dreamy, intoxicating, passion-fest.

      “Go on, open it,” he says.

      Taking the proffered tube, I shake it gently. “Any guesses, Cee?”

      “Can’t rightly say.” She smirks, and fiddles with her long pearly necklace.

      “Oh, so you were in on this surprise?”

      Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “No idea what you talking about.”

      “No?” I say, amused. “You look a picture of innocence, Cee.” I upend the tube and prise out the contents. A roll of shiny bronze foil flashes under the lighting. Unwrapping a length, I see tiny brown gingerbread men with cute button noses and licorice-colored eyes smile up at me. “You two!” I say, not managing to stop the silly jump-clap dance I do when I’m excited. Under each gingerbread man it says in elegant miniature cursive: Easter at the Gingerbread Café.

      “We thought your chocolate eggs would look mighty nice wrapped up in personalized foil,” Damon says, grinning. “And CeeCee suggested incorporating the gingerbread men.”

      “This is going to be the prettiest chocolate Ashford has ever seen!” I immediately want to wrap up an egg to see what they’ll look like. It makes me giddy to think how far we’ve come. When I first opened the café, it was just me, a tray of gingerbread men, and a never-ending pot of percolated coffee.

      We have big plans for Easter this year. We set to work, just over a month ago, making all sorts of chocolate eggs, from simple oval shapes, to large bunnies with long ears. The range was so popular we tried making other sorts of chocolates, like ganache-filled truffles, chocolate ginger fudge, and chocolate candied oranges, anything we could, to see if they’d work and there was a market for it. Not all of it’s fancy; mostly it’s just good quality sweets baked from scratch.

      Sarah from the corner bookshop suggested we hold a chocolate festival over Easter. She thought it would be a great way to draw some new faces into Ashford. It’s such a small community and the last year has been tough for so many of the local businesses.

      We had an impromptu meeting with the owners of the shops along our street, and decided a chocolate festival would be the perfect excuse to celebrate Easter, and give all our shops a boost. We’ve advertised in all the surrounding towns, and the response so far has been overwhelming. Out-of-towners have already begun to visit Ashford. Some come purely to stick their noses in, others to stock up on books, or hardware, not knowing Ashford has everything you need if you just look hard enough.

      All the shopkeepers are excited to show their wares in the best light. Sarah has a famous author dropping by to do a reading at her bookshop. Damon has cheese-making classes and a cooking demo planned. The local hardware shop is involved; they’re going to do a sixty-minute session on how to build a basic cubby house for kids. Someone’s roped in a band to play folk music throughout the day. And the chocolate festival will be set up in the middle of the main road, so people can go between tables sampling chocolate in all its glorious forms, before heading into shops for the activities.

      Sarah has been a driving force, helping print pamphlets and distributing them. She’s set up a Facebook page to help garner interest. Needless to say, she pops over most days to see what we’re concocting. We ply her full of chocolaty goodness, and watch her face for a reaction. Ginger is still a prominent fixture in some of our recipes, but it’s been fun molding, and sculpting chocolate into submission.