Page 16 of Alex

The shop was divided into two with sweets and desserts on one side and loaves of bread on the other. Directly opposite the entrance was a counter that sold coffee, hot chocolate, and tea. Six or so tables and chairs were dotted around, with low comfortable chairs around coffee tables in the windows.

They were led to the back and a table and chairs where Delphine took their orders. “Alex, my sweet boy what can we get you and your lady?” she asked her French accent strong with excitement as she laid smiling eyes on Evelyn.

“I’ll have a hot chocolate and one of your Rum Babas.” His warm smile spoke of the affection between them.

“That sounds good. I’ll have the same,” Evelyn said with a smaller but still friendly smile.

She watched as Delphine bustled off to get their drinks and cakes before turning her attention to Alex who she noted was already watching her. “They are lovely people,” she said softly.

“Yeah they are.” He glanced at them. “When pop died four years ago, I took it hard. They were there for me and filled a void that I hadn’t known was left,” he said with a frankness that startled Evelyn. The revelation that Alex had lost his father hit her hard.

“I’m so sorry, Alex. I didn’t know,” she whispered over the lump in her throat.

Mr Martinez had always been sweet to her. A quiet man with a big heart and quick wit he had always made her feel like she was family right from the day she had met him until the last time she had seen him. A carpenter by trade, he had made her a small wooden jewellery box for her sixteenth birthday. The detail and exquisite mastery turned it from a simple box into something of exceptional beauty. She had treasured it and she wondered sadly what had happened to it.

“You couldn’t have known I don’t suppose,” he said, and she could tell by his tone that he wondered if she could have.

Maybe he did put some blame at her door, and he would be right, but it was done, and she couldn’t change that.

“Alex,” she started but Delphine arrived with their cake and drinks and interrupted what she was about to say.

“Two hot chocolates and two Rum Babas,” she said placing them on the table between them.

Evelyn tore her eyes from the guarded look in Alex’s eyes and smiled although she knew it didn’t reach her eyes. “Thank you! These look delicious.”

Delphine practically beamed under her praise. “My Thomas, he is the best pastry chef in France.” Her pride and love for her husband shone through her voice. The look she shot him over her shoulder as he looked at her with so much love made her feel as if she was intruding on something private.

“Delphine, I thought you said I was?” Alex said with an affectionate wink at the older woman that made Evelyn jealous that it was not aimed at her.

She realised with a jolt that she had missed the warmth and security she had felt from being in his orbit. He had a way with him that made people comfortable and he wasn’t afraid to show he cared, never had been. She thanked God he hadn’t lost that.

“Now, my Alex, you are second best,” Delphine said on a laugh as she placed her hand on Alex’s shoulder.

Evelyn watched as he put his hand on hers and squeezed gently. “Okay, Delphine, second to Thomas is good enough for me,”

“I leave you now. Enjoy.” She dropped a kiss on Alex’s cheek and headed to another table.

The air was stilted, and she had no idea what to say. For so long she had been confident wearing her persona of Siren, never having a situation out of her control and yet now Alex was peeling back the façade leaving her exposed and she felt vulnerable and yet safe. How could one man illicit so many feelings at once? She was pondering this while she took a bite of the Rum Baba and then the thought was gone as she had a climax of the taste buds. The groan left her mouth involuntarily as the sweet taste hit her.

“Oh my God,” she groaned, and her eyes rolled back in her head.

The thick bark of laughter from Alex made her open her eyes and see him with his head thrown back, the arch of his throat in her vision, the sexy curve of his Adam’s apple the luxurious warmth of his humour and then he looked at her and all the air left her in a whoosh.

She was still as in love with him now as she was the day she left him, and he would probably never forgive her when he found out why she had left. Why she had walked away of her own free will leaving a hole in his heart as big as the one left in hers.

His hazel eyes seemed to darken with desire and something else. She knew the time was coming when he would demand answers to the questions she could see in his eyes. Answers that he deserved but ones she was not sure she could give him.

“Still my sweet Evelyn and yet not,” he murmured as he sipped his hot chocolate.

“I’m not sure I was ever sweet,” she replied taking a sip of the sweet chocolatey liquid before licking her lips nervously.

Alex drew in a breath as his eyes followed her tongue before abruptly standing and hauling her from her seat. “Time to go,” he said with an authority that made her body liquify just as her heart began to pound.

It was time to pay the piper!