Mason hadn’t spent as much time sculpting chocolate as he’d wished he could while he was apprenticing, but now with Brianna working the front of the shop, he could spend more time creating with the medium he loved. Making a Christmas sculpture out of chocolate was ambitious, sure, but he needed to be to keep up with Ruth, the icing artist.
Currently, he was piping scroll details on a twelve-inch white chocolate sleigh with colored chocolate. The inside of it was hollow so he could fill it with colorful molded chocolates. It would need to set up for several hours before he put it on display. Once he did, he would follow Ruth’s lead and blast it all over social media. He really needed to spend some time finishing his website so he could start pushing online orders. There was so much to do.
Brianna came in just as he was setting aside his piping bags. She paused to look over the sleigh. “I can’t believe how much better it looks now that you’ve put all those red and green decorations on it. It’s way better than that cookie painting they’ve got next door.”
She’d definitely gotten behind this competition that had sprung up, in a good-humored way, but Mason shook his head. “It’s good. I don’t know if it’s better.”
“Definitely different. I’ve seen chocolate sculptures before but only in big cities. I’ve never seen anything like this. People are going to flip over it.”
Mason chuckled and carefully lifted the marble tile he’d placed the sculpture on. He carried it to his special cooler which was kept at sixty-five degrees and less than fifty-percent humidity at all times. After placing it on a secure shelf, he turned and found Brianna still watching him. “What?”
“You need to take a break. Why don’t you go to lunch or something?”
“I’ve got a sandwich to eat.”
But Brianna shook her head. “You work way too much. You’ll never keep it up for long. All the cases are full for the customers and I know what I’m doing now. You can leave things in my hands for one hour, right?”
He was sure he could, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take a break. But then his thoughts went to Ruth who worked as hard as he did. He’d be willing to take one if he could spend it with her.
Taking his apron off, he said, “Okay, I’ll go. But probably not for an hour.”
“Awesome,” Brianna said with a victorious smile as she went back to the front.
Mason put on his jacket and went around to Ruth’s back door. She was in her kitchen at the mixer, dropping softened butter a pound at a time into the giant bowl. She turned and looked up but didn’t say anything as she focused on her task.
Mason knew better than to interrupt her, but when she put down the empty tray that had held the butter, he said, “My assistant is making me take a break. Want to go to lunch with me?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t—not in the middle of making dough. And I really don’t have time today.”
Since he saw sincere regret in her eyes, he didn’t feel as if he’d been rejected. Just the opposite in fact. Maybe if he gave her more warning in the future, she’d want to go with him. “I get it. How about if I bring something back for you?”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You aren’t asking. I might as well grab something for you while I’m out.”
“I have been craving bowl of broccoli cheddar soup from Masterson’s Deli all day. Let me get some money for you.”
Mason held up his hand to stop her. “It’s on me.”
But Ruth had already gone into her office. She came back with a ten-dollar bill. “You let me pay for mine or the deal is off.”
He rolled his eyes but took the money. “Fine.”
“There should be enough for you to get me a large vanilla Dr. Pepper too.”
“If there’s not, I’ll get the extra change from you when I get back.”
“Okay,” she said.
Mason leveled a narrow-eyed look at her. “I was being sarcastic.”
She grinned. “I know. But I wasn’t.”
Mason shook his head as he went out but found himself smiling like an idiot as he walked to his car.
When he returned thirty minutes later with their lunch, they sat at a small metal table tucked in a corner of her kitchen. It was under a giant dry erase calendar and next to the coat rack, but it was the best first date he’d ever been on.
Not that he was calling a date. He knew that would freak her out. Him too, if he was being honest. However, the comfort of warm, fragrant soup sending wisps of steam between them and the way their feet kept touching under the table made him feel more comfortable than he’d been in a long time.
They didn’t talk much while they ate, but when the food was gone and their appetites satisfied, neither of them hurried to get back to work.
“How long can you stay?” Ruth asked.
“I don’t have to go yet. Why?”
“I still want to hear how you got into chocolate.”
He smiled and gathered his trash into the large bag from the diner. “Ah. There’s not much to tell, really. I didn’t drink and party like the rest of my teammates, so since we traveled a lot, I became something of a foodie.
“When I began to feel the end of my career on the edge of the horizon, I started to think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So, I went to culinary school, and while there, I moved more and more toward desserts and especially chocolate. It was a challenge and an art. After school, I found places to apprentice and learn from some of the world’s masters.”
“That must have been amazing.”
“It was a lot of hard work, and not much fun to be honest, but the things I learned… yeah, that was amazing.”
“So, why did you come back to Willow Falls?”
Mason leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he sprawled more comfortably in his chair. His left leg brushed against hers accidentally, but when she didn’t pull back, he kept it there. “It’s home. I hated that my nephews and nieces were growing up while I barely knew them. And I couldn’t ignore the fact that my parents were getting older. When I started thinking about opening my own place, I realized how much I was missing by being on the other side of the ocean, so I packed up and sank most of my savings into The Chocolate box.”
Ruth shook her head as if she was amazed. Surely, he wasn’t misreading the look of admiration in her eyes as she said, “I think that’s so cool. Who knew when we were in school, and so completely different, that we’d both end up here selling sweets.”
“It’s crazy. So how did you get into the cookie business?”
She laughed in a self-deprecating way. “Oh, my story isn’t nearly as glamorous as yours.”
“Trust me. Nothing about my life has been glamorous. Did you go to culinary school?
“Uh, no.” She rolled her eyes. “The extent of my education has been online business classes. As for the cookies, well… I’ve always been into art and baking. I saw some tutorial videos for how to make cookies so I gave it a shot. Before long, I was obsessed. I made them for baby showers, wedding showers, birthday parties. As I got better and created my own recipes, people started paying me to make them.
“After a couple of years, I was making enough to quit my job as a waitress and make cookies full-time. But my apartment kitchen was hardly ideal. I saved enough money to have three months of operating costs and my parents co-signed for a loan, and here I am. See, so not glamorous.”
Leaning toward her, he dropped his hand over hers on the table and gripped it. “But so admirable. This is hard. Do you know how many businesses fail in the first year? It scares the pants off me. But you’re making this happen.”
Ruth looked down at their hands. “But I always feel like I’m one bad month away from closing my door for good.”
Mason gave her hand a quick squeeze and let it go. “I get it. But hey, December is a great month to sell sweets, right?”
“Fabulous. January is terrible though because everyone starts diets after New Years.”
“See? You’re a wealth of information. I’ll stock up on ramen noodles while I have a good cash flow.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Well, we all have to sacrifice when following our dreams, but I hope you don’t really mean that.”
He laughed. “I do not. Culinary school makes you a bit of a snob, you know?”
“I don’t actually, never having gone, remember? Now that my guilty secret is out, I hope you’ll still talk to me.”
“You certainly don’t have to worry about that.”
Even though he didn’t want to, he really did need to get back to work. This was precisely why dating her would be a distraction. Just touching her hand had been a heady experience. If he was free to do more than that, well…he wouldn’t be going anywhere. He sighed. “I’ll see you later?”
“Yep.” She got up to put her soup bowl in the trash. “Thanks for picking up lunch for me. It really hit the spot.”
“Sure. We’ll have to do this again.”
She nodded. “Sounds great.”
Mason left but only because he had too. Hopefully, Brianna would be willing to cover for lunches more often.