A Valentine Proposal (Little Shops on Heart Street) by Viv Royce

Author:Viv Royce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Small Town & Rural Fiction; Contemporary Romance Fiction; Two-Hour Romance Short Reads; Contemporary Women's Fiction; American Humorous Fiction; Women's Short Stories; Women's Humorous Fiction; Opposites Attract romance; Boss-employee romance; Little Shops on Heart Street; Viv Royce; A Family by Christmas; Sweet Romance; Clean Romance; Enemies to Lovers romance; Valentines Romance; Valentines Day; Entangled Publishing; Short romance; Quick read romance; Bliss; Series Romance; Bookshop; Hallmark Movie; Girl Next Door romance; Falling for the boss; New Hampshire;
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Bliss)
Published: 2019-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“This is great.” Cleo looked around the kitchen of the restaurant Gourmet Maitre, venue for the night’s cooking workshop. The huge stoves and shiny metal cooking islands usually worked by the restaurant’s top-notch chefs were now empty and waiting for the participants in Literary Likes to come in. They’d be working in three shifts of five couples each, thus allowing thirty people in total to participate during the night. Cleo couldn’t wait to see who she had been paired with.

She had created the questions for the pairing herself, varying from If you could time travel to the location of a historical novel, where would you go and why? to What is your favorite posture while reading?

Twenty questions in all, meant to combine people with the same tastes in reading who’d have something to discuss while cooking up a storm together. Gourmet Maitre was the perfect place to try their hands at a dish they had never done before, expanding their culinary horizons.

“We put all the fresh ingredients there,” the restaurant owner explained to her, gesturing at the far wall. “And recipes are on that table. Each couple can select an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. I didn’t make it too difficult, but it’s not chicken nuggets with fries, either.”

“You did a great job. Thanks so much for being a part of this.”

The man waved it off. “We try to do something social every few months, and this was a good fit. My granddaughter loves going to your bookshop. She saves her allowance for new books.”

A voice called from the doors, “Cleo! The participants are all here.” It was Lizzie Cates, owner of the antique shop on Heart Street and Cleo’s fellow organizer for the night. Lizzie was the one who had encouraged her to participate in the Literary Likes cooking herself, saying it would be a ton of fun.

Waving to Lizzie that she was coming, Cleo thanked their host again and joined her co-chair, who led her into the restaurant’s main room where the participants were waiting. Varying from a teenaged girl in a manga T-shirt to a gentleman well into his eighties, leaning on a walking cane, this was a group who seemed to have nothing in common, and yet she was looking at pairs of people united by the same taste in books. Amazing.

Lizzie pulled out a list. “I’ll read out the names of the combinations, and then you can go into the kitchen to start cooking.”

“Have fun tonight,” Cleo added. Her heart skipped a beat. In the back of the room, a familiar tall figure stood, silently watching everything with his arms crossed over his chest. What’s Mark doing here?

Panic washed through her. I can’t face him. Not after that scene in the car. I should never have told him about Dad. He was so nice about it, like he really cared, but…I shouldn’t have cracked like that.

She forced her thoughts to something practical. If she counted him, the group was an uneven number. That can’t be right.

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