Читать книгу Wanted: Outback Wife - Элли Блейк, Ally Blake, Ally Blake - Страница 11

WITHIN minutes, the French pastry shops on Acland Street in St Kilda loomed. Jodie had heard rumours of such a place and had quite purposely never been down this road.

Ten-foot-high windows each showcased a dozen shelves packed with melting moments, glimmering fruit tarts, decadent éclairs and every sweet delight a person could crave. Like someone trapped in the desert for ten years, Jodie was drawn towards the mirage, her tastebuds going into overdrive as long-ago memories tickled at her senses.

The feel of pastry melting on her tongue. Sherbet crackling against her lips. And chocolate. Oh, the heavenly melting sensation that was chocolate.

The truth was, Jodie loved desserts, but her mother was diabetic, and corruptibly so. Patricia was so lacking in will-power Jodie had once found her passed out on the kitchen table with an empty bottle of chocolate syrup beside her. Since that day, Jodie had doggedly trained herself to live without the taste of sugar.

‘Come on, order something sweet,’ Heath offered. ‘Anything you like. It’s on me.’

Jodie perused the glassed-in rows of cakes and was stoic. Even though Patricia was nowhere in sight, it was a testament to her own continuing will-power, her very difference from her imprudent mother, that she do without.

‘Tea, black, no sugar, and a savoury scroll.’

‘Come on! This place is the Mecca for dessert lovers. It’s legendary. You can’t possibly be telling me that there is nothing sweet here that can tempt you.’

Oh, yeah. There sure was. Which was why she was being a good strong girl and ordering something not decadent in the least. ‘Sorry. I am a tea and scroll kind of girl.’

His eyes narrowed and she realised her words had held a tinge of bitterness she had not meant to reveal. She smiled inanely and moved inside to the counter where she placed her order.

‘Add two chocolate croissants and a tall black to the order. Three sugars and a small jug of milk on the side. Ta,’ Heath said from somewhere behind her, his breath washing over the back of her hair. ‘Don’t panic, both croissants are for me. One’s for the road.’