How Sweet It Is Read Free

strand of Delphine’s hair
aloft. Her dark eyes regarded him with solemn curiosity. Brad stood
up and stepped over to where she sat. Before she could speak, he
bent down, and pressed his lips softly against the corner of her
mouth.
    When he raised his head, Delphine sat frozen,
her cheeks burning with two spots of color.
    Uh oh .
    Before he could explain his behavior, she
slapped him across the face.
    Hard .
    Brad stumbled backward a step when the
redoubtable Frenchwoman jumped up, grabbed her bags, and stormed
off. As he watched her leave the square, he bemusedly rubbed his
hot cheek. Despite the sting, he didn’t regret kissing her. Not one
little bit.
    He took a deep
breath. Still, I need to
explain . Brad dug into his pocket, and
tossed some Euros down onto the table. Once clear of the café, he
trotted along the square, looking for Delphine’s retreating figure
among the flower vendors and meandering tourists.
    After several minutes of fruitless searching,
Brad decided she must’ve taken a cab or train from the square. He
sighed. Despite Delphine’s obvious assumption, he didn’t go around
kissing strangers. He wanted to find her. But how?
    I don’t know her last name and I’m in a
country where people aren’t impressed with my attempts to speak the
language.
    This problem requires going
to the top .
    Brad’s gaze arched upward past the dark
medieval lancet windows of the guild houses. He looked past the
black, yellow, and red Belgium flags snapping in the rising wind,
beyond the towering spire of the Town Hall, to the eggshell blue
sky above.
    He closed his eyes and said a prayer, hoping
that somehow Delphine would reappear once more in his life.
    Feeling a strange sense of peace, he plunged
his hands in his pockets and went back to the chocolate shop to buy
that candy.

 
    Two
     
     
    Delphine arrived at the Charles De Gaulle
airport as the last vestiges of pink and orange sunlight shimmered
below the hazy Parisian skyline. She stepped from the TGV train and
walked to the Delta desk, one stop on her way to Aérogare/Terminal
2C.
    She sighed, wishing she’d
had more of a chance to sightsee. I missed
so much, but then my budget was so tight .
Delphine wondered if she’d ever make it back to Europe to explore
at her leisure.
    Not likely.
    But the courses she’d attended, hosted by a
world-renowned candy makers, would give her much needed cachet,
especially after she’d exhausted all the classes at home. She hoped
to incorporate the Old World skills she’d learned here into her
future business back in Glendale.
    She thought back to her decision to come to
Europe. Deep price cuts in airfares had made the opportunity
irresistible, and in an uncharacteristically impulsive move, she’d
drained her meager savings to make the trip. It was a once in a
lifetime opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
    Now, with her head full of new skills and
recipes, along with distressingly empty pockets, she wondered if
she’d been insane to embark on such an endeavor. For a moment, she
wished she possessed the optimism of someone like Brad Larsen.
    Delphine’s lips thinned as she remembered his
audacious kiss. That man was best forgotten.
    Unfortunately, the recent memory of his
behavior had plagued her for the rest of the day. When he’d kissed
her, her world had tilted out of focus. Treacherous feelings had
surged through her body at his touch—feelings that left her
alarmed, bewildered, and angry—angry that a flippant philanderer
could provoke such a melting reaction in her.
    Stop thinking about him!
    She took a deep breath and joined the crowded
queue to check in for the Delta flight, wondering if the two
hundred thousand travelers who passed daily through CDG airport
were all trying to get on the same plane as she was.
    “Identification, please?”
    Delphine looked up to see she was next. She
handed her driver’s license to the clerk. The harried employee
scanned it, then shook his head.
    “I’m sorry, we don’t