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‘What in sweet heaven’s name is a cake pop?’
Millie laughed. ‘It’s a mini ball of chocolate cake on a stick – a bit like a lollipop – dipped in melted chocolate and decorated with, well, with anything you want really. You can mould them into a variety of shapes to create miniature birds, fish, hearts, and flowers. I’ve made a batch for a Christmas party before that included snowmen with top hats and these fabulous mini Christmas puddings with sprigs of holly made from sugar paste.’
‘Okay. I think I’d better leave that side of things to you. Denise and I will get cracking on creating the best wedding cake this side of the Caribbean. I assume you realise that it’s going to take every spare minute of our time to pull this off. You certainly know how to live a hectic, stress-filled life, Amelia Harper!’
‘Oh no, what catastrophe has Millie visited upon us today?’ asked Zach who had caught Ella’s last few words as he arrived on the veranda with Binks – who had a moth-eaten ball clenched in his jaw – by his side.
‘Nothing to do with me this time.’ Millie laughed.
‘Where is everyone? I thought today was chocolate savouries day? Have you frightened your students away with all the culinary clutter?’
Zach grabbed a deckchair next to Ella and helped himself to one of the croissants. He tore it into two pieces, catching the crumbs on a plate, and popped one half in his mouth before tossing the other half to a very grateful Binks.
‘As a matter of fact, Zachary Barker, Millie has just come to the rescue of our bride-to-be by offering our services to bake the most important cake in a woman’s life!’
Zach rolled his eyes at Ella and would probably have scoffed if it had been Millie who had uttered such an outrageous statement. ‘I know you’re both totally obsessed with all things chocolate and sugar-related, but don’t tell me that cake is in any way anessentialpart of anyone’s life.’
‘It is when it’s your wedding cake!’
‘What do you mean? Surely Imogen hasn’t asked you to make her wedding cake four days before she’s due to say “I do”?’
Millie explained as succinctly as possible what had happened at the hotel kitchen. As she was speaking, a sudden flame of doubt ignited in her abdomen. Was Zach right to be sceptical? Could she really pull this off? Her heart had gone out to Imogen when she’d heard the obvious distress in her voice, and she hadn’t had time to think through her suggestion properly before it had sprang from her mouth.
Whilst shehadmade celebration cakes many times before, she hadn’t made one since… well… since her own engagement. That cake had sat, in all its sugar-coated majesty, on a china pedestal in pride of place in the middle of the village hall where her party was being held – never to be cut. In fact, thinking back, she wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to it. The most likely explanation was that her mother had spirited it away so as not to have it in the house as a constant reminder of her abandonment.
‘She has, and Ella and I intend to deliver the most fabulous cake we can!’
‘Oh no, Binks my friend. We’d better take cover!’ Zach teased, a twinkle of mischief in his mahogany eyes and the cute dimples appearing to bracket his lips. ‘I dread to think what maelstrom of culinary mania is about to be visited on Claudia’s pristine kitchen today.’
‘Oh my God! Claudia! I’ll have to call her to tell her what’s happened. Do you think she’ll object to what we’re going to do, Ella?’
‘Of course not, dear,’ chuckled Ella. ‘She’ll be proud of us. It’s exactly what she would have done herself. Ignore Zach.’ Ella gave him a mock-stern glare. ‘So what if there’s a little bit of chaos if it means the work gets done? It’s not as though we’ll be pressinghiskitchen in the lodge into action, is it?’
‘Heaven forbid!’ exclaimed Zach, genuinely horrified at the thought.
Millie thought of the immaculately kept cabin that was Zach’s temporary home whilst he cared for the cocoa plantation in his colleague’s absence. Every time she set eyes on the place it became less like a land-based dwelling, more like a wooden steamer, moored on stilts against the backdrop of the lush splendour of the rainforest. Zach was probably one of the tidiest, most methodical people she had ever encountered – therefore her complete opposite. She smiled when she thought of her tendency to produce clutter and clumsiness and Zach’s regular exasperated assertions that she could bring chaos to an empty room.
But their differences didn’t stop there.
Despite having grown to accept the leaden skies and rain-soaked streets of Oxfordshire and London, she still continued to crave the long, sunshine-filled days of Provence where her mother had been born and where she had spent a carefree childhood. Yet a close second in her hit parade of desirable locations had to be the Caribbean, and St Lucia in particular – an island of such beauty it whipped her breath away.
‘Okay, well, I can’t sit here chatting all day.’
Millie had to supress a giggle when Zach pushed back his chair, picked up his plate and carried it into the kitchen where he rinsed it, dried it with one of Claudia’s logoed tea towels, and returned it to its allotted space in the cupboard next to the fridge. She also noticed that his neat-freak tendencies extended to his attire, but despite his immaculately ironed lilac polo shirt and pristine black jeans screaming sartorial fastidiousness, they also served to enhance his attractiveness and once again she felt a flutter of desire in her lower abdomen.
Zach called Binks to heel then paused on the steps leading down to the pool.
‘I know I’m probably going to regret saying this, but if you need any help with the washing up at the end of your bake-a-thon today, you can count me and Binks in – especially if there’s going to be a selection of tasty titbits on offer for the workers.’
‘Thanks, Zach, that’s very kind of you,’ said Ella before Millie had the chance to refuse – not that Millie had any intention of doing so. She knew they were going to need all the help they could get if they were going to have any chance of success.
‘Right, I’ll leave you to getorganised,’ Zach smirked. ‘See you later. I’ll bring my own rubber gloves.’
Millie watched him go, her eyes fixed on his muscular thighs and the way his jeans moulded his buttocks, not to mention the impressive bulge of his biceps from his daily workouts around the plantation.
However, what was uppermost in her mind was how, despite his propensity to tease her at every opportunity, whenever he and Binks were around she felt lighter, more energetic, andhappy. Against all her expectations, she realised that her feelings for Zach had morphed from friendship into something altogether more vibrant, and she was enjoying every minute of her new-found lust for life and the people in it.
Chapter Six
