Bond (Klein Brothers 1)

By the time I’d finished the first one, the men were back with boxes in both hands. Placing them down in a row on the countertop, all three of them sat back and watched me work. The next cake was three tiers tall, but it had to be put together here, so they didn’t sink. Yes, I used supports between the layers, but sinking could still happen, so it was best to do it once it was inside the coolness of the restaurant.

“How the hell do you make these?” the man I didn’t recognize asked as he pointed at the electric blue and pearlescent blue shards adorning the outside of one of the cakes. I was alternating this one with a layer decorated with dried fruits that I’d dyed different colors.

“You melt the chocolate first,” I told him as I carefully placed the cake on top of the bottom one. “Then you have to spread it out on top of thick cellophane and let it dry. That’s usually the hardest part because if the sun hits it, it melts again, and I have an almost-three-year-old who tries to get to it, too.”

“Cason Malone,” the man introduced himself.

Wow, that was a lot of names beginning with C, especially with the names Cason and Canon being so similar. Bond and I stood out from the small crowd.

Looking between Bond’s brother and the man who’d just introduced himself, I winked. “How cute, y’all match. I’m Heidi Du Plessis.”

Tilting his head to the side, he asked, “You sound like you’ve got a Dutch background, but the name’s French, isn’t it?”

“South African background, and, yes, the name has French and Dutch origins, as do mine and my siblings’ first names—Cas, known as Cash, Sayla, and then mine. My daughter’s name is the same, Nemi.” I loved talking about my family’s roots, and usually, if you gave a lot of information at the beginning, people stopped asking questions. It worked both ways for me.

“Whoa,” he said, rocking back slightly, “those are neat names. Unique.”

“Heidi’s created works of art—both visually and taste-wise—for Kleins, Cason. We have our own signature brownies with a passion fruit compote that’ll go well with the passion fruit cocktail you’ve come up with for us,” Bond told him proudly as he joined us.

Now I understood why the other man was here.

“Ah, you’re the cocktail creator,” I murmured as I added some of the spare chocolate shards and dried fruit I’d brought with me. “I tried your Purple Diva a few weeks ago.”

“And?” Cason asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not too alcoholic and absolutely divine.” My feedback made him smile proudly.

“That’s where people go wrong with cocktails, too much alcohol. The trick is to include it but to merge and match it with flavors provided by other means. The Purple Diva has a homemade lavender syrup in it.”

Stopping what I was doing, I stared at him. “Would you be able to teach me how to make the syrup? I’ve been trying to do it for my cakes, but it always comes out sickly sweet and light on the lavender.”

Nodding, he asked, “I make quite a few of them from flowers, including peonies and roses, and also from spices and herbs.”

Shooting a glare at Bond and Canon, I pouted. “How could you guys hide this from me? I thought we were friends.”

Both of them burst out laughing, but it was Bond who apologized. “If we’d known you needed him, we’d have set it up.”

“As an apology, you can let us use your kitchen next week, so I can teach her how to make them,” Cason told the men, and when they agreed, he winked at me. “And you can teach me how to do those chocolate shards, because they’d look awesome on the side of the glasses.”

Holding my hand out for him to shake, I shouted, “Sold!”

Turning to the final box for the cake, I bit my lip as the nerves hit me. “Now, this one deviates a little away from what we agreed on, but I had an idea in the middle of the night last week and decided to hell with it.”

“Heidi, whatever you make, we love, and most importantly, so do our customers. I doubt we won’t feel that way about what you pull out of that box,” Canon assured me.

Lifting the lid, I pulled out the top tier and added the shards, then turned it to show them what I’d done for it. “There’s a company who makes the transfers for other companies to put on top of their specialty chocolates. Normally they have them in gold so they stand out on top of the rich darkness, but because I prefer to use white chocolate for mine, they were able to print the restaurant’s logo out in full color with no problems. What do you think?”