The Chocolatier's Secret (Magnolia Creek, Book 2)

by Helen J Rolfe

  Molly held back her tears, forced away the gut-wrenching feeling of saying goodbye when they’d only just said hello.

  ‘Goodbye, Molly.’ Andrew nodded, accepting what was about to happen. ‘Email or phone when you’re ready.’

  ‘I will.’ Her voice fell into the cool night air, and she retreated back inside the cottage, not daring to watch as Andrew walked away into the darkness.

  *

  ‘You’ll never cope without me.’ Ben lifted Molly’s suitcase onto the conveyor belt at check-in. It was nine o’clock in the evening, and even at this time, Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport was heaving.

  Once Molly had her boarding pass, they made their way to a café.

  ‘Do you want anything to eat?’ Ben grabbed two bottles of apple juice.

  Molly shook her head. ‘I’ll wait at the table over there.’ She was beginning to realise what people meant about airports. They were exciting places, the places where dreams started, the world opened up to travellers. But they were also the places where goodbyes happened, where hearts were broken, where tears were shed.

  Molly had cried after saying goodbye to Andrew earlier. She was glad she’d held it together in front of him and glad she’d cried as much as she was going to before Ben arrived, but she knew she looked bad. Her eyes still felt puffy, her head ached.

  ‘So.’ Ben opened her apple juice and passed it to her. ‘How are you feeling about flying again?’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Liar.’

  She smiled up at him as he sat opposite. ‘I’ve had so much going on. I’ve not had a chance to really worry, but I’m getting a bit nervous now.’

  ‘Got your colouring books?’

  ‘And pens,’ she told him before he asked the obvious.

  ‘You might sleep.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Have you been onto the Facebook group?’

  ‘Not today.’

  Ben took out his phone.

  ‘Oh no, no photos, I look hideous!’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m checking myself in.’ He tapped away at his iPhone screen. ‘I’ll say I’m with you, you’ve had a great time and you’ll be in touch. They’re a great bunch of people, they’ll all want to know what’s happened over the last few weeks.’

  Molly sipped her apple juice as he tapped away at his screen. ‘It’s a bit weird how most of us have never met.’

  ‘Two of us have.’

  She held his gaze. ‘They have.’

  Ben put his phone on the table and reached across to hold her hand. He’d had his hand on her knee on the drive here, but she’d been quiet, not wanting to talk, looking out the window at the lights whizzing by on the freeway from cars on either side, from overhead. So many emotions were whirring around inside her right now, including feelings about Ben and where they went from here.

  ‘I’m glad it all worked out for you, Molly.’ Ben squeezed her hand. ‘Come round here already would you.’ He rolled his eyes and pulled her to standing and round to his side of the table.

  ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ She didn’t care they were in an airport café, that there were people around, when she leant in and kissed him. The warmth of his lips was familiar, exciting and sad all at once, and she rested her forehead against his.

  ‘I wish I was getting on the plane with you.’ said Ben.

  ‘You’ve only just got home.’

  He shrugged. ‘Things can change.’

  Molly put her hand to his lips. ‘Things change all the time. A year ago I never would’ve thought I’d be here, at an airport, in Australia, having met my birth father.’

  ‘It is pretty awesome.’

  ‘I wish Louis was still alive.’

  Ben pulled her close. ‘I know you do. At least you had the chance to know him. He was pretty sick. I think you timed your visit perfectly.’

  They stayed in the café talking about the Bennetts, talking about her family, Ben’s, the nightmare of a long-distance relationship.

  Ben rubbed a thumb across Molly’s bottom lip. ‘I want you to stay.’

  ‘I wish … well, I wish we could be together, but my home is there, Ben.’

  He nodded, accepting. ‘Come on, we’d better get you to passport control.’

  They gathered her things and made their way from the café to the point where they’d have to say their final goodbye.

  ‘I do need to ask a favour though,’ said Molly. ‘And it’s a big one.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘My brother gets married in Connecticut in a few months’ time, and I don’t have a date.’

  Ben laughed, and they came to a stop at Passport Control. ‘Then we’d better do something about that, Molly Ramsey. It looks like I’m going off on my travels again real soon … America, here I come.’ He looked at her more seriously, took her face in his hands. ‘And after the wedding, we’ll see what happens.’

  ‘We’ll see what happens,’ she said. A holiday romance wasn’t at all what she’d been looking for, but some things happened for a reason. And perhaps Ben Harrison was that reason.

  ‘You’d better go,’ said Ben, tension visible in his jaw, in the way he took in a deep breath as though preparing himself.

  Molly burst into tears, her third emotional goodbye in the last week taking its toll.

  ‘It’s not goodbye.’ Ben held her tight. ‘It’s “until next time”.’ He wiped the tears from beneath her eyes with his thumb.

  ‘Until next time,’ she said, and turned, leaving Melbourne and a small piece of her heart behind.

  Epilogue

  ‘Your family tree must be overgrown by now,’ said Ben, loosening his tie and top button. He pulled Molly onto his lap.

  It was a bright, sunny July day in Connecticut, and the temperature was well up into the thirties. Molly pulled at the bodice of her dress to ensure it stayed in place, but she couldn’t stop smiling at Ben, who was her date at Isaac’s wedding, looking devilishly handsome in the outfit he’d chosen. She had a hard time keeping her hands to herself in public, not to mention in front of her family.

  ‘My family tree is enormous,’ she said. ‘I have extra aunties, uncles, cousins, living all over the world. And you know what?’

  ‘I’m sure you’re going to tell me.’ He toyed with the dark ringlets of her hair hanging down from the up-do held in place with a diamante tiara.

  ‘I intend to meet every one of them eventually.’

  ‘Please tell me I don’t have to do the same.’

  ‘We’ll see. Come on, let’s dance.’ She led him into the crowd assembled for Chubby Checker’s ‘The Twist’.

  The marquee was bursting at the seams, full of family, full of love and laughter Molly hoped would never end. They joined in, but when the music slowed and men pulled women close and vice versa, Molly leant her head on Ben’s shoulder.

  ‘I’m glad you came,’ she whispered into his ear.

  ‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘You’re becoming an accomplished traveller now.’

  ‘I think I may even be enjoying it.’

  She’d taken the flight over to America with her parents, and they’d both been surprised at how she’d handled herself. Even with minor turbulence in the last hour of the flight she’d stayed calm, not panicked, shut her eyes and let it pass. She didn’t have another trip to Australia planned, with all her holidays taken for the year, but Andrew was coming over next week to meet her parents. Her parents had coped with Isaac’s move better than she’d expected, and after they’d finished dancing and Ben had begged to escape into the fresh air, she joined her dad at the bar.

  ‘How are you doing, Dad?’

  He nodded. He had a beer, probably the same one he’d been on all night, not being much of a drinker. He turned and looked over at his son. ‘He’s happy.’

  Molly looked at Isaac, dancing with his mother-in-law. ‘They’re a nice family.’

  ‘They are.’

  ‘Just because he’s
coming over here to live doesn’t mean he’ll forget you, Dad.’

  ‘Oh, I’m not daft, pet, I know he won’t. Like I know I’ll never be replaced by Andrew.’

  Before tonight he hadn’t voiced any concern about Andrew Bennett’s relationship with his daughter. He’d let Molly sort through her own feelings first, hadn’t tried to influence her actions as she searched for answers. But now, it felt good to hear how much he cared. And she was glad her Dad knew his place in her life and that it would never be threatened.

  ‘You’ll never be replaced.’ Her smiled reached her eyes.

  ‘I was worried for a while.’ He was joking, but it reinforced how difficult this had been all round. And sometimes Molly knew she was guilty of forgetting that.

  ‘You look happy,’ Jeff Ramsey told his daughter.

  ‘I am. And how’s Mum taking Isaac’s departure to America?’ Molly nodded over to her mum, who was the most relaxed she’d been in ages, kicking up her heels and owning the dance floor.

  ‘She was in bits when he first told us his plans, then again when you told us you were looking for your birth parents.’

  ‘Dad, I—’

  ‘No need to say anything, Molly. She would never have told you kids anything to make you change your minds, because deep down she knows you have your own lives.’

  ‘But after what Gran did to her, leaving her to sort everything out when she left for Canada. It must still hurt.’ Molly waved at her mum, who was none the wiser about this conversation. She was far too busy chatting away with her new daughter-in-law.

  ‘It hurt for a long time, and there’s no doubt about it, your gran could’ve handled things better. But your mum is excited for you, and for Isaac, whatever the future holds.’ He looked over at Ben, who was at the entrance of the marquee. Isaac had escaped his mother-in-law’s clutches, and he was now chatting away happily to Molly’s date. Molly had no idea what was going to happen with Ben, but part of her reached a sense of contentment that this would be about the two of them, and her parents would give their blessing however it turned out.

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’

  ‘She’s even signed up to a discount airfare website for deals so she can holiday wherever she likes. I think secretly she’s wanted to travel for years but never got the chance. Now she has the perfect excuse! She even said that if you moved to Australia, and Isaac is in America, then we could go and live halfway between.’

  ‘And where would that be?’

  ‘Hawaii.’

  Molly laughed whole-heartedly. She could imagine her mum dancing the hula in a grass skirt, cocktail in hand, as she spent the kids’ inheritance.

  ‘Nice,’ she said.

  ‘I’m looking forward to meeting Andrew and his wife.’ Her dad was sincere and she was proud.

  ‘They’re lovely people.’

  ‘I hope they bring some chocolate.’

  ‘Dad,’ she admonished, giggling as they looked on at the throng of people dancing.

  ‘I like Ben. He seems good for you.’ Her dad clearly wanted everything out in the open tonight, and Molly was enjoying every minute of it. ‘And a doctor no less. I’m impressed. And he’s better than any other boyfriend I’ve met.’

  ‘There haven’t exactly been many. But yeah, he is.’

  ‘So what’ll happen with you two? Australia and England takes long-distance romance to a whole new level.’

  ‘It does a bit.’ Molly sighed. ‘I don’t know. He says he’ll come over for Christmas if we’ll have him.’

  Her dad nodded, seemingly impressed.

  ‘Molly?’ he said after a while.

  ‘Yes, Dad.’

  ‘May I have this dance?’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

  *

  Andrew held Gemma’s hand as the cabin lights dimmed on the second leg of their journey from Hong Kong to the UK. He sat back in his seat and looked out over the wing of the airplane, the lights flashing intermittently against the inky sky as they cut through deep grey clouds floating past the tiny windows.

  Andrew and Gemma had filed the necessary paperwork with the adoption agency, and because they understood it could take some time for their plan to reach fruition, they’d decided to take off to Europe while they could. Andrew felt as though he’d only just started in his relationship with Molly. They were so new to one another, and he wanted to keep his promise to make her as much a part of his family as any other child he may have. He was looking forward to meeting Molly’s parents, although anxious of what they might think of him, wondering whether they’d harbour any ill feeling. From what Molly said they wouldn’t at all; they were nothing but grateful she’d been let into their lives, but the worry still lingered and he suspected in some ways, it always would.

  He pulled the grey and red blanket over his lap. Gemma was asleep already, and when he tilted his head towards hers, her blonde hair tickled his nose. She was his life, and watching her go through the paperwork for a possible adoption, he’d fallen bit by bit in love with her all over again. She was going to make a wonderful mother.

  He looked out to the darkened sky as they glided through the air as though they weren’t really moving at all and he thought about Louis. His secret must have eaten him up over the years, and even though he’d only known Molly for a short while, he couldn’t ever imagine doing anything like that to her. It made him realise the desperation Louis must have felt to go ahead with such a plan.

  Andrew thought about Julia too. He hadn’t messaged her in a while. Julia knew Molly had shown up, but since he’d told her, she’d not written back. He expected she was shocked, trying to work this out in her own mind. He’d leave it a few months, but then Andrew knew he wanted to contact her again, not to ask what she was going to do about Molly, not to rake over what happened, but to ask how she was. And to let her know more about Molly and the life she’d had.

  Andrew leant back and closed his eyes, and by the time he opened them again, the sun was rising in the sky and they were coming in to land.

  The past was over. The future was here.

  THE END

  Acknowledgements

  I’d like to thank a lovely lady called Mary from VANISH in Melbourne. In 2009 she started a search for my own birth mother and her encouragement, support and hard work was invaluable.

  Writers need to research even when they are writing fiction and I thank everyone who was willing to be interviewed about the adoption process and their experiences. You all enabled me to write a realistic story from the heart, with layers of emotion that may otherwise not have been possible.

  A huge thank you to mother and daughter team, Lucy and Andrea, of Creighton’s Chocolaterie, in Leighton Buzzard. I had a fabulous day with you both, watching you create the most amazing chocolates and talking to me about what it’s really like to be a chocolatier. And of course, let’s not forget the purchases I made before I went home. They were delicious and I’ve been recommending you ever since!

  Thanks goes to Belinda Holmes, my lovely editor, whose expertise helped me deliver the best story to my readers, and to Stephanie Box whose editing and proofreading skills are second to none. Also a big thank you to Berni Stevens for designing a cover I absolutely adore. You ladies are awesome!

  I know I say it every time, but thank you to the other members of The Write Romantics, ten writers who came together via the Romantic Novelists’ Assocation (RNA) and who are always there to discuss ideas and concerns, celebrate achievements and deal with any obstacles. It’s a pleasure being part of such a wonderful group.

  Writing can be a lonely occupation but one that is eased with support from family and friends, so my final and biggest thank you goes to my husband and my two children, without whom I would be lost.

  Helen J Rolfe.

  About the author

  Helen J. Rolfe writes uplifting, contemporary fiction with characters to relate to and fall in love with.

  Before she started writing books, Helen J. Rolfe worked in I.T.
until she came to her senses and studied journalism and writing. She wrote articles for Women’s Health & Fitness magazines as well as newsletter content and media releases for a not-for-profit organisation. In 2011 the fiction bug bit and Helen has been writing fiction ever since.

  Helen lived in Australia for many years and it is a place she loves to return to in her fiction. The Chocolatier’s Secret, set in the fictitious town of Magnolia Creek, is her fourth novel.

  Find out more at www.helenjrolfe.com, and follow her on Twitter @HJRolfe.

  Thank you so much for reading The Chocolatier’s Secret. I hope you enjoyed the story! If you have the time I’d really appreciate it if you could leave an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  Helen J Rolfe.

  What Rosie Found Next

  One house, two strangers, one very big secret...

  A shaky upbringing has left Rosie Stevens craving safety and security. She thinks she knows exactly what she needs to make her life complete – the stable job and perfect house-sit she’s just found in Magnolia Creek. The only thing she wants now is for her long-term boyfriend, Adam, to leave his overseas job and come home for good.

  Owen Harrison is notoriously nomadic, and he roars into town on his Ducati for one reason and one reason only – to search his parents’ house while they’re away to find out what they’ve been hiding from him his entire life. When he meets Rosie, who refuses to quit the house-sit in his parents’ home, sparks fly.

  Secrets are unearthed, promises are broken, friendships are put to the test and the real risk of bushfires under the hot Australian sun threatens to undo Rosie once and for all.

  Will Rosie and Owen be able to find what they want or what they really need?

  Handle Me with Care