Free Taste of Romance by Darlene Panzera Page B

was going to
     say. “Giving up on your dreams is a fate worse than death.” Suddenly she knew she had to change.
    “Can you take me up in your brother’s hot air balloon again?” she asked. “This time
     without the ropes tying it to the ground?”
    “I could, if that’s what you want. Or if you’re willing to try something else, he
     has a seaplane that can fly low to the water to make you feel safe.”
    “I’d like to try,” she told him. “I don’t always want to be afraid to fly. Someday,
     when I’m ready, I’d like to actually use my passport.”
    “Maybe when that day comes, you’ll visit Sweden,” he suggested.
    “Maybe,” she said and drew in her breath as his mouth drew near. “Nathaniel, we can’t
     let ourselves get distracted. We need to be on the lookout for the thief.”
    He pulled back. “ Ja, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking except that you’re so very cute when
     your eyes are wide with anticipation.”
    “Me?” She gasped. “You think I anticipate—”
    “I find it very exciting,” he assured her and drew toward her once again.
    This time she didn’t protest. Okay, he was right. She had been struggling with the
     anticipation of his kiss the entire time he’d been talking to her.
    His mouth covered her lips with sweet promise, exhilarating temptation, and filled
     her with an intense urge to fly over the moon. Never had she lost her senses over
     a man so completely, not even with Gavin, whom she’d thought was the love of her life.
    Now she wondered if she wasn’t hurt so much by the idea that he had left her, but
     by the idea that he had left her behind. While he flew off to another country, she
     remained stuck in Astoria, where she feared she’d remain forever.
    Kim reached her arms up to wrap around Nathaniel’s neck and draw him closer. Then
     she abruptly tore her lips from his and scanned the area below. “What about the cupcake
     thief?”
    Nathaniel glanced at his watch, shook his head, and smiled. “I don’t think he’s coming.”

 
    Chapter Eight
----
    I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing.
    —Jonathan Swift
    “W HAT DO YOU mean, he didn’t show?” Andi demanded. “How are we going to get Mia’s doll back?”
    “Trolls are known to run off with babies,” Guy interjected. “Maybe he mistook the
     doll for the real thing.”
    “Let’s leave a pair of size fourteen work boots outside our door,” Rachel suggested.
     “I read in a magazine it deters burglars if they think there’s a giant inside the
     premises.”
    “Makes sense,” the tattoo artist agreed. “A short little troll would be afraid of
     a giant.”
    Kim shot them each a look to let them know she thought they were crazy. “I doubt our
     thief is a real troll. And if we put a pair of boots outside our door, any poor person
     off the street would take them thinking we are offering them for free.”
    “So how do we catch him?” Andi asked.
    “Ink,” Guy said, his tone matter-of-fact. “You place an exploding dye pack under the
     cupcake box and leave it on the end of the counter as bait. When he steals the box
     and tries to head out the door, a radio transmitter triggers the pack, and it explodes,
     marking your culprit.”
    “I’ve heard of that before,” Rachel said with a nod. “Banks use it to catch robbers
     all the time.”
    “But how do we get an ink pack?” Kim asked their neighbor. “Your tattoo shop?”
    “No.” Guy told them and grinned. “Ebay.”
    T UESDAY EVENING, K IM left Creative Cupcakes two hours early for a sunset seaplane trip with Nathaniel.
     She glanced at him beside her in the small cockpit, and he gave her a quick kiss for
     reassurance.
    “You know how to swim?” he asked.
    She nodded. “But I’ve never parachuted.”
    “You won’t need to parachute. We’ll skim across the surface and then lift up a few
     feet, staying over the water the whole time. If something happens to the plane, you
     can