Julie Caplin - The Little Paris Patisserie - A heartwarming and feel good cosy romance - perfect for fans of Bake Off!

Pursing her lips, she pulled out the notes he’d prepared in readiness for the next day. According to the recipes they were going to be making choux pastry, crème pâtissière, chocolate profiteroles and coffee éclairs. Her mouth watered, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten for quite a while, but she decided to wait another hour before ordering anything, then when it arrived she’d wake him up.

The discreet knock at the door signalled the arrival of room service. Nina had played it safe for Sebastian and herself and ordered both of them burgers and chips. Peeping in on Sebastian as she went to open the door, she found him still sound asleep. For a moment she studied him. In sleep his face had softened, the dark hair flopped down over his forehead and his mouth relaxed. He looked much younger, more like the Sebastian she remembered and she was horrified at the unexpected ping of her heart. Quickly she turned and headed towards the door, almost wrenching it open.

‘Someone’s hungry,’ teased a laughing Scot’s brogue.

‘Alex, hi. You do room service?’

He grinned at her. ‘Normally no, but the staff are primed to let me know if Sebastian needs anything and if I’m around, I pop up. How is he?’

Nina grimaced as she backed up to let him in with the tray. ‘Not great, to be honest. Silly idiot has overdone it today.

‘Sounds like Bas. Complete workaholic.’

Nina raised an eyebrow. ‘And you’re a slacker?’

‘I’m not like him. He’s driven.’ Alex shrugged. ‘I work hard—’ his cheeks dimpled ‘—and play hard, but man, he’s super motivated. Determined to prove his dad wrong.’

Nina frowned as she followed Alex into the suite where he deposited the tray on the dining table overlooking the window and pulled back the curtain to peer out at the lights of Paris shining in the dark.

‘I don’t remember his dad, I’m not sure I ever saw him but then that’s not surprising. Sebastian seemed to spend all his time at our house. Mum gave him free reign in the kitchen when she realised he could cook better than she could. It was always a bit of trial for her, she found cooking for four palate-indifferent, human dustbins a bit monotonous. At that age my brothers weren’t terribly fussy and quantity over quality counted every time.’

‘Sebastian’s dad is…’ Alex trailed to a halt. ‘Bas! Brought your supper up for you, you lazy sod. Sleeping on the job, I hear.’

‘You try getting around on crutches. Bloody knackering.’ Nina turned. Sebastian stood in the doorway looking marginally better – but they were talking the slenderest of margins. ‘What’s on the menu?’

‘Burger and chips.’ Nina gave a self-deprecating shrug. ‘I wasn’t sure what you’d want.’

‘Perfect. Thanks.’

She noticed he moved very slowly as he moved across the room as if he’d used up all his energy earlier in the day and still wasn’t fully recharged. How would he feel if she suggested he ate and went back to bed? She caught Alex’s eye who frowned as he watched Sebastian’s laboured progress.

‘Dear God, it’s like watching the walking dead. Good job I upped your chip ration.’

Nina noticed that despite Alex’s teasing words, he was casually helping Sebastian to sit down and taking charge of his crutches. She picked up the tray of food, took off her plate and handed it to Sebastian to eat on his lap.

‘More bloody chips are the last thing I need. You’ll be able to use me as the ball when I get back to playing five-a-side again.’

‘It’s alright, we’ll stick you in goal,’ said Alex, stealing a chip and throwing his lanky frame onto the opposite sofa. He looked as if he could eat chips all day without any problems.

Nina rolled her eyes as she sat down next to him, perching her plate on her lap.

‘I saw that,’ said Alex kicking off his shoes, pinching another chip and making himself comfortable.

‘You two sound like my brothers. Mmm, these are good.’ She munched on a chip, realising that she was starving.

‘Ha! Except Nick can’t kick a ball to save his life.’ Sebastian gave her a rare grin. ‘Nina’s brothers are rugby men.’

‘I seem to recall you played a mean fly half,’ said Nina, responding without thinking, and she took a quick bite of burger hoping her slight blush wasn’t obvious as she recalled all the matches supposedly watching her brothers, hanging around like a lovesick groupie. God, she really had made a fool of herself.

Sebastian sighed and a look of regret flashed across his face. ‘That was a long time ago, but I miss it.’

‘Why did you give it up then?’ asked Nina, intrigued. Sebastian wasn’t the sort of person to back off from a challenge or not do something he wanted. It was a shame, he’d been good. She had to wait a second as he swallowed down a mouthful of chips which, despite his protests earlier, he seemed to be enjoying with relish.

‘Unfortunately, doing the Sunday lunch shift when you feel like you’ve been put through a blender got old quite quickly. And working seven days a week didn’t help.’

‘All work and no play makes Bas a dull boy,’ said Alex, his hand snaking in for one of Nina’s chips this time. ‘‘Although that blonde ba… Katrin from the interiors company looks like she’s enjoying mixing a bit of business and pleasure. What’s going on with her?’

‘Early days,’ said Sebastian, suddenly very interested in a patch on his cast which he rubbed at with his palm, making his tray wobble precariously. ‘She travels a lot. We’ll see.’ Lifting his head, he looked over at her. ‘What about you, Nina? Boyfriend on the scene? What happened to that Joe guy you were seeing?’ His clipped questions made it sound like an interrogation, a fact-finding mission without any real interest.

Nina dredged up a non-committal smile. ‘You’re well out of date. Joe and I stopped seeing each other about four years ago and he’s just got married. I was bridesmaid.’

‘Ouch,’ said Alex, pulling a face and shifting on the sofa towards her as if in reflexive support. ‘I bet that was uncomfortable.’ Despite his blunt words, sympathy shimmered in his eyes and she was able to look at him rather than Sebastian as she responded.

‘No, I introduced him and Ali, she’s a good friend.’ The words came out blasé and unconcerned. She’d been genuinely delighted for them but she wasn’t about to admit that their relationship assuaged her guilt that she could never love Joe the way he wanted her to. Someone else had first dibs on her heart. ‘I couldn’t have been happier, especially as Joe and I were always more friends than anything else.’ Nina prayed that her face gave nothing away.

‘So, no one on the scene at the moment?’ pressed Sebastian.

Nina shook her head. ‘Too busy,’ she said crisply, irritated that he had to highlight that she was steadfastly single. He was clearly being bloody minded.

‘Well, you must have some downtime while you’re in Paris,’ said Alex, with a sudden cheery stridency to his tone. ‘Sebastian can be a slave driver. Don’t let him take advantage. You need to make sure you see some of the city. In fact, I know some great places.’ He delved in his top pocket. ‘Here, take my card, I can never remember my mobile.’

Sebastian glared at him. ‘Nina is here to work! I’ll need her to be flexible as things come up.’

Alex gave her a cheerful shrug and a discreet wink. ‘Let me know if he’s being a difficult boss. I can withdraw his food rations.’

Nina grinned back at Alex who promptly helped himself to another one of her chips. ‘That sounds like a plan.’

Sebastian’s mouth tightened. Nina only felt a tiny bit guilty ganging up on him but he’d been such a grumpy git all afternoon and it was nice to have the light relief of Alex’s cheerful good humour.