Breathless

Chapter 29: Conclusions - April 4

Her suspicions coalesced...as she collected the evidence.

On March twenty-third, she had found the first rose. Eight days later, she had discovered the first poem. Written by a man who had known she'd suffered a broken heart. Blaze had known that Owen had left her for another woman.

After finding the first poem, later that same day, Ruby had visited The Picnic Basket and run into her waiter, Blaze. Who had noticed she was alone and asked to eat with her. He had ordered - or made? - chocolate soufflé for dessert. Because he knew it was her favorite. According to him, the chef had been making it since Blaze was in high school. Which implied that he had known the chef in high school. That was the same time that Blaze had learned from Mary that Ruby loved chocolate soufflé. If Blaze was the chef, then he had learned how to make the luscious dessert after he discovered it was her favorite. Most likely, anyway.

Her eyes widened in astonishment. Was it possible? Had Blaze learned how to make chocolate soufflé for her? If he had, that was further evidence that he really did love her.

It was almost too much to take in – that Blaze had loved her enough to go to all these extraordinary lengths. Just for her. That he had been the man behind it all. Her secret admirer was over the top. Full of extravagant gifts. But so was the man who became a chef so he could make her chocolate soufflé. However, if he was one and the same, then he was truly amazing.

Her heart continued to race along as she drove across town. She was beginning to feel a certainty that Blaze was both of these men – a chef and a poet. A restaurant proprietor and a bearer of bright blooms.

The second poem had accompanied fifty dozen red roses. It had also declared that he had loved her for eleven and a half years, desiring to be with her, to get to know her on a deeper level. Blaze had admitted that he had loved her since the day she'd given him her chocolate snack cakes. Eleven and a half years ago. Surely, that was too big of a coincidence for Blaze not to be her secret admirer. There was no way two men had been in love with her for that long.

How had she not seen it from the very beginning? As soon as she read that each rose represented a week of his longing for her, she should have known that her secret admirer could be only one man...Blaze. But that wasn't the end of the evidence.

Blaze was Anne's son. Ruby was sure of it. If Blaze was the chef, then he had to be. He had shown up at Stephanie's anniversary party bearing chocolate soufflés. A dessert which her friend had been nearly certain he'd baked in her own kitchen. Not carried across town from the restaurant. Ruby had tasted that soufflé for herself; it had been identical to the one Blaze had brought her on their first date. It had been freshly baked. So either the chef had been hiding in the kitchen too, or Blaze had been the chef. Also, Mr. Taylor had introduced him as the creator of that delicious dessert. Surely, such a brilliant man wouldn't have confused a chef with a waiter. But she might have.

Furthermore, Anne was a florist...with access to an abundance of resplendent red roses. As her son, Blaze would have had a plethora of beautiful blooms from which to choose to send to Ruby. He also would have learned from his mother how much a girl could love roses. According to her admirer's most recent poem – and according to his mother – he had grown up nestled between rose bushes, giving him a love for the sweetly scented flowers. From Anne's behavior, it was apparent that her son was Ruby's secret admirer. He had to be Blaze.

Anne had already admitted that her son was the chef and owner of the restaurant. Now Ruby was convinced that all the evidence added up to the fact that Blaze was both the proprietor and the chef of The Picnic Basket. Not just a waiter.