Harvest Heat (Frostwick Harbor #1)

Chapter 1

Rhys frowned as he looked out the front window of Frost + Foam. He’d spent years perfecting the shop until everything from the polished concrete floor to the marble counter to his expert saturation of pour-over coffee was up to his exacting standards.

It had taken time to convince the residents of Frostwick Harbor that the sludge they usually drank could barely be considered coffee.

And even longer for him to be comfortable behind the counter, greeting customers and making small talk.

At least he could mostly talk about coffee, the one subject where he always knew what to say.

But now, Caleb, a newcomer to town, one who somehow managed to smile and talk to everyone like he already knew them, had opened a coffee shop just down the street, Cloud Nine Coffee.

Rhys was sick of hearing about it. “Caleb’s going to have so many flavors.

” “He’s going to make smoothies too.” “He’s going to have cinnamon rolls from the bakery.

” If one more customer tried to tell Rhys about things Cloud Nine would have that his shop didn’t, he was going to start throwing things.

Losing his temper like that would be worse for business than another shop a block away, but he’d had all he could take.

Soon, he’d be left with choosing between an explosion of anger or running into the back of the store, curling up in a ball on the floor, and trying to shut out the rest of the world.

Caleb, Mr. Naturally Nice Extrovert, had stopped by to introduce himself a few days earlier.

Rhys hid in the back, and Sam, the only employee he trusted to make pour-overs, talked to him.

Sam was better at small talk than he was, and they didn’t seem to be affected by Caleb’s tall frame, broad shoulders, and full beard like Rhys was.

There was no way around it—Caleb was hot, which only made Rhys resent him more. Did he have to be full of sunshine and look like a Scandinavian lumberjack? All while trying to steal Rhys’s business.

Rhys could hear his best friend, Tessa, telling him he was being overly dramatic. Caleb had told her he wanted both shops to thrive. Tessa believed him, and so did the rest of Rhys’s friends. Caleb probably had them all under his spell.

Even if he wasn’t trying to sabotage Rhys’s store, he was right down the street, being all easygoing and charming—things Rhys definitely was not—and offering high-calorie desserts masquerading as coffee drinks.

No way did that count as coffee; it was just syrup and whipped cream with a vague coffee flavor.

What Rhys made was coffee, scientifically perfected, meticulously extracted flavor from the best beans he could source.

Rhys had kept his shop sleek and minimal. The coffee was the star, not the decor, but Caleb’s store logo was a cloud with a rainbow arching out of it, and the interior was bright yellow and pink with a wild mismatch of furniture. It was pure chaos.

Since he didn’t have any customers in the shop, Rhys stepped out from behind the counter and made his way to the front window.

If he pressed himself against the wall at the far edge, he could see the line of people waiting at Cloud Nine.

They spilled out of the store and down the sidewalk past the big fall book display in front of his friend Jonah’s store, The Reading Room.

The front of Cloud Nine was fully decorated for fall.

Rhys had put out a few gourds and pumpkins, but Caleb had gone all out with felt leaf garlands and hay bales, baskets of fake apples, and enormous pumpkins.

Rhys could see a toddler sitting on one of them as her mother tried to get her to come down.

Rhys sighed as he looked at all the excited people who weren’t coming to see him.

So far, only a few of his regulars had come in for their morning coffee.

Apparently, the rest of the town was down the street, waiting to get a sugar high.

When they crashed later that morning and fell asleep at work, it certainly wouldn’t be his fault.

The door chimed, and it startled Rhys so badly he fell against the window.

Tessa rushed over to him. “Are you okay?”

Rhys waved her away as he rubbed his cheek with his other hand. Ugh, he’d made a print on the window. He walked toward the counter to get cleaner and a towel.

“So you’re not even going to say good morning?” Tessa asked.

Rhys looked up. “Oh, sorry. I… The window…”

She smiled. “Go clean the window. I know you won’t be able to think about anything else until it’s sparkling again.”

He scowled at her, but she was right. He liked perfection. There wasn’t anything wrong with that.

When the smudge was gone, Rhys walked back to the counter, where Tessa was waiting.

She looked him up and down. “Your anxiety is sky-high today.”

She said it as a statement of fact, and Rhys couldn’t argue with her. She’d known him since second grade. She often called him out when he was spiraling, but she never judged him.

“Are you saying I shouldn’t be?” He gestured around the store. “There’s nobody here.”

“It’s Cloud Nine’s first morning. You know how nosy everyone is in this town. Of course they want to check it out.”

She was right, but that didn’t do anything to make Rhys feel better.

“But my customers like good coffee. Why would they want…” Rhys’s nose wrinkled as he thought about the offerings advertised on the sandwich board outside Caleb’s shop: The Bear Hug, Pumpkin Dream Latte, Chai Me Up Buttercup.

Ridiculous. Not that he was paying that much attention.

Tessa smiled. “They want to see what it’s all about, but they’ll be back. I bet Mr. Timmons came by, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“And Sylvia Rattray.”

“Of course.” They were two of his most dedicated regulars.

Tessa grinned. “I knew they wouldn’t be tempted by Caleb’s concoctions.”

“No, but what about everyone else?”

“They’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

He wished he could have her level of confidence. “And if you’re wrong?”

“Look at me.” Rhys forced himself to meet her eyes. “We’ll deal with it.”

“We?”

“Yes. We. Jonah, Finn, me, and the rest of your friends. You know the small-business owners here believe in lifting each other up. That’s not going to change.

No one wants your shop to close, including Caleb.

This town might be small, but there are plenty of residents and tourists for two very different coffee shops to exist.”

Rhys huffed. He wished he were as confident as she was.

Tess studied him for a moment. “Have you talked to him yet?”

Rhys shook his head, knowing Tessa would be on his case about it.

“Didn’t you go to the small-business owners’ meeting last week?” she asked.

Tessa ran Driftwood Doughs with her twin brother, Finn. It had been Finn’s turn to attend the meeting, though Rhys was surprised Tessa hadn’t interrogated him about it. “I sent Sam. I was… busy.”

She huffed. “Busy hiding.”

“I wasn’t ready. I knew I’d say something wrong and—”

“Caleb’s been here for over two months. You both love coffee. You both have businesses on Front Street.”

“We’re competitors.”

She sighed. “That’s not the real reason you’re afraid of him.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“Good, because he’s hot.”

He was, and Rhys absolutely did not want to discuss that. He didn’t need to be besties with the competition. They’d meet eventually, but he wasn’t rushing it. And so what if Caleb made him nervous because he looked so damn good. “Don’t start.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes. “When was the last time you went out with anyone?”

“Just because you like subjecting yourself to horrible men from dating apps who can barely string a sentence together and want to lure you to the woods to murder you or ask if they can eat syrup off you on the first date—” Tessa was laughing so hard at that point that he couldn’t help but join her.

It took a while for both of them to recover. Rhys wiped tears from his eyes as she wheezed in a few breaths.

“All my dates aren’t like that,” she insisted.

“But most of them are.”

“Fine, but those are straight men.”

Did she really think he’d fare any better? “I’m focused on the shop right now.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m not starting something with Mr. Sugar Rush, who wants to take my customers.”

“Okay, but you still need to introduce yourself. Why don’t I cover for you here while you go down there and congratulate him on opening day?”

Rhys’s heart had already accelerated; now his pulse thundered in his ears. Walk down there? Talk to all those people in line, then get inside and… What would he say? “No, I can’t.”

“Would it help if we went together?”

Would it? Maybe? Tessa was right. The longer he waited, the more awkward meeting Caleb would be, and the more he would look like an asshole. It was hard enough to get people to like him. He didn’t need to deliberately make it more difficult. “I guess, but what about the shop?”

“You could put a sign on the door saying you’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Rhys’s panic returned. “I’m already losing business. I can’t.”

Tessa took his hands in hers. “Breathe.”

He tried to take slow breaths. Why was everything so fucking hard for him? There was no real reason why he couldn’t walk down the street and introduce himself. It wouldn’t kill him.

The morning rush, such as it was that day, was over, and even if he let Tessa stay, she couldn’t make coffee like he could. Sam came the closest to replicating what he could do, but they weren’t scheduled today. Had they gotten their morning coffee from Caleb like everyone else in town?

He exhaled. “All right. Let me make a sign.”

Tessa waited patiently while he wrote slowly and carefully, letting any potential customers know he was only temporarily closed and would be back soon.

He even wrote the current time at the top.

When he finished, Tessa already had a few pieces of tape on her fingers so they could stick the message to the glass door.

Once he was satisfied with the placement, Tessa took his arm. “You’ve got this.”

Rhys prayed she was right.

By the time Tessa and Rhys got to Cloud Nine, it was midmorning, and the line was no longer out the door. They joined the line at the end of the counter closest to the high-end commercial espresso machine. “At least while I wait, I can get a look at Caleb’s equipment.”

Tessa snorted. “That’s more the spirit.”

Rhys played back his words to figure out why she was grinning like a loon. Then he got it. “Not like that. His espresso machine.”

A second later, Tessa bumped his shoulder. “Caleb just came out from the back.”

Rhys barely registered her words; he was focused on the machine. The steam wand was overheating. Why wasn’t Caleb paying more attention?