Page 2 of Harvest Heat

“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.”