My Secret Fantasies

I smiled, recognizing the containers she used to sell her tearoom’s special blends.

“I don’t know if there’s a tea ball.” Still, I opened the tin and inhaled, recognizing the spicy mix of cinnamon, vanilla and about ten other herbs, a tea she marketed as “Holiday Escape.”

“You’re kidding. What is this? The Stone Age?” She tsked and opened a few cabinets and drawers. Finally, she handed me a small strainer. “Use this and start talking, sister. What are you doing, sleeping in the big house and wearing a man’s bathrobe four sizes too big for you?”

“Er...” I hoped the teakettle would boil and save me from the third degree. “I plead the Fifth?”

Joelle shrugged out of her sweater and perched on one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

“Not an option.” She positioned her cell phone nearby on the granite, and double-checked that her ringer was silent, a habit she’d had as long as I’d known her. She was too ladylike to let a sound disturb her tea, and too business savvy to ignore important calls.

I’d learned a lot about being an entrepreneur from her. I hoped it was enough to help me run my own tearoom.

“Okay.” I wondered how much to say. I trusted Joelle, but the relationship—could I call it that?—with Damien was so new I didn’t know how to describe it, let alone how I felt about it. “I’m staying here a few days while the owner of the property considers whether or not to sell me the farm stand.”

“He invited you to stay with him while he thinks about it?” Her arched eyebrow let me know exactly what she thought of my half answers. “And opened his wardrobe to you in the process?”

“He’s a very nice man.” I couldn’t hide a smile as the teakettle whistled and I poured the water through the herbs in the strainer.

“I’ll bet.” Snorting, she drummed her fingernails on the countertop. “I’ve tried to set you up on dates. Hot guys have propositioned you at the tearoom. And not once since I’ve known you have you given a man the time of day. Yet you’re here for a weekend and...”

She gave my bathrobe a meaningful glare.

“I’m trying to get past some old issues, right?” I’d told Joelle about Rick. About writing the erotic novel as a way to move past the hang-ups he’d left me with. She and I had been friends ever since she’d hired me. “And this guy who owns the place—Damien—walks straight out of the pages of my book.”

Frowning, she took her cup from me and removed the strainer basket so I could use it for mine.

“Are you telling me he swept you off your feet?”

“Not exactly.” Although everything had happened so fast, maybe there had been some sweeping involved. “But he definitely was a white knight to my damsel in distress when the Highlander gave out on Highway 1.”

“Didn’t I tell you to get a tune-up before you left?”

I wish I’d at least had the lock fixed before I made the trip. Bad enough I’d broken down. I hated the thought that I’d left all my stuff vulnerable on the side of the road in an unlocked vehicle, while I walked to get help. What if someone had taken my flash drive then? I was missing that Gutsy Girl shirt, too. I’d been too busy to really look through all my stuff to see if anything else was unaccounted for.

I poured a fresh spoonful of the dried herbs into the strainer for my tea, enjoying the repetition of an old ritual in my new surroundings. Joelle had brought a little piece of home for me, right down to the familiar scent of the Holiday Escape blend.

“You told me I should get the tune-up, yes. But I didn’t. Thankfully, Damien picked me up, plus he towed the Highlander.” Maybe it was the Midwest farmer’s daughter in me talking, but I could dig a guy with a big truck.

“So he brought you here and sold you the farm stand?” Joelle’s bangle bracelets clanged on the counter as she leaned forward. “I didn’t see any signs of life down there, but I can help you get set up. I even brought you a few cases of tea so you’d have some starter inventory.”

“Really?” Touched, I knew enough about the high end brands she carried to recognize this as a very generous gift. “Wow. Thank you so much. But, actually, I haven’t bought the property yet.”

“I thought it looked perfect.” She took a slow sip of her tea. “Did you have another place in mind?”

“No. I want it.” I inhaled the fragrant steam, breathing in some confidence along with it. I could still make the dream happen. I knew it. “Damien is concerned that my reality television fame will bring an unwanted element to the farm.”