Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Caleb arrives in Frostwick Harbor determined to make Cloud Nine Coffee a success. His café is full of seasonal drinks, mismatched tables, and chatty customers. Caleb gets along with everyone, and he can’t understand why the gorgeous, sharp-tongued man at Frost + Foam refuses to speak to him.
When the Harvest Festival committee pressures them into collaborating on a signature fall drink, Rhys reluctantly agrees. He knows working side by side with Caleb will be torture. Not because they disagree on everything about coffee, but because Rhys finds Caleb far too hot and intriguing. Caleb’s warmth slips past Rhys’s defenses, and Rhys gives up control of more than just lattes.
But Caleb wants a relationship lived openly, while Rhys has spent his whole life avoiding scrutiny and small-town gossip. Falling for Caleb means embracing attention, vulnerability, and the terrifying possibility of being truly seen.
As autumn settles over Frostwick Harbor, Rhys must choose between protecting the ordered life he's always known and taking a chance on the man who makes him want more
Harvest Heat is a cozy MM romance with plenty of spice featuring grumpy/sunshine dynamics, opposites attract, small-town charm, a neurodivergent hero, and plenty of fall vibes
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
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.