Sheila Roberts - The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane

Quoting her mother made her remember the book she’d tossed on the guest room dresser. Other than cookbooks and Bon Appétit, she wasn’t a big reader, but her mother had obviously wanted her to read this newest book of hers. Well, she had nothing else to do.

She fetched the book and settled back on the couch with it. She ran her fingers along the gold-embossed script. New Beginnings. That was her.

She studied the artsy photograph of a red rose blooming in a blurred black-and-white garden. “Looks like a gardening book,” she muttered as she opened it to the first page. But her mother wouldn’t have given her this if she didn’t think there was something in it for her. She began to read.

Death in Winter, Growth in Spring

A garden is God’s constant reminder to us that we live in a world of change, a world of birth, death and rebirth. What happens to us is often exactly like what happens in our gardens.

What had happened to her had been nothing like what happened with the little garden she’d been growing in pots on her apartment patio. She’d lovingly watered her basil, rosemary and mint, and everything had thrived. She’d worked hard to grow her business, and that should have thrived, too.

Winter comes and the garden dies. But in reality it’s not dead. It’s merely dormant, waiting for the warmth of a new spring to bring back to life those perennials we so enjoyed the year before.

Bailey frowned. There was no bringing back her catering career.

It’s often the same with our lives. We plan for certain things and hope for positive outcomes, dream big dreams, only to see our plans crumble and our dreams die.

Now Bailey felt as though her mother had written this just for her. Was Mama psychic?

You may be mourning the death of a dream, but you don’t have to mourn without hope. Like a flower in winter experiencing a period of dormancy, use this time to heal and gather strength for spring, when a new dream will crop up.

Bailey frowned and tossed the book on the coffee table. She wasn’t going to be a caterer again, so she didn’t see how any new dream could “crop up.” Anyway, it was already spring, and she was all dead and shriveled.

What was on the Food Network now?

* * *

Luke did manage to register higher on the zing-o-meter dial later that night when he kissed Cecily at her door. It started as a soft kiss, with his fingers threading through her hair, and then got a little more adventurous with his tongue teasing the corners of her mouth. Okay, that was nice.

But was it as nice as Todd’s kiss?

Todd Black was a practiced seducer. Comparing the two men, Luke, who was Mr. Upright and Noble, and Todd, who was... Well, it was like comparing Superman and Jack Sparrow.

But she liked Jack Sparrow.

You are not going to get your heart broken again, she informed herself.

Except she didn’t know for sure that Todd was going to break her heart.

This was awful, like choosing between dark and white chocolate.

Oh, now there was a great analogy—comparing an important life choice to picking a favorite candy.

She had to make a decision. Which man do you want?

“Both” was not an acceptable answer. Anyway, you already decided.

Bailey was still parked on the couch and still vegging out in front of the TV when she came in. Different show but still the Food Network. “Did you guys have a good time?” she asked, using the remote to destroy the evidence.

“We did,” Cecily said.

“He’s a nice guy.”

Yes, he was. And a smart woman would pick the nice guy.

But when she drifted off to sleep, she found herself in a wedding gown, climbing aboard a pirate ship. And there to meet her was Todd Black wearing pirate clothes and guyliner.

“What am I doing here?” she cried, taking in the seedy ship and his equally seedy crew, who looked suspiciously like the regulars at The Man Cave.

“Hey, YOLO,” said Todd the pirate.

“You mean, yo-ho-ho,” she corrected him.

“I mean YOLO. You only live once,” he said and held out a tankard of rum.

The dream went from her drinking rum while Todd’s crew sang the same ditty sung by the Pirates in Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride to doing a wild tango with Todd. He was just making her walk the plank in her bra and panties when she woke up.

Oh, good grief. What was she doing?

Chapter Six

After church the Sterling women gathered at Samantha and Blake’s house to celebrate Mother’s Day. Blake’s parents had come over from Seattle for the occasion, and his grandparents, Tom and Janice Lind, were present, as well. Samantha had prepared a chicken casserole, and Caesar and fruit salads, and Bailey had contributed rosemary scones and a white chocolate cheesecake to round out the menu.

Cecily had made brown sugar facial scrubs for all the women, while Bailey, who was in charge of drinks and had made Bellinis, handed them to guests as they waited for Sunday brunch to make its way to the table.

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