Pumpkin Spice Promise

Chloe Merritt has three weeks to save her café's fall menu.The plan is simple: create an original pumpkin spice blend using locally sourced ingredients. The problem is equally simple — the best pumpkins in the county belong to Owen Calloway, and Owen Calloway isn't interested in doing business with anyone from town.He has his reasons.Last season a restaurant owner shook his hand, placed an order, and canceled mid-harvest when a cheaper supplier came along. Owen lost money, lost time, and confirmed what he'd already suspected: people who show up with big ideas and city energy don't stay when things get inconvenient. So when Chloe arrives at his gate with a notebook full of flavor ratios and more enthusiasm than he knows what to do with, his answer is immediate.No.Except Dale — Owen's quietly persistent uncle — has other ideas.What begins as a reluctant, deadline-driven arrangement slowly becomes something neither of them planned for. Chloe learns that the best ingredients have a history, and that slowing down long enough to understand where something comes from changes the way it tastes. Owen discovers that creativity isn't a shortcut — it's its own kind of discipline. And somewhere between early mornings in a frost-threatened field and late nights testing spice ratios at a kitchen table, the distance between them starts to close in ways that have nothing to do with the recipe.The Pumpkin Spice Promise is a warm, slow-burn clean romance about two people who see the world differently, a blend that takes ten attempts to get right, and the particular magic of autumn — when everything ripens at exactly the right moment.Use the "e;Look Inside"e; feature to start reading today and discover why some recipes are worth every attempt it takes to perfect them.