Seduce Me Sweetly (Heron's Landing Book 1) by Iris Morland

of revenue for Heron’s Landing, and if it shut down, she was sure the town would end up hurting as a result. It attracted tourists from all over the state and the country. She didn’t really understand why Adam was resistant to doing events, but maybe he felt like he couldn’t do it without assistance?
    An idea sprang to mind. She was no events coordinator, but she knew enough about marketing and social media to lend a hand. Plus, if she wrote about the vineyard doing weddings and had it published in a nationwide magazine? Jackpot.
    She began filing away ideas in her mind, thinking about who’d she’d contact about writing the story, and how she’d go about getting Adam to see the light. Perhaps if she just went ahead and did it, he’d see the positive results and go from there? Her logical side said that he’d probably be furious if she went behind his back, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t plan behind his back, either.
    Joy had a deep need to be useful to those around her, and in the two weeks she’d been in Heron’s Landing, she’d only gotten so far as to interview Mike in the general store about a new kind of grape he was stocking. It wasn’t breaking news or Nobel-prize winning journalism, but she liked that she was writing about things that a few people in the town would like to be aware existed. After getting as much out of Mike as she could—the man was of few words, and it was like pulling teeth to get him to say complete sentences—she’d written a short article, titled “Heron’s Landing Great New Grape.” Not her best work, but hey, she could generate some revenue from Google ads at the end of the day, too.
    The article had gone up this morning on the newly created Heron’s Landing blog, while Joy had also verbally told as many townsfolk as she could about the new online publication. Most people were nonplussed, while a few of the younger people were interested, but again, it was a start. Joy didn’t plan on making tons of money, and her other freelance gigs were paying the rent, but she liked to think she was making her mark on this small town all the same.
    Grace soon overcame her mood and became the bright, bubbly young woman who Joy was rather enjoying having as a friend already. And thankfully, she’d agreed to call Joy by her first name. Joy felt a little guilty teasing her about Jaime—who knew how deep that infatuation went?—but obviously, Grace wasn’t one to hold grudges or get easily offended.
    When Grace was leaving, though, she said in a soft voice, “Sometimes I don’t think I know what I want to do.”
    Joy, standing at the front door, didn’t know how to respond. She preferred to keep things light and funny, not serious. But Grace’s face was taut with some emotion Joy couldn’t identify.
    “You’ll figure it out,” Joy said with as much assurance as she could. “You’re young: you have your entire life to figure things out.”
    Grace smiled sadly before she turned to go. She said a goodbye, but Joy wondered how much of her words were about Jaime, or about her life in general. Sometimes Joy saw a kind of loneliness in Grace that surprised her, and even a lost-ness of sorts. Despite the bubbly exterior, something else simmered underneath.
    Joy closed her door, leaning against it with a sigh. She had a feeling she was getting in over her head with the ever-increasingly complicated Danvers family.
     
    ***
     
    Why won’t you return my calls?
    Joy glanced at the text from Jeremy and almost blocked his number entirely. He’d texted her twice previously, and now he wouldn’t let up. What did even want from her? He was the one who’d cheated, not her.
    Cranky and tired, she replied, Because you cheated on me and I don’t want to talk to you? I’m not sure why this is so complicated.
    She probably shouldn’t antagonize him—sometimes she thought Jeremy loved fighting as much as anything—but she was tired of this. She’d left Chicago for a number of