T he Mexican sun beat down as Alina stood on the wraparound veranda of the shady farmhouse, watching the only road in.
Parrots darted and called between the dense trees. Normally she loved watching their antics, but not today. When the phone rang she dashed into the house to snatch it up… ‘Hello?’
‘We’re about five minutes away,’ said Javier, her estate manager and friend.
‘Thanks, Javi.’ She put the phone down. The birds had been temporarily silenced by its ring. Now all she could hear was the slowly spinning ceiling fan and the hammering of her heart. Get a grip, she told herself. Breathe.
Look at the state she was in!
The coffee farm had been open to the public for months, but few dared drive the hairpin bends and crumbling roads to reach it. Alina had arranged for a minibus to pick the visitors up in town and drop them off near the base of the mountain, where Javi collected them in the truck for the bumpy final stage.
Thankfully, people seemed to think it
