Oh, Christmas Tea: Love on Belmont, #0.3

By Lori Wolf-Heffner

Can tea and Christmas magic mend a broken heart?

 

Claire and Richard are preparing Claire's Tea Shop for the 40th Annual Christmas Sale and Tea Party. When Pauline, their oldest daughter, surprises them with news of a dream opportunity for herself, Claire and Richard know their family has been touched by Christmas magic.

 

Until they see that Pauline's broken heart is holding her back from believing in herself.

 

Again.

 

Claire and Richard want Pauline to follow her dreams. Can their special blend of love flush out the hurt in their daughter's heart?

 

Oh, Christmas Tea is the third short story prequel to Tea Shop for Two, the first book in Lori Wolf-Heffner's Love on Belmont. Lose yourself once more in Claire and Richard's love story as they try to help their daughter reach for her dreams…with a little Christmas fun, too. This short story is best enjoyed over four or five cups of your favourite tea.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lori Wolf-Heffner
• Release date: Dec 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781989465226

Book preview

Oh, Christmas Tea

OH, CHRISTMAS TEA

A SHORT STORY PREQUEL TO TEA SHOP FOR TWO, PART OF THE LOVE ON BELMONT SERIES

LORI WOLF-HEFFNER

© 2020 Lori Wolf-Heffner

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Some characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Editing by Susan Fish

Cover design by Fresh Design

Canada’s Ballet Jörgen used with permission.

Kitchener Blizzard used with permission.

Cover photographs from Shutterstock

Print ISBN: 978-1-989465-23-3

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-989465-22-6

Head in the Ground Publishing

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

headintheground.com

Vellum flower icon Created with Vellum

To Dad: tea, Earl Grey, hot.

CONTENTS

Oh, Christmas Tea—A Short Story

Acknowledgments

Afterword

Stay in Touch

Enjoy All the Love on Belmont Books

About Lori

OH, CHRISTMAS TEA—A SHORT STORY

Crash .

Claire covered her ears with her hands, though it was too late: the glass bowl originally destined to become one of a dozen Christmas centrepieces had shattered into pieces on the floor of Claire’s Tea Shop, crashing into the melodic sounds of Barbra Streisand’s Christmas album playing over the sound system.

Six-year-old Austin, grandson of Claire’s best friend, Jan, opened his eyes and mouth wide and Claire knew a giant wail would explode from his small lungs any moment.

She kept her hands on her ears.

Richard, Claire’s husband, came running from the back room. Once he spotted the scattered shards of glass, he disappeared again, re-emerging a minute later with a newspaper, broom, and dustpan. After handing the supplies to his wife of thirty-eight years, he led Austin to the lounge area at the back of the tea shop and café, where the floors were clear, and gave him a bottle of water and some Cheerios from Austin’s babysitter bag.

Claire’s knees ached as she crouched to place the large shards onto the newspaper. If Pauline were here, this wouldn’t have happened, she muttered to herself.

Her daughter should have arrived an hour ago to help Claire and Richard prepare for Claire’s Tea Shop’s 40 th Annual Sale and Tea Party, which would take place the next day. Claire had amassed a large and loyal longstanding following, and many of her customers didn’t hesitate to bring their friends and families to her events in Belmont Village, the quaint shopping strip in Kitchener where Claire’s Tea Shop was. To say she expected to be busy tomorrow was an understatement.

But not only her pride was at stake in the event going off without a hitch. Claire needed to earn enough money during the Christmas season to hire help in the new year. In years past she had hired friends and family to help at the shop, but life had moved on for everyone, as it always did: Jan hoped to sell her hair salon next year and travel with Sedrick. Claire’s older daughter, Pauline, lived and worked in Ottawa, while her younger daughter, Dawn, lived with her husband and three young kids—including a baby—in Vancouver. Running the tea shop and café on her own left her too drained for Richard by the time she got home. She smiled to herself and shook off goosebumps as she imagined what they could do at night if she weren’t so tired all the time…

Richard smiled at his wife as he rejoined her to clean up the broken glass. Pauline’ll be the life of the party tomorrow, and no one will notice that one centrepiece is missing.

Richard was right. Claire’s advertising focused on photos with