Who knew that a small tea room, a garden project in progress, and one charmingly opinionated coastal community could brew such a tempest? Newly widowed Lucy Fischer is expecting a quieter chapter as she prepares to open her cottage door to customers along California's beautiful Monterey Peninsula. Instead, her new venture attracts a parade of friends, neighbors, busybodies, and well-meaning advisers-each with a theory about how Lucy should live, whom she should see, and, most importantly, what a woman her age has any business doing with romance. Amidst local politics, garden gossip, and the relentless scrutiny of people who apparently have far too much time to pause for sips and scones, Lucy discovers that starting over is rarely tidy and never happens entirely on one's own terms. Life can be at once poignant and joyful, daunting and seductive, and beneath all the unsolicited advice and whispered opinions, something unexpected is taking root. Could it be that Fate has a better plan than she might have imagined? Sometimes true love is closer than we think...perhaps just beyond our own back door.