The Perfect Indulgence (Harlequin Blaze),Used

Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Breathe in .breathe ourbreathe inbreathe out.Chris Meyer sat on a cliff near Aura Beach in her adopted town of Carmia on the Central California coast. She was meditating, in a deep trance, aware only of the breeze on her face, the sounds of the ocean waves rolling in and the slow pattern of her breathing.If anyone had told her a little over five months ago when she and Eva, her sister and fellow coffeeshop owner, had first cooked up the idea of temporarily switching lives, that she would someday practice meditation, she would have laughed and assumed the person had confused her, a typical type A New Yorker, with her laidback Californiagirl twin.However, in the past five months Chris had undergone a total personality transformation, thanks to her daily meditation and yoga classes at the Peace, Love and Joy Center on the outskirts of town. Gone were her uptight, neurotic and analretentive tendencies; she was now relaxed, carefree and brimming with California sunshine and roses.Most of the time.Back in October, if someone had suggested she sit on a cliff for half an hour doing absolutely nothing, she would have scoffed. What could possibly be considered productive about that?She'd learned so much living here. And with Eva's serious boyfriend, Ames Cooke, so far unsuccessful at finding the perfect salesmanager job with a vineyard or distributor here in Central California, Chris wouldn't be switching back to the hectic pace of New York anytime soon.That was good. She wanted to stay here until this change went much deeper than her surroundings. Much deeper than her new casual wardrobe, her new crazy hairstyles Wellactually, they were wigs and temporary hair dyes she'd been experimenting with, but that counted as change, right? Deeper than her new phoenix tattoo, which, admittedly, was tiny and hidden on her rib cage under her arm. And deeper than the row of earrings she'd taken to wearing down the shell of her ear. Although, truth be told, they were cuffs. She didn't want any more holes in her ears. But this was a true transformation. Really. She was going for total calm, ready to say goodbye to the highstrung, anxious, quicktojudge side of her personality. She was also working on freeing her spontaneous, liveinthemoment self from a lifetime spent planning, organizing and following routines, which she'd learned from her parents. When she and Eva had been infants, their parents had put them on strict feeding schedules. As girls, they'd been taught the importance of doing their chores and getting a full eight hours of sleep. For whatever reason their parents' devotion to work before play had not remotely rubbed off on her freespirited twin, but Chris had bought into it 100 percent.The ringing of her cell phone wrenched her from her trance. She'd forgotten to put the pesky device on mute.If she could, she'd leave the phone at home when she meditated, but she was responsible for anything that happened at Slow Pour, her sister's coffee shop, which Chris had been managing over the fall and now into winter.Winterha! Californians shouldn't be allowed to use the term.The call was from Eva. Chris answered eagerly, not having spoken to her sister in a while, unusual for them. "Hey, twin, what's going on? How are you liking February?"Eva groaned. "Given that it's the first of the month, about as much as I loved January.""Yeah, it's bitter here, too. Brr. I think it might have dipped below sixty.""Do not even tell me.""You're a traitor to your Wisconsin roots." Chris smiled, knowing better than to push further, since she'd been on the receiving end of this same teasing from Eva for years. "How's my baby doing?""Good! You might not know it, but NYEspresso is hosting a fabulous Valentine's event in two weeks. You're having a pastry chef in for the day to give lessons on making heartshaped meringues and those hot chocolate cakes with the gooey centers.""Ooh, yum. I am