Pumpkins & Pie at the Village Shops: 1

He destroyed four of her pumpkin pies. Then he questioned everything she was fighting to save.Ruby Miller inherited her grandmother's bakery, her recipes, and a legacy everyone in Laurel Ridge seems determined to protect.The problem?Miller's Family Bakery is quietly failing.Ruby has one autumn to turn things around, and the Harvest Festival could be her best chance-until traveling food writer Jasper Reid crashes into her display with a cup of coffee and an inconvenient opinion about pumpkin spice.He thinks tradition can become a trap.Ruby thinks he should stay out of her kitchen.Then a festival challenge makes them partners.Now they're spending long days testing recipes, arguing over what should change and what deserves to stay, and discovering that attraction can sneak up somewhere between burnt crusts and late-night coffee.But Jasper came to Laurel Ridge looking for a story.And when his words threaten the people Ruby loves-and the bakery she's spent years trying to save-she has to decide whether some things really can survive being changed.Her grandmother's legacy.Her future.And the man who might understand both better than she ever expected.Because sometimes keeping what matters means making it your own.This was originally published as part of the Meet Cute in the Smoky Mountains, it has been rewritten and expanded for Love in Laurel Ridge