“Zayne’s got his own business now—he does custom woodwork for old homes. He made all the gingerbread trim on the Three Sisters houses.” The Three Sisters were three nearly identical smaller, but very fancy, Victorian homes near the Taggart Inn. Tani slid off the desk and onto her feet. “He’s still a bit of an introvert, but who can blame him after the rough start he had in life?”

Andrea cringed inside. She may have played a small part in that rough start he’d had. Correction—she’d definitely played a part in their senior year. She and Zayne had been friends until...they weren’t. Her mind spun, looking for ways to approach this new development.

“The good news,” she started, really looking for good news, “is Zayne is local. He knows about the festivals—” even if she’d never seen him at one “—and he won’t want to ruin one of the town’s biggest events.”

Tani started to respond, then hesitated. “Like I said, Zayne’s still...um...not the most social guy in the world.”

“Meaning he’s still a wild-haired hermit with no-trespassing signs all over his property?” She remembered going up to the Rutledge family home with Tani and Tani’s aunt, Lena Fox, ten years ago to deliver one of the annual community Christmas baskets. Zayne had been the only one living there at the time, and the place had been an overgrown, run-down mess. If he was living like that on Cliff’s old farm, the maze might actually be doomed.

Tani laughed. “Not quite that bad. He’s still got a mountain-man vibe, but not in a scary way. It kinda works on him, to be honest.”

Andrea chewed her lip again. This was...not ideal. But since she didn’t believe in problems anymore, it had to be an opportunity.

She couldn’t help thinking it might just be an opportunity to fail.

CHAPTER TWO

ZAYNE RUTLEDGE TRIED to shake off his irritation as he walked out of the house and down to the woodworking shop. He knew when he bought Cliff Thompson’s place that it would need upkeep—the Victorian house and barn were nearly a hundred and fifty years old. What he hadn’t known was that Cliff had been cobbling half-assed repairs together on the property with bubble gum and baling twine for years. He’d agreed to the direct sale from Cliff to him with no real estate agent to save money for everyone. Part of the deal was no home inspection.

He needed a place where he’d be able to keep up with the ever-increasing volume of work he was getting, and Cliff had a great workshop next to the barn. It was originally the milk house, back in the old days when this was a dairy farm. The long cinder-block building was perfect for Zayne’s growing woodworking business.