“It’s the corn maze.” She gestured down the hill, where a jumbled mix of corn and hay was growing. He figured it was another one of Cliff’s weird ideas. He just hadn’t had time to plow it under yet.

“That’s a corn maze?”

“It’s supposed to be.” She grimaced. “The Blessing of the Grapes Festival is next month. I’m the chairperson.”

“And?”

They followed Hudson down the hill toward the shop. Zayne had always done his best to steer clear of the Rendezvous Falls festivals. That wasn’t easy, since they seemed to be constant in this town, clogging the roads with traffic and tourists. He knew they kept local businesses going, but it was torture for someone like him, who hated crowds.

Andrea had to hurry to keep up with his longer stride, but he didn’t slow for her. He had work to do.

“Look,” she said breathlessly, “that’s our corn maze. We paid for it. It has to be cleaned up and ready.”

Her son was running his hands through the tiger lilies growing by the entrance to the shop as if he was playing a colorful harp. Zayne stopped by Andrea’s car, hoping she’d take the hint.

“Ready for what?”

“For the festival!” Andrea threw her hands in the air as if he’d just asked the stupidest question. “We bus people to the farm from the festival and they go through the maze. Kids love it. Families love it. Everyone loves it. And it’s the biggest fundraiser we have.”

“Fundraiser for who?”

“For the committee, of course. We have to pay for insurance, advertising and prizes, then we need seed money for next year’s festival, and the remaining money goes into a fund to support the local vineyards.” Andrea looked up at him. “Did I mention Cliff has hosted the maze for over twenty years?”

None of this was making any sense—probably since he didn’t care about any of those things. Except maybe the local vineyards, since his brother Luke ran one of them.

“Cliff doesn’t own the farm anymore. And I am not letting buses full of tourists come up here. Your ten minutes are up—” Her face fell, but there was no way he was allowing crowds of people on this farm. Then he thought of something she’d said. “What did you mean before when you said you paid for it?”

She brightened, probably thinking she still had a chance. She didn’t. He was just curious.