Luke chuckled softly. “There were a few times when I drove up that dirt road to the old trailer that I half expected you to greet me with a shotgun.” He paused. “I’m proud of how you’ve turned things around in the past few years. It took Whitney to pull me through, but you did it on your own. Found a job you loved. Built a business. Bought a place.” He looked around. “I told you I was on your side, and that’s why I gotta tell you—none of this matters without love in your life. And you have that.”

“I know. But—”

“No buts when it comes to love. We’re the Rutledge boys, remember? When we find a woman who doesn’t see that before she sees us... Well, we need to hang on to that woman. You need to hang on to Andrea.”

Zayne winced. “I want to, but her mother managed to turn her against me before.” If he gave her his heart completely, it would crush him to lose her.

Luke leaned forward, looking up into Zayne’s eyes. “You can’t live in fear of what might happen—especially something as unlikely as that. Our upbringing made us one way, and her upbringing made her another. We’ve all had a chance to evolve in twenty years.” Luke clapped his hand on Zayne’s shoulder. “Take it from me—a woman’s love can heal a lot of wounds, brother.”

“But what if I’ve already blown it?”

Luke chuckled. “We really need to work on that cheery disposition of yours. Stop defeating yourself before you’ve started. Did she tell you what it’ll take to win her back?”

Call me when you’re ready...

“She wants me to give her my all.”

“So...do it.”

Zayne nodded, staring down the hill. To the maze. Which was still a raggedy mess. They’d managed to get the design roughly mowed, but it was hardly the smooth pathways everyone said Cliff had provided. The festival was a week away. He looked around. The whole farm looked...tired.

He pulled his phone out again, and his brother sighed.

“Her text isn’t going to change.”

“Maybe not.” He started to dial. “But her plans are about to.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

IT WAS THE opening morning of the Blessing of the Grapes Festival, and Andrea was running down Main Street in a panic.

“Tani!” she shouted, waving a fistful of brochures in the air. “What is this?”

“What is what? Slow down!” Tani excused herself from one of the festival’s vendors, who was setting up a food tent in the expansive park near Brady College. “And stop yelling,” she hissed. “You’re gonna freak everyone out.”

“Well, I’m freaked out.” She stopped to catch her breath. “The brochures still say there’s a corn maze! You said you were going to cover that up with stickers or something. What happened?”