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CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER ONE
“WEHAVEAPROBLEM.”
“No, we don’t.” Andrea Wentworth looked over the rim of her coffee cup at her friend. “I’ve already told you—thereareno problems, only opportunities.”
Taneisha Warren folded her arms, leaning against the opening to Andrea’s cubicle in Brady College’s administrative offices. “Yeah? Well, let me rephrase. We have theopportunityto not have a corn maze for the festival.”
Andrea pushed back from her desk, ignoring the thread of panic those words caused.
“Impossible. The corn maze has been on Cliff Thompson’s farm for over twenty years. We were there when this year’s maze was planted back in May, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.” Tani sat on the corner of Andrea’s desk. They were the only people in the office that early August Saturday. “And doyouremember that Cliff seemed a little out of it that day? He didn’t even remember that we were coming with the television crew from Rochester.”
Andrea bit her lip. Shedidremember that. “Cliff’s in his seventies, right? I just figured it was an age thing.”
“Sweetie, Cliff is eighty-five. And—” Tani paused, clearly not wanting to say what came next “—he doesn’t own the farm anymore.”
“I’m sorry...what?”
Okay. This wasn’t a problem. Itcouldn’tbe, because she’d declared that this year’s Blessing of the Grapes Festival would be problem-free. It was her first year as chairperson of one of the festivals that made Rendezvous Falls famous. At the youthful age of thirty-seven, she was the youngest chairperson ever. This was a town that took its festivalsveryseriously, and where the elder matriarchs tended to run things until they dropped. She needed a successful festival—animpeccablefestival.
Andrea was eyeing the newly vacant job of director of academic advising at Brady College. Pete Greenfeld had left for a larger university in Boston. Andrea was one of the advisers on staff, and she wanted Pete’s job. Unfortunately, so did Steve Menkes. And even though she’d been working here longer and had outworked Steve at every turn, the dean kept mumbling aboutleadership experience. How was she supposed to get experience if they never let her lead anything? That was why she’d scrambled this spring to take the chair position on the festival when Marion Hall had to step down to have hip surgery. There couldnotbe a problem with this festival.
Tani put her hand over Andrea’s. “I guess Cliff’s memory issues got pretty serious, bless him. His family moved him into an assisted living place near them in Pittsburgh.”
“How did we notknowthis?Wouldn’t we have heard when the farm went on the market?”
“They sold it directly to a friend of Cliff’s. No broker.”
Andrea scowled at her desk. “Wait a minute!” She snapped her fingers. “We had a contract with Cliff, right? It’s like if there’s a renter with a lease when a property is sold. The lease generally carries over.”Problem solved.“So thisisan opportunity. We can build a relationship with the farm’s new owner!”
“I don’t think you underst—”
“Tani, it’s fine.”It had to be fine.“Do you know who bought it? They’re probably wondering why we haven’t reached out before now. I’ll drive up there, introduce myself and get this all sorted.”
Her friend didn’t look convinced. “I couldn’t find any contracts in the festival file boxes, so I asked Iris Taggart, and she thinks Cliff was what she called one of theirhandshake partners. She said in the early days of the festivals, a lot of things were done that way—friend-to-friend agreements.”
Andrea’s mouth fell open. “No contract?” She blinked. How could that happen in the twenty-first century? “But we’ve already paid for the maze. It’splanted.”
“That’s the thing...”
“Tani, we watched it being planted.” She had a horrifying thought. “Oh, God, have they plowed it under or something? Tell me they haven’t plowed it under.”
“More like theor something. It hasn’t been plowed under, but Mike and Zoey drove by there this week and said it’s looking...overgrown.”
“Well, overgrown isn’t a big deal.It’s supposed to be tall so people can’t see their way out.”
“It’s also supposed to have trails for them to follow.”
“Of course. Cliff always...” He kept the pathways mowed short and neat all year. It was a point of pride for the old guy. But mowing could happen anytime.Right?
“Who bought Cliff’s farm? Was it someone local?”
