Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
REECE
I spot Andi the moment I step away from the festival bar. Her back is to me, but I’m sure it’s her—as sure as if we’d known each other for decades. She’s wearing different clothing from this morning, but a fringe of green hair escapes from the bottom of her beaded headscarf. She sits across the table from Teo and Hans. I debate intruding—she doesn’t appear to be in any distress this time.
I have no reason to join them and a million reasons to stay away. I have a job to do here, tonight—I came to the fest to network. Meet the locals and connect with people. I already know all three of them, so I should spend my valuable time meeting someone new.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
I look for a place to sit, but there isn’t an empty bench in the entire biergarten , except the small space next to Andi. I thought this would be the place to find the right people, but I need an in. Unlike my sister, I can’t just barge up to a group of people and join the conversation. I hate this. I should have brought Katie—schmoozing people is her secret power. But she’s at college in Seattle, and I’m not going to jeopardize her studies—or interfere with her social life—to do something I can and should do myself.
As I loiter near the bar, I notice a steady stream of people stopping to chat with Andi and her companions. Everyone who walks by says hello, and many stop for a brief conversation. Maybe I should join the crowd—they can be my “in.”
Now that I’ve justified myself, I wait for a break, then stroll up to the table. “Is this seat taken?”
Andi jumps and swings around. She looks up, eyes wide, and an incomprehensible sound escapes from her lips.
“There’s room for one more.” Teo waves a hand at the end of his sister’s bench. “Andi, budge over.”
I frown. A few weeks ago, he warned me to stay away, and now he’s inviting me to sit down. What is Teo’s deal? And maybe I have the royalty thing completely wrong. Surely royals wouldn’t be sitting with the riffraff at a public festival. Maybe Andi’s social media presence is satire. Making a mental note to ask my sister, I nod my thanks and wait for her to move.
Andi scoots closer to the large man on her left, and I perch on the edge of the bench beside her, our shoulders and knees bumping. Ignoring the little zing of attraction, I reach across the table to her brother. “Hey, Teo. Good to see you.”
He shakes firmly. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in ages. That’s my sister, Andi.” He nods at her. “And you know Hans. And before you ask, yes, he is the Hans Ingolf.” He smirks at his friend.
“Been busy.” I nod at Andi, then offer a hand to the slim young man across the table. “I’m sorry, should I know you?”
Hans bursts out laughing. He lifts his nose and affects some kind of snooty accent. “You must be new in town. I was the child prodigy star of my father’s band.” He juts a thumb at the small stage, where the band members chat and riffle through their music.
I do a double take. The mostly white-haired musicians wear bright blue and white checked T-shirts with the words High Alpine Players on the front. The image contrasts dramatically with the heavy metal that assaulted my ears as I parked my car. This must be a different group.
“I suppose that explains the calluses.” I nod at his hand. “Guitar?”
Andi snickers. “That would be cool, but no.”
Hans waves his fingers at us. “Accordion calluses are a real thing.”
“But not cool.” Andi turns to Teo. “You guys know each other?”
As Teo explains how we met, I sip my beer, watching Andi in my peripheral vision. It would appear she hasn’t mentioned our meeting to her brother.
“What brought you to Rotheberg, Reece?” Her gaze burns into me, almost as if challenging me to reveal our past interactions.
“I’m renovating a ranch east of town.”
“The Mead place?” Hans points at Teo. “I told you Mrs. Mead finally sold, right?” He turns back to me. “She’s held onto that place for a while, but neither of her sons want to run it.”
I lift both hands to claim ignorance. “My employers bought it from a trust. You seem to know more about it than me.”
Andi finally speaks up. “Hans knows everyone in town. And everything. His parents are dug into the community.” She licks her lips. “Um, didn’t you have an English accent? Where’d the drawl come from?”
I can feel my brows draw down as I try to figure out her intentions. Does her brother know we met before? Twice? Or am I supposed to pretend this is our first encounter? “My mother is British, but my dad is Texan. The accent comes and goes, depending on my location and the company. Your accent reminds me of the UK.” I have no interest in playing the princess’s game, whatever it is. But I can’t bring myself to cause her any trouble. Something about her speaks to me. Maybe it’s that fiercely independent streak that had her traipsing across London on her own.
Hans snaps his fingers and points at me. “Now the ranch thing makes sense. I heard a British dude was flipping the potato farm.”
“Not a potato farm. Not anymore.”
“What are you doing with it?” Andi plays with her plastic beer stein, avoiding my eyes as she asks.
Clearly, we’re pretending we don’t know each other. “I’m not sure. We originally talked about trying to sell it as an event venue, but the county shut that down. It might be a cattle farm. Free-range, grass fed, small herd. High-end product. Or we’ll sell it to a retiree from the valley.”
She looks up in surprise. “I thought your employers were moving into the house.”
Teo and Hans frown at each other, then look back at us. I guess we aren’t keeping secrets. Maybe our encounters have been so inconsequential she didn’t bother mentioning me to her brother. Why does that send a little arrow of distress through me? “The actual plan is to renovate and sell, but we want it comfortable enough to attract a good buyer. The owners might come to stay a while before we sell. It’s not set in stone.”
“Renovated?” Teo gives Andi a puzzled look. “Is that the house you helped Kellie with this morning?”
She nods.
Teo turns to me, his face less friendly. “What’s going on here? Do you two know each other?”
Andi leans across the table. “Reece is a client of Kellie’s. Back off, big brother. Nothing going on here.”
Teo holds up both hands. “I wasn’t suggesting there was.”
“But now we’re imagining all kinds of things.” Hans leers, and his brows jump up and down suggestively.
“No, we’re not.” Teo frowns at Hans.
“I am.”
Andi slaps both hands on the table with a crack. “There’s nothing going on. We met in London, and?—”
“Wait, who said anything about London?” Teo gives me a narrow-eyed look. “Now I think Hans might be onto something.”
Hans raises a hand for a high five, but the others ignore him. He shrugs and picks up his beer, muttering under his breath. The two siblings glare at each other.
“Hey, Hans!” A tall, blonde woman stops by the table. “When are you getting up on stage?”
“Rachel!” He jumps up to give her a hug. “I’m not playing today. I’m out of practice.” He does a squeezing motion with his hands as he wiggles his fingers.
The woman claps her hand on Hans’s shoulder. “You’re always amazing.” She gives the other two a nod. “Good to see you all.”
Teo and Andi stop glaring at each other and turn identical expressions on the woman—pleasant but not overly friendly. Probably something they learned at royalty school, if there is such a thing.
Teo rises to shake hands with the woman. “Nice to see you, too. May I present Reece Turner?” He turns to me. “This is Rachel Foster-Hertzsprung. She taught us math at Rotheberg High School.”
I follow Teo’s lead, rising to clasp the woman’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Foster-Hertz?—”
She takes pity on me with a chuckle. “Call me Rachel. And it’s just Foster. I didn’t actually hyphenate my name.” She pokes Hans’s shoulder. “Despite what some people suggested.”
Hans lifts his beer. “ I suggested Otradovec-Foster-Stein-Hertzsprung.”
Rachel shakes her head with a mock disappointed expression. “Always the same Hans. Nice to meet you, Reece. Enjoy your evening.”
“Bye, Ms. Foster.” Andi waves at the other woman, looking less like a princess and more like a typical American girl, now.
The blonde returns the gesture and heads across the small roped-off area to join another crowded table. There’s some jostling, then a tall, handsome man pulls her onto his lap amid general laughter.
I gape at the couple. “Is that Blake Stein? The singer?”
Andi grabs my arm and pulls me down to the bench. “Yes. He grew up here. You know him?”
“I’m from Texas. We eat and breathe country music down there.” The drawl comes on thick, and I hide a wince. I try to maintain a bland mid-Atlantic accent most of the time, but the accent pops out when I’m not careful. “You said Foster Stein … She’s his wife?”
“Yup. Got married a year ago.” Hans peers over his shoulder, then swivels back to us and gestures at Teo with a smug smile. “We were guests.”
“You were a guest.” Teo sips his beer. “I was a bartender. Andi was… at home.” He raises his brows at his sister.
She gives a tiny headshake.
I look away, pretending I didn’t notice. No one has mentioned the royalty thing. “I’m sure that was an amazing event.”
Teo finishes off his beer and sets the mug down with a hollow thunk. “You were going to tell us about London.”
Andi lifts a shoulder in a seemingly casual shrug. “We met on the subway—the Tube. He made sure I found my way back to my apartment.”
“Where was Celeste?” Teo’s sharp tone belies his bland expression.
“I told you about that. We got… separated.”
Teo gives her a hard look that clearly says they’ll discuss this more later, then turns to me. “If you’re planning to flip the house, does that mean you’re moving back to Texas?”