Page 57 of The Rancher's Wedding Deception

The house was a disaster zone.

Bodies everywhere. Not dead—she checked the first one—just passed out. On the marble floor. Against walls. Draped over furniture like expensive laundry.

The Christmas tree listed sideways, ornaments scattered like casualties.

The smell made her stomach rebel even as it growled for food.

She picked her way through the human debris, hunting for the kitchen. Joyce hadn’t bothered with a tour, just pointed out her room and warned her not to embarrass anyone.

The kitchen, when she found it, looked like a magazine spread. All marble and chrome and machines she didn’t recognize.

Voices drifted from somewhere beyond.

She followed them through a smaller door and found her people.

Linoleum floor. Regular coffee maker. An older woman at a normal stove. Two maids eating breakfast. A driver reading a newspaper.

They all stopped when she appeared, but the moment her stomach growled, everyone burst into laughter, the sound completely breaking the ice and making it clear that they were all of the same world.

“Sit down, honey.” The older woman was already reaching for another plate. “I’m Kate, and you must be Andie, Joyce’s niece.”

“I am,” she answered with a tentative smile.

Kate gave her a plate topped with eggs, bacon, and toast while introducing the others. The maids were Eunice and Reece. The driver was Butch. They talked around her, over her, including her without trying, and everything about it felt wonderfully familiar. They almost made her feel like she was back home.

Almost.

About half an hour later, they all heard a car crunch up the drive, and Andie noticed everyone changing looks.

“Do you guys have something to do?” she asked. “Should I go?”

Katie shook her head. “It’s fine. That’s just Mr. Mitropoulos.”

“Should I know him?”

“It’s only because you’re not from around here that you don’t know who he is,” Eunice told her with a grin. “Mr. Mitropoulos is one of the richest men in San Antonio.”

“America,” Reece corrected. ”He’s one of the richest men in America.”

“But he’s also a practicing lawyer during his free time,” Kate added. “And that’s why Mr. Bernard chose him to be the executor of his will. Mr. Mitropoulos looks up to Mr. Bernard as his mentor.”

So...a billionaire businessman who was also a lawyer but much younger than Joyce’s deceased husband?

Andie only had one conclusion after that.

“He sounds terrifying.”

But somehow, this only made her aunt’s staff laugh.

Huh.

Maybe she should just quit her job back home and find work here as a stand-up comedian, with the way everyone in Texas seemed to find her funny even without Andie meaning to.

“If Joyce has her way,” Eunice said slyly, “he might be your uncle soon.”

“Oh.” Lester Bernard had only been gone for three months. But maybe...that was just how some people moved on?

“I don’t know if Joyce has told you anything about the will,” Kate divulged with a tone of faint concern, “but we already know what’s in it. And we’ve already let your aunt know that we intend to leave once the will has been read.”