Page 14 of Wind Called

“No,” Bellamy replied. “She kind of rotates among the various tasting rooms and resorts in the area. I think she’s at Tantrum maybe twice a month at the most.”

“Then I suppose I got lucky,” he said, but his gaze was fixed on Bellamy’s face, and she got the impression that the “luck” he was talking about didn’t have much to do with Bree’s performance schedule. A certain warmth stirred inside her, one she couldn’t ignore no matter how hard she tried.

“So, are you sticking around for a while?” she asked next, then wanted to shake her head at herself.

Talk about sounding desperate.

“For a few more days,” Marc said. He didn’t appear too concerned by her question, so it didn’t seem as if he thought she was being clingy. “Maybe longer, depending.”

Depending on what?she thought, but decided it was probably better not to ask that question out loud. “You don’t have to get back to work?”

Now he smiled, his dark eyes warming, becoming almost velvety as he gazed back at her.

Damn, he was gorgeous.

“I do landscape design,” he said. “But it’s my own business, so I set the schedule. Anyway, this is a slow time of year for me, thanks to the heat. I don’t have anything on the calendar until the last week of August.”

He didn’t sound too concerned about the whole thing, but she supposed that was probably because he had his clan stipend to pay the bills and therefore didn’t have to worry about any slow periods in his work schedule.

And if he wasn’t even busy until the end of the month….

As best she could, she pushed that thought away. Maybe Marc Trujillo was fancy free for the next few weeks, but her own boss was expecting her at work at noon on Tuesday, so it wasn’t as if she could drop everything to hang out with the handsome newcomer.

Not that he’d even shown any indication that was what he wanted from her.

“Actually,” he went on, “I had something I needed to talk to you about, but I’m not sure this is the best venue.”

His gaze moved past her over to the chair where Bree sat with her guitar and sang, and then on to the people who occupied the other sofas and conversation areas. Clearly, he thought this was far too public a place for whatever topic he wanted to discuss.

“Does it have anything to do with what we talked about yesterday?” Bellamy asked, and he nodded.

Since she knew he was staying at the hotel just down the street, it probably would have been simpler to suggest that they finish their glasses of wine and head over there.

However, something prompted her to say, “We could go to my place.”

To her surprise, Marc didn’t even hesitate, but immediately replied, “That’s a good idea. It’s over in Sedona, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “Off Dry Creek Road. You can follow me.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They both went quiet then as they finished their glasses of wine — or in Marc’s case, gulped down most of it, since he’d barely started drinking his. Maybe not the smartest thing to do when they were about to drive to Sedona, but Bellamy told herself it was only one glass, not enough to make him even close to impaired.

Seeing that both their glasses were empty, Alyssa came over and asked if they wanted another round. They demurred, and Marc dug a twenty out of his wallet and handed it over, surprising Bellamy a little. She hadn’t expected him to pay, not when she’d ordered her drink way before he even showed up.

But she knew protesting would only delay their departure, so instead she thanked him for picking up the tab, lifted one hand in a small wave to Bree — who inclined her head, acknowledging the goodbye — and then followed him outside.

“Are you parked at your hotel?” she asked, and he nodded.

“Do you want to meet me in the lot there? I’m driving the gray Nissan truck.”

“Sounds good,” she said, and then watched as he walked down the sidewalk toward his hotel, which was about a block away from the winery.

Her Fiat was parked right at the curb, so she went ahead and got inside and started the engine, then drove over to the parking lot. Sure enough, Marc was climbing into his truck as she pulled up, so she waited until he was ready and then pulled back out onto Main Street, following it until she got to Mingus Boulevard and could turn left to get back out to the highway.

Through all of this, she drove conservatively, since she didn’t know how familiar he was with Cottonwood and didn’t want to ditch him before they turned onto 89A and headed north toward Sedona. But he remained firmly in her rearview mirror the whole time, and soon enough, they were on the open road.

Was it crazy to have him come back to the house? After all, she barely knew the guy.

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