Page 27 of Wind Called

The image was so silly, she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that we decided to eat in. The courtyard is much more romantic.”

“True.” His gaze strayed to the patio, where the flashes of lightning had already begun to lessen, a signal that the storm was moving away. To the north and west, she thought, so he probably wouldn’t have to contend with it on his way back to Cottonwood. When he looked back at her, though, his expression seemed almost diffident. “So…you have tomorrow off, right?”

“I do,” she said, a nervous little tingle going through her body. It sure looked to her as though Marc Trujillo didn’t plan on going anywhere. “What did you have in mind?”

His fingers found hers, and tightened slightly. “I was kind of hoping you might want to give me a tour of the local wineries.”

Oh, she could do that.

Most definitely.

“It’s a date,” she said.

9

Marc had been worriedthat he might have to fight his way through the thunderstorm while driving back to his hotel, but it looked as if it had veered north rather than heading due west, so it turned out to be a non-issue. All the same, he couldn’t help thanking the storm.

If it hadn’t poured down on them at Bellamy’s place, would they have even kissed?

He honestly couldn’t say for sure. Oh, the attraction had been there…getting stronger by the moment, as far as he’d been able to tell…but without that outer impetus, they might have waited a day or two more.

Maybe.

And when he got inside his room, he found he was far too keyed up to go to sleep right away, so instead he got out his laptop, connected to the hotel’s wifi, and poked around on the Airbnb website, hoping he could find something in West Sedona so he wouldn’t be too far away from Bellamy.

Sure enough, there was a fun little house in a neighborhood only about five minutes from Sedona Vines. He’d known there probably wouldn’t be anything in the area where the house she was caretaking was located, just because they were all big multimillion-dollar homes in that neighborhood and not the sort of thing people would generally offer on a vacation rental site.

But the place he’d found was definitely close enough, so he went ahead and booked it for the next two weeks. Maybe that was being ambitious, but his next commission didn’t start until the twenty-seventh, so he figured he had plenty of time.

Plenty of time to spend with Bellamy.

And when those two weeks were up?

Well, he supposed he’d figure that out when the time came.

For now, though, he thought he’d just play it by ear and hope for the best.

With the rain gone, Bellamy went back out to the courtyard and looked up at the sky. The moon sailed overhead, a little plumper than it had been the day before, and she let out a breath, allowing herself to relax into the afterglow of her goodnight kiss with Marc. She’d walked him to the door, and they’d stood in the foyer for a long moment, each of them understanding that this night needed to end…even as neither of them had wanted to say goodbye.

But they’d already made plans to have brunch at Enchantment Resort in Boynton Canyon before they headed over to Page Springs to visit the wineries there. Luckily, they would all be open, so she wouldn’t have to worry about that.

No, the harder part would be deciding which ones they’d have to skip. If they went and did a wine tasting at all six of them, they’d be positively blotto by the time the afternoon was over.

Well, definitely Angel Hill Cellars, the winery that Connor and Angela owned, and D.A. Ranch, and Page Springs Cellars as well. Their wine was fabulous, and with the way the property backed up to Oak Creek, you really couldn’t pick a prettier spot to hang out and drink a glass of wine and forget about the rest of the world.

She glanced back toward the house and thought of the dream Marc had told her about, of seeing the safe with its precious cargo blocking his way as he tried to go inside.

Had the dream been trying to tell him that protecting the magical artifact might get in the way of their budding romance?

She sure hoped not.

Even though the storm had moved on, the air still felt alive, almost electric. A wild breeze caught her damp hair, and she breathed it in, glad of this chance to let herself absorb what had happened between her and Marc this evening…to let herself think about what it all might mean.

Except….

Were those voices she heard on the wind?

No, she had to be imagining things.

---