Page 43 of Wind Called

He didn’t sound upset or suspicious, which she supposed was a good thing. Still, there wasn’t any easy way to do what she needed to do.

“Hi, Jack. I hate to do this, but I’ve had some urgent family business come up and I won’t be able to come in to work today.”

A surprised pause on the other end. Then he said, “Is everything okay?”

Probably not.She said, “Um…I’m fine. But my family really needs me. Hopefully, it won’t be too busy today.”

As soon as those words were out of her mouth, she wanted to wince. True, Tuesdays and Wednesdays tended to be pretty slow at Sedona Vines, but it was never a good idea to suggest that you might be wishing for a quiet day when those were the times when the wine shop barely broke even.

However, Jack didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he’d just decided it was better not to call her out on the comment. “It’ll be fine. Marcy was saying she wanted some more hours, so I’ll get in touch and see if she can come in today.”

Marcy Phillips only worked part-time because she was getting her enology certification at Yavapai Community College, just as Bellamy had. However, she probably had enough wiggle room in her schedule that she could take Bellamy’s shift today.

“Oh, that’s good,” she replied.

“Should I see if she can come in tomorrow, too?”

As much as Bellamy wanted to say no, that everything should be handled today, she had no way of knowing if that was even the truth. It might take Levi longer to find the vortex expert than he’d expected, or it was possible that even if she was directed to the exact right spot to communicate with her voices, they might send her down a rabbit hole that would consume a huge amount of her time.

Either way, it seemed as if she should be cautious here.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Bellamy replied. “But if this is going to take any longer than that, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. Keep in touch.”

He ended the call there — presumably so he could reach out to Marcy — and Bellamy returned her phone to her purse. By that point, they were down the hill and driving through Cottonwood, and she had to admit she felt a little better now that she had the dreaded call over with.

“That sounded like it went okay,” Marc ventured, and she nodded.

“Yes, Jack seemed cool with it. And I’m taking tomorrow off, too, so with any luck, we’ll have all this handled by then.”

“Good.” He was silent for a moment. “It’s almost noon — do you want to grab some lunch somewhere?”

Her stomach had been so knotted during the conversation with the elders that food was about the last thing on her mind, but she realized now that she was hungry. They’d each had a breakfast bar while they were hiking out to the Devil’s Bridge, and she knew that wasn’t enough to hold her until dinner.

Not even close.

“Maybe we should have stopped in Cottonwood,” she said.

That ship had sailed, though, since they were well past Old Town and heading toward 89A. Yes, she supposed they could have turned around, but then another idea occurred to her.

“We can go to Cornville.”

Marc hadn’t been driving, but he’d still had his eyes on the road, keeping watch in case anything cropped up that might require him to take over from the truck and steer manually. Now, though, he looked over at her, expression one of faint surprise.

“Where’s that?” he asked.

She couldn’t help smiling. Yes, his mom’s side of the family might have come from Jerome, but she got the feeling they hadn’t done a whole lot of exploring in the Verde Valley when they’d traveled here to visit the grandparents and instead had gone straight to the place where his mother had grown up.

“It’s a little town sort of on the other end of Page Springs Road,” she said. “When we get to the intersection with 89-A, just keep going straight instead of turning left to go back to Sedona.”

“And what’s in Cornville?”

“Some of the best burgers you’ve ever eaten,” Bellamy replied. “I don’t know about you, but after that hike this morning, I’m starving.”

“So am I,” Marc admitted. He looked pleased at the prospect of some solid food, and who could blame him?

This had been a rough morning no matter how you looked at it.

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