Page 11 of Demon Loved
“They have a good selection,” she replied. “And I’ve had pretty much all of them, thanks to performing all over the Verde Valley.”
He hadn’t thought about that aspect of her employment — probably because he hadn’t noticed her drinking anything but water when she was performing earlier — but he supposed he could see how she would have been exposed to all the various vintages the local wineries offered.
After studying the wine list for a moment, she said something called Sandy Jones, a white blend from a vineyard called Chateau Tumbleweed, would be perfect for their meal. And her timing was excellent, since a moment later their server appeared and asked what they would like to drink. Belshegar thought he noted a subtle interaction between the two women, barely more than a very slight tilt of the waitress’s head toward Brianna, and an even fainter lift at the corner of Brianna’s mouth.
Clearly, they were acquainted with one another, not so strange a coincidence, considering she’d lived here all her life and her brother was the head chef at this restaurant. Still, the interaction put Belshegar that much more on edge, simply because it reinforced the impression that he truly was on his own here, surrounded by people he guessed would present a unified front against any outside intrusions.
As best he could, he brushed that unsettling thought away and then asked for the bottle Brianna had suggested. Since they already knew what they wanted to eat — and because he was doing his best to act as casual as possible — they also ordered their main courses. Once the waitress had departed, Brianna settled against the back of her chair and sent him a curious look.
“So, did you do much research about the Verde Valley before you came here?” she asked.
A neutral enough question, he supposed. He got the feeling she was doing her best to make conversation until the waitress returned with their bottle of wine, and he could only be grateful for that. Any topic that turned his thoughts away from his true reason for being here could only help.
And at least this time, he could answer her honestly.
Partly, at any rate.
“Not very much,” he admitted. “I read about Jerome, of course, but I suppose I hadn’t realized this area is so focused on wine.”
“It’s kind of hard to miss,” she responded with a grin, although there wasn’t anything overtly teasing about her tone or her expression. “Some days, it feels like almost everything here revolves around the wine industry. We’ve got our own AVA.”
He raised an eyebrow. While he thought his grasp on the English language was quite good, he didn’t think he’d ever heard that term before.
“American viticultural area,” she explained, the corners of her mouth still curving in that beautiful smile. “You know, like Napa or Sonoma.”
Belshegar wasn’t sure he’d heard of either of those places, either. But viticulture had something to do with wine, didn’t it?
He thought so, and also took this opportunity to excuse himself for not being terribly familiar with some of the phrases Brianna had used. It wasn’t as though he and Elena had discussed wine or winemaking during the times he’d come to keep her company and let her know she wasn’t as alone as she believed.
“Ah,” he responded, and was glad that their waitress had chosen to return at that moment, since her arrival saved him from having to say much of anything else.
Once their wine was poured, however, he realized he needed to make some kind of comment before they drank. Not a formal toast like the one that had been delivered at Elena’s wedding by Alessandro’s cousin Gabriel, but at least a few words to commemorate the moment.
“To unexpected meetings,” he said, and Bree raised her glass and touched it to his.
“‘To unexpected meetings,’” she echoed.
The sentiment behind the words was true enough, after all. It wasn’t as if he’d come here for the express purpose of meeting Brianna McAllister. No, he’d arrived in Jerome to find the witch and warlock who held the artifacts the voice had requested, of course. But he’d had no idea he would meet someone so entrancing while here on his mission.
He couldn’t allow her to distract him too much, though. After all, the entire reason why he’d approached her was that he’d hoped she might lead him to the people he was truly seeking.
Perhaps he was being a bit disingenuous, but he found he didn’t want to analyze the entirety of his motivations too closely.
“I suppose it’s a good thing that I decided to stay in Jerome rather than Clarkdale or Cottonwood,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been wandering along the main street, wondering what to do with myself.”
“You did seem a little at loose ends when you came into the tasting room,” Brianna remarked, and then sipped from her glass of wine.
Had it been that obvious? And here he’d thought he’d done everything he could to act as though he didn’t have a care in the world.
Being human was more difficult than he’d thought.
“It was a little disconcerting to see all those cars leaving town at the end of the afternoon,” he said. “I wondered if there would be anything for me to do here.”
“Jerome does tend to roll up the sidewalks at night,” Brianna replied. “A couple of the restaurants stay open, and the Spirit Room usually has live entertainment, but not on Wednesdays. And even then they don’t start until around eight, so I can see why you might have thought you were doomed to eat room service or something.”
Did the Grand Hotel even have room service? He only knew such a thing existed because Elena had mentioned taking advantage of it while she was staying at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, doing her best to lie low so her father and grandmother wouldn’t realize she’d escaped the prison they’d created for her.
But he supposed the staff at the Grand Hotel wouldn’t have put the restaurant’s menu in his room if there wasn’t some way of having the food delivered directly there.
