Page 9 of Demon Loved
Now she couldn’t help chuckling. “Well, Jerome is charming, but there’s also not a lot to do here. When I was little, Cottonwood didn’t even have a movie theater yet, so we had to drive into Sedona or Prescott. And we still have to do a lot of driving to go shopping, or whatever.”
His eyebrow lifted, and she could tell he was analyzing her reply. She had to believe that what she’d just described must have sounded utterly alien to someone from a big city like Los Angeles, a place where pretty much everything you wanted or needed was within arm’s reach.
“I suppose I can see why it might have felt…limiting,” he said. “But at the same time, it must also have been comforting to be in a place where you knew everyone and everyone knew you.”
Bree supposed that was one way of putting it. While growing up, she’d chafed at how little to do there actually was in Jerome, even as she reminded herself that if she’d been born only a few years earlier, her life would have been much more circumscribed. At least she could go up to Flagstaff or down to Phoenix without too much trouble, whereas in the days before Angela and Connor got together, Flagstaff might as well have been on the moon thanks to the enmity that had existed between the two clans. Sure, the McAllisters had been friendly enough with the de la Paz clan down in the southern section of the state, but you still couldn’t visit there without clearing your trip with the prima first.
“It’s definitely small-town living,” she said, and decided to leave it there.
Anyway, it was probably time to head back inside and play her final set. She was given free rein to do pretty much what she liked, but the tasting room closed at seven, and she wanted to make sure they got their money’s worth by playing a decently sized final set.
“Time to pick up the guitar again,” she told Bill with a smile. “But it was nice meeting you.”
Disappointment flitted across his handsome features. However, he recovered himself, saying, “Of course. You’re very talented — I don’t want to keep you from your audience.”
Polite and handsome?
Too bad he wasn’t local.
“Well, it’s not like I’m on the clock or anything,” she said. “But I don’t want to cheat everybody of a full set, either.”
“I understand.” Bill paused there, his gaze not quite meeting hers. “Do you have any plans afterward?”
Bree wasn’t sure if she could really call them plans, not when all she was going to do was head back to her apartment, throw together a salad, and then watch some TV.
However, she also couldn’t overlook the implications of the question he’d just asked.
Unless her instincts were all wrong on this one, she was pretty sure he was asking her to dinner.
Her first impulse was to say yes, she was busy, and manufacture some kind of excuse. But he was good-looking and seemed kind, and it had been way too long since her last date. Entirely her choice — she had guys hit on her all the time and could have gone out whenever she wanted — and yet something felt different about this situation. She was fairly certain that if she shot him down, he wouldn’t keep pestering her to change her mind but instead would accept her wishes and go about his business.
She didn’t want to shoot him down, though. No, she wanted to spend time with Bill Garrett and learn more about him. All right, it couldn’t go anywhere, not when he lived hundreds of miles away, but what was wrong with a little distraction now and then?
“No plans,” she said, even as she hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake. “What did you have in mind?”
“There seems to be a very nice restaurant in the hotel where I’m staying,” he replied, and inclined his head toward the top of the hill where the Grand Hotel was located. “Would you like to have dinner there?”
In general, The Asylum wasn’t the sort of place you’d go for a casual dinner, mainly because it was the most expensive restaurant in Jerome. However, it didn’t seem as if Mr. Garrett was too worried about such things.
“You’re sure we won’t need reservations?” she asked dubiously. True, it was a Wednesday night and not the weekend, but still, the place was almost always busy, since it tended to be a destination for people celebrating birthdays and anniversaries and any other occasion that required something a little out of the ordinary.
And she absolutely wouldn’t admit to herself that part of her reluctance stemmed from not wanting to be seen by her brother while out on a date. Logic suggested that, as the chef, Shane rarely emerged from the kitchen which was his realm, but Bree knew as well as anyone else that sometimes life could throw you some serious curveballs.
Even so, she was a grown woman and could do what she liked. If Shane happened to spy her and Bill together, what difference would it make? It wasn’t as if she’d been seeing anyone else lately, and because there were a grand total of maybe ten restaurants in all of Jerome, sooner or later, you’d end up in the one fine dining spot the town offered.
“I can check on that,” Bill said. “And if the restaurant doesn’t have any tables available, we can go somewhere else.”
It sounded as if he had all the bases covered. She could stand here and continue to come up with stupid excuses, or she could do what she knew she really wanted.
“Then dinner sounds great,” she said.
4
She’d agreed to have dinner with him. Even now, after Belshegar had excused himself to call the restaurant and confirm there was a table available, he felt slightly dazed, as though he wasn’t quite sure what to do about this astonishing turn of events.
Yes, Brianna McAllister had said she needed to perform her final set, and had suggested that she meet him at the restaurant because she had to go home and put her instruments and equipment away, but still, that shimmering, magical creature had said she would dine with him.
Belshegar couldn’t be sure if the voice was watching his every movement. He didn’t think so, mostly because he had to believe the voice had better things to do than monitor him continually, but even if he was subject to some kind of subtle surveillance, he could only hope the voice wouldn’t object to this dinner. On the surface, this would simply look like him getting close to a member of the witch family that appeared to have inhabited this town for generations, just as the Castillos had in Santa Fe.
