Page 69 of Moonshine and Magnolias
“Wendy, it’s Gerald Mitchell from Belle’s Medicinal Brewery. The air conditioning unit in the bottling area stopped working. The alcohol is safe, buteverything here is getting really hot, really fast.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Mitchell.” Why was the man calling her? The moonshining label had been independent of Fountenoy Hall since after Prohibition. “Can I do anything to help?”
“Gerald Mitchell?” Brandi froze with a checker in her hand, staring at Wendy instead of the yellow game board.
Silence on the other end of the phone greeted her before Gerald spoke again. “I just thought you’d want to know.”
“I hope it gets fixed soon.”
“Thanks. Good night.” He hung up before Wendy could respond in kind.
She relayed the conversation to her friends. “That was weird.”
Jordan took the whiskey bottle off the table and poured them all another round. “Maybe we better drink up in case something goes wonky and Belle’s stops production.”
“Shouldn’t we save it then?” Sebastien asked.
“Whatever.”
“Maybe we should call back and see how we can help,” Wendy said. Since she was staying around, cultivating a personal relationship with their alcohol distributor made sense.
“If they can’t fix a simple air conditioner on their own, then maybe we shouldn’t be doing business with them.” Brandi leaned over the arm of the sofa to look at Sebastien’s sketch pad. “Are you drawing Mrs. Lurz?”
He angled the page away. “Yes.”
Wendy had caught a glimpse of his sketch earlier when she had passed out drinks. The woman with flowing blonde tresses amid the trees in the orchard suspiciously resembled Brandi, not the librarian with her short-cropped hair and cardigan sweater.
Sebastien flipped the page and started something new.
“Having you guys here was so helpful,” Wendy blurted. “Thank you. It worked out really well.” Whew. There. She had said it.
Jordan reached across the coffee table and laid a hand on Wendy’s forearm. “You’re welcome.”
“This is going to work.” Brandi flung herself around the table burrowed against Wendy’s side in the overstuffed chair. “This is really going to work.”
Wendy laughed and hugged her cousin, trying to keep control of her wavering stomach. When did she want to have messy emotions be part of her life? These past few weeks had given birth to a new Wendy. Not improved. Just different. And she liked what she had become.
“I gave my notice at Steward’s,” she said.
Her friends all gave her their attention. “Good for you,” Sebastien said.
“You were too good for them anyway,” Brandi added.
“To new beginnings.” Jordan raised her glass, and they all followed suit. “L’chiam!”
Wendy had expected to be peppered with questions, but her friends all took the information like it was inevitable. Maybe she could even open herself up a little more and ask advice about Rob. Surely his research would soon be coming to an end. How could she broach the subject of having him stay?
The phone rang again and this time, Brandi dove for it. “Fountenoy Hall.” She stuck her tongue out at Wendy and left the parlor.
Once Brandi left, Jordan kicked Sebastien in the shins.
“Hey, ow!”
“Doofus.”
He didn’t even have to ask what she was talking about. “You guys are in a good place right now. I don’t want to mess things up.”
“That’s such a pathetic excuse,” Wendy said, grateful the attention had switched focus so quickly so she could stop thinking about her own issues. “You’re secretly drawing pictures of her, Sebastien. If you weren’t you, that’d be creepy.”
