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The next few days sped by quickly. Gina and I returned to the winery on Monday to finish the bottling, corking, and labeling on the last batch of wine. True to Gina’s estimation, we were finished by close of business on Wednesday. Ian was driving up from Atlanta. He should reach Bristol late Wednesday night.
Things were coming together. As promised, Gina had cleared it through Becky for me to enjoy a long weekend with them in Atlanta. Gina had generously used some of her frequent flier miles to buy me a flight. I had a follow-up with my doctor on Tuesday and was cleared to work with no restrictions; I could go back to the stables. I was ecstatic. Becky said I could finish the week out taking inventory in the wine cellar, and performing general cleanup and maintenance of the equipment there as well. Another tank would not be fully fermented for another few weeks.
Trey had returned to Atlanta on Sunday to finish up the trial on the class action suit. He'd called my cell several times, leaving messages for me. I hadn’t returned any of them. I wasn’t sure if he had information back from Andrew Sneed yet on the status of my trust. At this point, I didn’t care. I was packing my stuff up in my suitcase when Gina came bouncing up the steps.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
“Gina, your husband is coming here tonight. You guys need some time for yourselves. I’d be in the way. Besides, I’m not going to impose on your aunt once you’re gone. I’ve got to establish myself somewhere.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to my cottage,” I replied.
“Oh you can’t do that, Tylar. I’ll really worry about you if you do that.”
“Listen,” I replied, “It'll just be for a couple of nights and then I’m off to Atlanta for three whole nights. I'll be fine.”
“Promise me you'll have Clint keep an eye out on you? Maybe he could crash on the couch or something?” She was really getting freaked out.
“I'll let him know, okay?”
“Okay, I mean it.” She pulled an envelope out of her purse, handing it to me. “Your tickets,” she explained. “I'll be at the airport to pick you up. Your whole itinerary is in there.”
“Thanks Gina,” I said, my eyes welling up as I hugged her.
“Now don’t go getting all mushy on me, girlfriend. That's so not east coast,” she complained, wiping her eye.
Becky gave me a lift back to the stables. From there, she helped me carry my stuff up to my cottage. “You know you're welcome to stay on with me, Tylar.”
“Thanks Becky, I appreciate that, but it's more practical for me to stay here near the stables."
She looked away as if she knew something she couldn’t share with me. I got everything unpacked and put away. I cleaned out my fridge seeing that I'd definitely need to get some groceries. I'd see if Clint would drive me to town later. I plugged my cell phone into the charger as someone knocked on my door. It was Clint, standing there grinning.
“Hey neighbor, are you back to stay?”
“Apparently so,” I replied, feeling sheepish. I'm sure Jenna would spread the word Trey had dumped his Twinkie. “Come on in,” I invited, holding the screen door open. “I wanted to ask you a favor if you have a minute.”
“Sure thing,” Clint replied, following me into the kitchen.
“I just made some iced tea, Clint, would you like some?”
“Sounds great.”
I got our iced tea poured handing him a glass.
“So what’s up?” he asked taking a drink of tea.
“First off, would you mind running me up to the grocery this evening?”
“Not a problem.”
“Great, thanks. And well I wouldn’t impose but I promised Gina that I'd ask if you'd mind keeping your eye out for me over here? You know, with the strange items and, now, notes that've mysteriously shown up and all?”
“You know I will,” Clint answered. “Tell you what let me program my number into your phone, okay? That way if you get spooked for any reason, just call me and I’ll run over, how’s that?”
“Thanks, Clint that makes me feel a lot better.”
“Is everything else okay?”
