Murder & Mayhem

by T Wells Brown

  “Thank you, Just Steve,” I said and smiled at him, pulling my hand away. “I still have your jacket; don’t let me forget to get it for you before you leave.”

  “I can come back later and get it. Isabella, this food is amazing; the prime rib is the best I’ve ever had and the little steak appetizers were really flavorful,” he replied.

  This was such a nice compliment I found myself saying, “You need to come for dinner when I make my BBQ. Californians don’t know how to cook beef like Texans do,” I smiled at him and he smiled back.

  What a nice guy.

  “Steve, who is this beauty you’re keeping all to yourself?” a good-looking blonde guy said, approaching the table. He was probably closer to my age than Captain Steve or Cabe, who I assumed were both at least a decade older than me.

  “Isabella, you should know Lance Drake. His family owns the Vista Rio Winery,” Captain Steve introduced Lance and I.

  Shaking hands, I said, “Yes, we used to sell most of our Cinsault fruit to your winery I believe. Sorry you didn’t get them this year.”

  “Yes, well that would be my father who makes those deals; I run the tasting rooms, social media and show up at cool events like this to talk up our wine,” he finished with a smile, a really nice friendly smile. I thought I could really like this guy; he was friendly and outgoing and something good just came from him.

  “That sounds fun.”

  “It’s especially fun when I get to eat meals like I just had. Did I hear correctly? You took over for Raquel and cooked all of this?”

  Mentioning my aunt was probably normal since we were in her hall and it was her all around us, but it also put me in a weird funk that immediately washed over me. The men must have noticed, ‘cause Captain Steve scowled at Lance and said, “Nice work dick head,” put his arm around me and guided me away from the table.

  “Lance is a great guy, but he sometimes lacks tact. I hope he didn’t upset you.”

  “No. no. I still really miss them and sometimes a few moments go by and I forget, and then something brings me back to the reality that they are gone for good. It makes me sad again. I’m sure I’ll find a way to get over it; or at least learn to deal with it, but right now it’s still so fresh.”

  “Lance may be tactless, but he isn’t wrong. That meal was the best one I’ve eaten in a very long time. It might be the best meal I’ve ever had. Everyone was commenting on it and they all had a chance to taste the appetizers in the tasting room too. Wow, you really have skill.”

  “Any news on the fire in the vineyard?” I asked, feeling embarrassed and needed to segue onto another topic .

  “Yes. I just finished the report and will get it over to you tomorrow. The fire was probably intentional, but structured in a manner to cause the least amount of damage to the vines. I think they were targeting the crop, not the vines.”

  He was talking to me while he kept his arm around my shoulders and had turned his big body so that he was facing me. For all intents and purposes, I was basically standing in his arms, when out of nowhere, Cabe came waltzing in.

  “That’s interesting. So, whoever set the fire wanted us to lose the crop, but not lose the vines?” I asked.

  “It would appear so.” Captain Steve saw Cabe the same time I did and I could feel his body stiffen and he tightened his arms slightly. I got the clear message he wasn’t going to be letting me slip away before Cabe made it to us.

  Yet that was exactly what was happening; Cabe was making his way to us in big long aggressive strides.

  “Hernandez.” Cabe said, in a clipped tone.

  “Brown.” Captain Steve said back in the same tone.

  Great. Macho Man standoff. There was no way this was going to end well for me.

  “Wanna take your hands-off Isabella?” It wasn’t really a question – even though it was framed as one. It was definitely a demand.

  “No.” I felt Captain Steve’s other arm come up and around me too .

  Great.

  That’s going to go over like a ton of bricks.

  Cabe stepped closer to us and Captain Steve tightened his arms around me even more. I tried to lean back a bit to give some distance, but there wasn’t enough room, and he wasn’t giving an inch.

  “I’ve just decided that I’ve met the woman of my dreams and I’m going to marry her,” Captain Steve announced to Cabe.

  “Really? When is this marriage going to take place?” Cabe asked.

  “After we date awhile and Isabella here feeds me more of her amazing food,” he replied.

  “Good, then I have some time to convince her not to marry an adrenaline junky fireman who can’t keep it in his pants,” Cabe said, reaching for me.

  “What can’t you keep in your pants?” I asked Captain Steve, with exaggerated curiosity.

  “His brain,” Cabe replied and pulled me out of Captain Steve’s arms. The Captain let me go, so the transition was smooth and the banter kinda fun, but I was still unsure what was going on with Cabe.

  I turned and waved fingers at Captain Steve as Cabe pulled me out of the hall. I was rewarded with a big wide smile that reached his eyes.

  I really liked that guy.

  Chapter 8

  Brothers and Sisters?

  The following morning was busy, as we had two functions happening that evening. The first one was a smaller gathering in the tasting room and the second was a rather large affair: a rehearsal dinner for a wedding that would be taking place at Bellini Estate. The wedding planner was already on site and had all sorts of deliveries happening, creating an exciting fervor. I loved it. All of it.

  Both kitchens were going full swing when the wedding planner contracted for the rehearsal dinner, and wedding the next morning, rushed into the tasting room kitchen, where I was rolling out fresh dough for the individual beef wellingtons, I was making for the rehearsal dinner, and Stacy was going over the evening’s schedule with me while I worked.

  “We have a serious problem!” she exclaimed. I stayed calm, because this wedding planner was extremely high strung and everything from the table placement, to the water level in the vases were “serious problems” and waited for her to expand on her newest issue.

  “The bakery that made the wedding cake had a kitchen fire and everything is ruined!” she screeched.

  Well now, I couldn’t say I disagreed with her. No wedding cake at a wedding was a big problem; it was Friday, early afternoon, and the wedding was the next day. Wedding cakes were not super difficult unless they wanted a ton of sugar adornments or large unusual shapes that I’d need to make ahead of time.

  “Okay, do you have another bakery lined up?” I asked calmly, moving around the kitchen continuing on with my work.

  “No!” she shouted and actually stomped her foot: that’s right, she stomped her stiletto clad foot and shouted at me, “I heard you made a three-tiered red velvet cake recently!” She made it sound like an accusation.

  “Yes, I did. What kind of cake is your couple looking for?” I asked, knowing full well whatever I did wasn’t going to be exactly what the bride and groom and most importantly, the crazy wedding planner would want. Yet I was not going to let the couple get married at Bellini Estate with no wedding cake.

  “They booked a white cake with lemon custard filling – three-tier with white icing.” Seriously? That was it?

  “Do they have a topper?” I asked.

  “No, they just wanted fresh flowers cascading down the side of the cake,” she replied, starting to sound a little more hopeful. “I have all the flowers; I can stick them in the refrigerator in the morning.”

  “Alright, let me work up a proposal and get a signature from you, and I will get started on it.” That’s when the Crazy Wedding Planner really lost her mind, threw herself at me, grabbed me, squeezed hard, trapping my arms down against my body and screamed, “I LOVE YOU!” She released me suddenly, turned on her stiletto and ran out the door. The click-clack of her ridiculously high heels echoed off the walls
as she ran down the hall.

  I looked at Stacy and stuck out my tongue, making her laugh.

  That was fun. Not!

  After searching my aunt’s kitchen for all of the items I’d need, I made a list of the things I’d have to order from the store. I liked fresh organic ingredients if I could have them and I was lucky enough to know my aunt always froze the lemon juice from her trees every harvest, so she would have lemon juice to use throughout the year in her recipes. She hadn’t let me down, and with a wave of happiness that was immediately followed by a wave of grief, I found her stash of freshly squeezed lemon cubes in the small walk in freezer.

  Sometime after the Crazy Wedding Planner, who actually had a real name, Stephanie, I had another visitor.

  This visitor came walking in carrying a huge bouquet of red roses. It might be the biggest bouquet I’d ever seen and was in an exquisite crystal cut vase, the bouquet hid my visitor’s face .

  “I’m sorry, the wedding party is on the terrace; you’ll need to take those out there. I don’t have room for them in my refrigerator,” I said to the unknown carrier, turned and went to the refrigerator to grab some eggs.

  I heard a heavy clink and turned back around to see Cabe standing behind the humongous bouquet staring at it. “These were delivered for you.” He didn’t sound happy or unhappy, just curious. Okay, I could go with that; I was surprised and curious too.

  “For me?” The only time I’d ever had flowers delivered was from Raquel and Antonio. “God, I hope they’re not from momma,” I said, walking up to them to search for a card.

  Cabe held a small white envelop out for me. I took it, giving him my best stink eye, turned my back to him while I opened the envelope.

  “I’m sorry I was so insensitive.

  I hope you’ll let me make it up to you with dinner.

  Please call me - Lance Drake.”

  Whoa. These California men were fast. They didn’t waste a minute. Of course, I had just come into a big inheritance, but Lance’s family owned a much larger winery than Bellini was. Maybe he actually liked me and wanted to get to know me.

  Problem: no butterflies.

  No flutters.

  Nothing .

  Bummer. He would be so much more appropriate than Big Brown, who was currently standing behind me emitting pissed off energy waves.

  I turned back around and stuck the envelope in my apron pocket, then picked up the giant bouquet of flowers and moved them to the table and away from my work space.

  “Well?” Cabe demanded.

  “Yes?” I asked innocently.

  “Well, who the fuck are the flowers from?” he asked, not nicely.

  “Why should I tell you? You’re being kinda mean right now.” I said, setting the flowers down on the table and moved back to the island so I could get back to the cake.

  Cabe, having not moved, stood staring at me and then when he stalked around the island towards me, I had an intense urge to run, so that’s exactly what I did. I could hear his bark of surprised laughter, when I spun on my heel and ran out of the kitchen through the French doors and out the back to the grassy area towards the river, with Cabe hot on my heels. I had no idea what I was doing; I was beginning to realize that running from a big macho alpha male, who just might enjoy the chase, was not necessarily the best tactic on my part.

  Even if it wasn’t a great idea - I still wasn’t gonna stop; I could hear him breathing and feel him right behind me. I think he was pacing me and trying to make me believe I would be able to get away .

  I was right.

  Just as I rounded the bend to the other side of the roman style concrete stairs where we would be out of view, he tackled me full on and rolled me to the ground somehow turning his body so he hit and I landed on top of him. And without missing a beat, he rolled us so we ended with him on top of me.

  Wow. That was a pretty spectacular move.

  As impressive as the move was, I was now stuck under Cabe, and was breathing hard. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. So Cabe helped me out a little. He leaned his head down and started lightly kissing first both my eyes, down my nose, then around my mouth.

  While he was showering me with soft kisses, I went completely still. His hands were running up and down my arms until they grabbed both my hands and pinned them stretched out above my head.

  Shit. This was hot.

  He kept kissing all around my mouth, but not actually touching my lips as he gently moved my hands together so he could hold them both with one of his large hands.

  He reached down between us into my apron pocket, dug around and pulled out the tiny white envelope that had come with the flowers. He released my hands and stood up in one swift move, standing over me while I lay on the ground staring up at him as he read the card he’d retrieved from my apron. He looked at me, gave me a smug as heck half smile, tossed the card on the ground, turned and walked back to the house without saying a word or helping me up or anything.

  He’d just played me, played with me like I was some little girl, like a big brother would play a little sister. I mean, I never had a big brother, but this is the type of thing I’d think they would do.

  Jumpin’ Jezebels!

  It all made sense now, while I was crushing hard on him, he was thinking of me as a little sister. No wonder he kept moving me around and being so bossy, just like I imagined an older brother would treat his little sister.

  How embarrassing and what a DICK!

  This really hurt; he was so handsome and so totally sexy, I wanted him to see me as someone he could possibly be interested in.

  In my mind he clearly wasn’t!

  I was going to humiliate myself even more if I didn’t get it together. I was stuck with him, so I needed to be the one who kept things straight. He wasn’t having any issues keeping things straight with me. He was doing just fine. He also seemed pretty skilled in all areas of how to work me and play on my crush. It was pretty apparent he knew about it.

  I got up, found the card Cabe had thrown on the ground and fished my phone out of my apron, dialing the number that had been written on the back of the card .

  “You got Lance,” the male voice on the other end of the line answered.

  “Uh, hi, this is Isabella over here at Bellini Estate.”

  “Isabella, hi, how are you? Did you get my flowers?” Lance asked.

  “Um, yes that’s why I’m calling, I wanted to thank you for the beautiful bouquet, and invite you to a homemade dinner here at the estate. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re cooking is amazing, but I’d rather take you somewhere I can have all of your attention and we can get to know each other.” He said softly.

  “Okay.” I breathed.

  “Tomorrow?” He asked.

  “It will have to be Sunday I’m afraid. I have an emergency wedding cake to make and events to cook and bake for.”

  “An emergency wedding cake?” he asked, surprise in his voice.

  “Yes, that’s right. I can fill you in Sunday.”

  “I will be there to pick you up at four thirty, that work for you?” he asked.

  “That sounds perfect.”

  “Great. And Isabella?”

  “Yes?”

  “I can’t wait to see you,” he said and hung up.

  Okay – little flutters. Hopefully, they weren’t left over from Big Butthead Brown .

  Cabe pretty much stayed out of my way the rest of the day and evening. I didn’t see him for dinner, and since I was avoiding him, ate by myself on the private balcony off my room. Saturday was so busy, by the time I had the wedding cake done and decorated, I was exhausted. I left Stacy in charge of the staff, serving the guests, and cleaning up.

  I’d called my Aunt Raquel’s friend Jenna for some outfit ideas, and at her insistence, headed over to her house. It was a beautiful old English Tudor style home that was as impressive as she was. She was all about beauty, and after spending hours with her I had a super-hot date outfit that w
ould drive Lance crazy and let’s not lie here – was hoping to make Butthead Brown a little crazy too.

  She took me to get a pedicure and manicure. I also got lash extensions and some new makeup. I needed these few hours of girl time with her. We stopped by Francesca and the girls’ home to drop off a basket of goodies and a cake I’d made up for them. I was sending food to them pretty much every two days or so. I figured it was the minimum my aunt would do for her friend. I wished I was able to do more for her.

  After the visit with Francesca and her girls, we both felt a strong desire to shake off the funky mood and stopped for a glass of champagne at Stella’s wine bar, Poured. We laughed, talked crap about everything and she asked me how I was settling in and if I needed anything.

  “This. This is exactly what I needed.” Was my heartfelt reply .

  I told her I would probably be calling her more in the future because I felt better than I had in months. She and I made a pact to check in on each other and spend at least one day a month together doing girly things. But truthfully, I was hoping it would be much more frequent than that.

  I played with her elderly dogs and decided I was going to the shelter, where all of the Women of Wine Country Tribe volunteered, and adopt a couple of dogs that deserved forever homes.

  Jenna was trying to talk me into a 6k run she was training for, but after my little sprint with Big Brown, I decided I’d had enough running for the year.

  For some reason, I didn’t share my feelings about Cabe with her. I talked about Lance, who she knew only vaguely, and I told her about my flirtation with Captain Steve - just not Cabe.

  As I was leaving, I hugged her and whispered, “I love you. Thank you for making time for me today.”

  She teared up and hugged me tight and said, “I know.”

  I wasn’t sure if she knew I loved her or if she was saying she knew I loved the friendship and the fact she was stepping in where the gaping hole Raquel dying left, I think it was a little of both. Either way it felt good.

  I’d driven Raquel’s sporty two-seater Mercedes to visit Jenna. I had the AC blasting and the music up loud and was feeling pretty good, as I was heading back to the estate.