2 Crushed by Barbara Ellen Brink

opened the car door and slid
into the seat he heard Davy say, “Oh shoot! Tomorrow I’m going to the winery to
work with Billie after school and she’s making tacos for dinner.”
    “So? You love tacos,” he heard Margaret
say, before they moved away from the door and out of his hearing.
      He twisted the key in the ignition and
the engine revved to life. It felt like his heart restarted as well. He pulled
the door closed and slipped the car into reverse. She’d known full well they
would be dining alone tomorrow. He imagined she didn’t do anything without
thinking it through. He wasn’t sure how that made him feel. Lucky or
leery?   Maybe a little of both. She
was a complicated woman. But he couldn’t help smiling as he pulled onto the
highway and drove the half mile down the road to Fredrickson’s.

 
    *****

 
    “Where have you been all
afternoon?” Adam demanded when his sister strolled leisurely into the office a
quarter after six. Sally had already left for the day and other than the
cleanup crew in the tasting room, he assumed he was the only one still working.
    She looked a little too happy to
have spent the last hours discussing her failing business with Handel. She
didn’t reply, but dropped her purse on Sally’s desk and flopped down in the
swivel chair, a grin stretching her lips like a Cheshire cat—or like a
cat that ate a canary—he wasn’t sure which.
    “So you’ve got nothing to say after
deserting me at that restaurant with a woman who clearly abhorred me and
running off with your boyfriend like a teenager in heat?”
    “Sorry,” she said, not looking
sorry at all. “I meant to be back earlier, but you know…” She held her hand out
toward him and waggled her fingers, loaded down by a diamond ring that sparkled
wickedly in the fluorescent office light.
    “What the…?”
    “My sentiments exactly,” Sally
said, bursting through the door and grabbing Billie’s hand to stare at the rock
on her finger. “I can’t believe Handel finally popped the question. It’s been
long enough!”
    “Where did you come from?” he
asked, “I thought you went home.”
    “Thanks for your invaluable
vigilance, newbie, but I was just in back talking to Loren and picking up a
bottle of wine for my date.” Sure enough she held a bottle of Fredrickson’s
against her chest with one arm while clinging to his sister’s hand with the
other.
    He rescued it from her and set it
carefully on the desk. With both arms free, she threw them around Billie and
hugged her tight, mooning over the ring like it was the first engagement
diamond she’d ever seen.
    “It’s beautiful! Did he get down on
one knee? Did you make him beg? Was it the most romantic moment of your life?”
    The rapid-fire questions seemed to
take his sister aback. She continued to grin, wordlessly.
    “Hey, slow down there, red. Can’t
you see Billie’s not firing on all cylinders? As a divorce attorney, I’m sure
this whole marriage thing has her tied up in knots. One of them must be
shutting off her voice box.”
    Billie scowled at him while
managing to extricate herself from Sally’s clutches. She stood up and gently
pushed her over excited friend away. “Handel’s proposal was probably everything
you’ve ever dreamed of. I’ll leave it at that.”
    Her cryptic reply only made Sally
more curious. “What? No details?”
    “What’s the deal with you romance
types? You get all twittery when a guy carves your name in his egg foo young or
hides the ring in a crème cheese wonton even if you crack a tooth finding it,
and you think everyone else craves the same experience.”
    Adam grinned. “So what you’re
telling us is…no sky writing?”
    Sally gave a disappointed groan,
picked up the bottle of burgundy, and headed for the door. “Midwesterners,” she
muttered loud enough for them to hear. “Can’t wait to see what your wedding
will be like. A keg of beer, some sparklers, and three kinds of potato salad
after the