acknowledge Austin meant she was probably new to the area. Even non-magical people knew the scary, standoffish bar owner of the Paddy Wagon.
“Welcome.” She laid her hand, her pink nails perfectly rounded, on a cream-colored piece of paper to my right. Several similar menus lay across the stretch of counter. “We have two options for tastings. The regular flight, where you can choose five wines, is ten dollars, and the reserve tasting is fifteen dollars. If you buy two bottles or more, the tasting fee is waived. Which would you prefer?”
I glanced at Austin. “What’s happening here? Are we doing a wine tour? Because if this is your way of getting me out of meetings with Edgar, then we just became best friends.”
He smiled, pulling one of the papers closer. “It’s up to you. What do you want, the reserve tasting? One of each?”
I nodded at the woman. “One of each. If we’re going to do this thing, we’ll do it right.”
Her deadpan stare said she didn’t appreciate my nonchalant humor. “Would you like to start with white?”
As Austin looked on, I chose a wine from each list. She sniffed and turned to grab the bottles from the coolers at the far right.
“Out of all the winery options, you chose this one, huh?” I asked, tapping my fingers against the counter. “Oh, this town carries Pabst Blue Ribbon, doesn’t it? My father likes Pabst. If I don’t have it, he’ll just send my mom looking for it.”
“Of all the tasting rooms on this strip, this one gets the least foot traffic,” Austin said as the woman screwed off a cap. The other had a cork, and she set to work. “The tasting room is upscale, though, and the operations at the winery look good.”
“You’ve been to the winery? Are you sizing up your competition or something?”
“No. I’m looking to buy it.”
The needle screeched off the spinning record in my mind. “What’s that now?”
Glasses clinked as the woman placed them in front of us. She explained the wines as she poured, but I wasn’t listening.
“You’re thinking of buying a winery?” I whispered as soon as she drifted away.
“Yes.” He swirled the contents in his glass and lifted it to sip. I watched his lips press against the glass, my mind struggling to compute the enormity of what he was saying versus the easy, unconcerned quality of his tone.
“How do you have that kind of money? I mean…” I blinked a couple of times and shook my head. “Sorry, that was rude, but… To buy a winery, you’re talking millions. Right?”
His face scrunched up. He held out the glass for me. “It’s tart.”
I took it without comment and sipped, not prepared.
“Oh, man.” I lowered the glass to the counter, my right eye shutting of its own volition and my mouth puckering at the sourness. “That wine is intense, and not in a drinkable sort of way.”
“I’m from a long line of alphas,” he said, as though that explained something.
I lifted my glass and swirled good and proper, running the liquid around the glass to get as much oxygen in there as possible. It would help the flavor, and this place needed all the help it could get. I didn’t remember it being this bad. Or maybe it was just the pick I’d made for Austin. I raised the glass and took a cautious sip.
“Ugh.” I coughed a bit as my face twisted involuntarily. “It wasn’t just the first one. This one is intense, too.” I pushed the glass his way. “What does being from a line of alphas have to do with buying a winery?”
“Can we have the next samples, please?” Austin asked the woman, and though the phrase seemed like a polite request, his tone conveyed a command for obedience. He pointed to the ones he wanted, two reds. The woman’s previous methodical, unhurried gliding fell away, and she quickly got to work opening the next bottles.
“I’m assuming you don’t care what ends up in your glass?” he asked me, his voice back to calm and breezy.
“I do, but in this case I’m not sure it’ll really matter.” I lowered my voice. “I don’t remember the wine being this bad.”
“I think that’s the root of the problem, right there.” He nodded and glanced out the window at the shining day beyond, as though contemplating the meaning of the universe.
“Also, should we be saying ‘alpha’ in public? I know you don’t care, but…”
He turned back to me. “To properly run a territory,