Heard It Through the Grapevine

by Pamela Browning

  “He and Shelley just left for the water tower.”

  Adrenaline kicked Gina into motion, that and a gut-wrenching fear. “I’m going, too,” she said, running for the door. Numbness had replaced the pain in her heart, and her blood felt frozen in her veins.

  “Can I go?” Mia wailed in her wake, but others shushed her.

  Whatever had gotten into Frankie, indeed. Gina was willing to bet that it had something to do with his not being allowed to play in the accordion band. When Frankie acted out, it tended to be in a big way. This time, he had decided to do something really dangerous.

  JOSH STARTED TO TALK soothingly to Frankie as soon as he was within talking distance.

  “Easy, son,” he said, taking the rungs a bit slower so as not to startle him. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “I—I’m scared, Josh.”

  “I know. That’s okay. Just relax.”

  “It’s getting dark.”

  “We can climb down. Don’t worry.”

  “I don’t want to go down.”

  Josh reached for the edge of the catwalk, steadied himself before he pulled himself up on the platform beside Frankie. For the first time, he looked below. He didn’t like heights much himself, and from this altitude everything was so tiny. Small minivan, small people surrounding it, another small car, a red-and-white Galaxie? Gina.

  Josh couldn’t afford to think about that now. He needed to concentrate on Frankie, figure out how to get him down from here.

  “I can’t go down the ladder,” Frankie said.

  “You sure can. We don’t have to go right away, though. We can sit here and talk for a while.”

  “The accordion band was playing without me, and I didn’t like being there if I couldn’t play. Mia made me hang the birthday banner on one of the wine casks, and it looked dumb. I figured I’d hang the banner up here on the water tower so you’d see it when you drove toward the winery. I figured you’d be here, Josh, no matter what they all said. Then, when I got up here, I dropped the tape. And the wind was stronger than I expected.”

  “I know. Are you warm enough?”

  Frankie sniffed, and Josh realized that he’d been crying. “I’m warm,” Frankie said.

  “Anytime you decide you’re not, you tell me. I’ll give you my jacket.”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s talk about what we can do.”

  “You mean about getting down?”

  “Right.” Casually, Josh slid an arm around Frankie’s shoulders. He didn’t want to scare him even more, but he thought he needed to have a grip on the boy in case he did something stupid.

  “I told you I can’t get down. My dad’s going to kill me.”

  “No, he won’t. He’ll be glad you got down safely.”

  “Are you going to get me down, Josh?”

  “You’re going to get yourself down. I’m going to help.”

  Frankie sniffed and seemed to consider this. “I’m not so sure it will work. I still feel sick.”

  Josh cast about for something to take Frankie’s mind off his nausea. “You know, Frankie, I’ve been thinking about that mind reading you did at Mom’s that night.”

  Frankie seemed surprised. “You have?”

  “I certainly have. You knew I was thinking of an elephant from Denmark. There was no way you could have known that.”

  A smile crept over Frankie’s woebegone features. “If you promise not to tell anyone, I could maybe fill you in on how I did it.”

  “I might want to tell someone,” Josh said.

  “Well, you could tell a couple of people. I wasn’t really reading your mind. A kid at school taught me how to do the trick one day at recess.”

  Josh had suspected it was a trick; he hadn’t put too much faith in the mind-reading process. “I’d like to learn how,” he said.

  Frankie relaxed slightly. “In the first place, the way it works is that no matter what numbers you choose and multiply and everything, the number you get at the end can only be four.”

  “No kidding! That’s cool.”

  “Yeah, it’s set up that way. Of course, if you’re the one doing the trick, you’ve got to figure out a few things as the person comes up with the numbers so you can change what you say next when they tell you if it’s a one-or two-digit number.”

  “Hmm,” Josh said.

  “So I always know you’re going to end up with the number four, and that has to be assigned a letter value, if you remember.”

  “Yes, number one equals the letter A, and number two equals B, and so on. And you’re telling me that because you know it’s always going to be the number four, the person will always assign the letter D?”

  “Uh-huh. Then most people think of Denmark when I tell them to think of a country that starts with the letter D.”

  “I can’t think of any other country that starts with that letter offhand,” Josh said.

  “Well, maybe Djibouti, but most people don’t think of that one. Then I told you to think of the second letter of the country’s name.”

  “Which, since I was thinking of Denmark, was E.”

  “And then I told you to think of the name of a mammal that begins with the letter E. If there’s a mammal other than an elephant that begins with E, I don’t know what it is and I guess nobody else does, either. Then, of course, elephants are gray. The trick’s never failed.”

  Josh let out a long, low whistle. “But, Frankie, that’s not really a trick. It’s mathematical. You said you have to figure the arithmetic out as you go along.”

  “Yeah, kind of. It’s not as hard as figuring out two to the seventh power, though.” Frankie looked dejected.

  “I’m going to tell your father exactly how you do that trick. He’ll realize that you’re not exactly a slouch in the mathematics department.”

  “I never thought about it that way,” Frankie said, brightening.

  “I’ll talk to him. You’re a smart boy, Frankie. Hey, you know, I’m pretty good at math. I’d be glad to tutor you once in a while.”

  “Would you? Oh, I’d like that!”

  “Sure.”

  They sat for a while longer. “I’m feeling better now, Josh,” Frankie said. Josh tightened his arm around him. He considered what he might do to get the boy down, and the horrible consequences if he didn’t.

  He made a conscious decision not to think about Gina until this was all over.

  GINA BROKE AWAY FROM the huddle with Rocco, Shelley, Maren and Uncle Fredo to cast a worried glance up at the two huddled on the narrow catwalk far above the ground. Josh had given his jacket to Frankie. They seemed to be talking, but they were too high up for anyone to hear what they were saying. She was overwhelmed with fear that either or both of them might tumble to their deaths.

  And if that happened, she would never have a chance to speak with Josh about his true intentions when he came to Rio Robles. She didn’t know how she would be able to live with the heartache of having rejected him before hearing him explain.

  “I’ve called the rescue squad,” someone told Rocco. “They’re coming from about forty miles away.”

  “They’ll send a paramedic up with rigging to bring them both down,” someone else said.

  Rocco shouted this news to Josh and Frankie, who seemed to confer. “It’s getting cold up here,” Josh shouted back. “Frankie wants to climb down soon.”

  “Wait for the rescue team,” Rocco called. “It won’t be long.”

  “I don’t want to wait, Pop. I might get sick again.” Frankie was standing now, hanging on to Josh with one hand and the railing with the other.

  Josh and Frankie had another conversation, then moved slowly toward the ladder. Everyone stood spellbound as Josh had a few more quiet words with Frankie.

  “Maybe they should come down under their own steam,” Rocco said. “I don’t like the way the wind’s picking up.”

  As Josh backed up to the ladder and placed his feet on the first rung, Gina pressed her fist to her lip
s, and beside her, she heard Shelley praying. Rocco reached for Gina’s hand and gripped it.

  “What are they doing?” asked one of the Girl Scouts.

  “Shh,” said another. “It’s going to be all right.”

  Was it? Gina was not so sure.

  EVEN THOUGH JOSH’S FIRST instinct was to wait for the rescue squad, he was aware that hypothermia was a definite danger now that the sun had sunk below the mountain crests in the west. By this time, too, Frankie seemed more confident of his ability to descend.

  “You know, Frankie, my sister had a cat,” Josh told the boy. “One time Fluffy ran up a tree in our backyard and was scared to come back down until we talked to her gently. Then Fluffy got herself down and went in the house for a big feast of salmon.”

  “It will take more than salmon to make me want to get down,” Frankie said with a bit of his old spirit. “Maybe a Rocky Road sundae.”

  “You’ll get that sundae, I promise,” Josh told him. “And I’ll talk to Rocco about tutoring you, like I said. If together we can bring your math grade up, I’m sure he’ll let you play in the band.”

  Frankie squeezed Josh’s hand. “Let’s go, Josh. I’m ready.”

  Josh coached Frankie, warned him about descending too fast, cautioned him to hold on tightly to the ladder with both hands. He stayed close behind Frankie and kept him within the cage of his own arms as they slowly, rung by rung, began to climb down.

  Down, down and down…Josh’s legs ached with the strain of the descent, and he didn’t dare reveal to Frankie how frightened he was that something would go wrong. Instead, he kept up an encouraging line of patter so that Frankie wouldn’t panic.

  And Frankie performed well, he’d have to say that for the kid. Now, if they could only reach the ground safely. At the moment, however, their chances seemed good.

  “THEY’RE DOWN!”

  Shelley said this as the rescue squad vehicles spun around the corner flashing their red-and-blue lights. Rocco set off at a run to reach the two, whose feet had just touched the ground. Josh had caught Frankie up in a big bear hug, holding him tight. Rocco joined them, embracing both as if he would never let them go.

  All around, people were rejoicing. The Girl Scouts were cheering. The rescue-squad people were applauding.

  Gina hung back when everyone ran up to surround Josh and Frankie. Surely Josh would never want to set eyes upon her again after what she had said to him earlier.

  Or would he?

  If what Maren said was true, she owed Josh a chance to explain, but not with everyone else around. She turned away from the knot of people at the base of the water tower and headed toward the shadows of the eucalyptus grove near the road.

  IT WAS TOO MUCH HOOPLA for Josh. After turning a tearful Frankie over to his grateful father, and after several people had thanked him for saving the boy’s life, Josh stayed in the background. When he heard that someone had called the local television station and that a reporter was to arrive shortly with a news crew in tow, he melted into the crowd and hurried back to his car. The rawness in his heart had not abated; his sense of loss was a cold hard lump in his throat.

  The shadows of the eucalyptus grove where he’d left the BMW were dark, and the car was unlocked. Wearily, he opened the door and slid in, thinking to get away as quickly as possible. A moment passed before he realized that someone was sitting in the passenger seat, and it startled him so much that he dropped the keys on the floor.

  “Josh,” Gina said quietly.

  Slowly, he straightened after picking up the keys. Her face was shadowed, but he could tell that she was no longer angry.

  “I saw your car drive up,” he told her.

  “I was there through most of it. You handled Frankie very well.”

  “He was scared when he realized how high up he was, that’s all. He became nauseated looking down. He has trouble with heights. You told me that.”

  “I don’t understand what made him go up there.”

  Josh managed a dry chuckle. “He wanted to hang the birthday banner there so I’d see it when I drove past.”

  “He and Mia strung it across one of the wine barrels in the cave earlier.”

  “He figured that since I hadn’t arrived yet, he had time to climb up the water tower and put it there, instead. Also, he was bummed out over not being in the accordion band. He didn’t want to listen to them if he couldn’t play with them, and he wanted out.”

  “Crazy kid,” Gina said. “He’s going to get some talking to from Rocco.”

  “And a Rocky Road sundae from me. I promised.”

  “Crazy kid, crazy guy.”

  Silence grew between them, a barrier. “I—I thought we needed to talk,” Gina said.

  “Gina—”

  “What did you want to say to me earlier?” she asked.

  He paused and inhaled a deep breath. “That I love you. That I would never hurt you. That almost from the first, I had misgivings about reporting to Starling Industries that Vineyard Oaks was in trouble.”

  “You love me?”

  “So much that I would have moved heaven and earth to save your family’s winery. As it was, I only had to convince the Starling CEO and the board of directors of my father’s organization. It was only slightly less difficult.”

  She reached for his hand. “I apologize, Josh. I should have listened to you back there, I shouldn’t have been so angry. At the time, all I could think was that you had betrayed me, that you’d wormed your way into my life for your own purposes. I didn’t know,” she began, and her voice broke.

  “That I love you?”

  She shook her head mutely, her eyes filling with tears.

  He reached for her, drew her into his arms. Her head rested on his shoulder, comfortable and comforting.

  “Another thing I didn’t know,” she murmured.

  “What’s that?”

  “That I love you, Josh. When I saw you up on the tower with Frankie, I was terrified that you’d fall. I knew in those moments that I didn’t want to live without you. Couldn’t live without you.”

  He kissed her then. He had felt the same way when he was up there.

  When his lips released hers, Gina moved away. “So when do you want to go to Boston?” she asked tremulously, her gaze locked on his face.

  He brushed the tears from her face, kissed her cheeks. “You mean it? You’ll go?”

  “I have an idea that Boston’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” she said wryly.

  Fresh in Josh’s mind was the rain that had drenched him on his last visit, the gray skies, the cold. “That’s more or less the way I feel about my hometown at present.”

  “You mean you’d consider moving elsewhere?” Her eyes had gone soft and gentle in the dim light.

  “I most certainly would,” he told her.

  “Then,” she said with the slightest suggestion of laughter, “perhaps we should go someplace where we can discuss this in private. I have quite a lot of my famous mussels and fettucine left over.” Despite her light tone, she was shivering from the cold. She wasn’t wearing a jacket.

  He gathered her back into his arms, warming her with his body, and kissed her with great tenderness. “My place or yours?” he murmured close to her ear.

  “Anywhere you like,” she said. “Anywhere at all.”

  WHEN GINA AWOKE THE NEXT morning, her head was nestled in the hollow of Josh’s shoulder and his face was buried in her hair. She remembered last night, the pure passion of their encounter, the pent-up emotion of their mating. Once inside Josh’s apartment, she had very deliberately run her hands down his body from his shoulders to his waist to what lay below. She’d played the vixen, the enticer, the tease, until his eyes had flashed with the heat of desire, and then she had surrendered. In the following moments, they had really and truly become one. One person, one love, one life…together. And she knew that it would be like that again and again, every time they made love. Because that was the way she w
anted it to be, no matter what.

  Josh awoke and kissed her temple. “Good morning, Gina,” he said.

  She tucked herself in closer to his chest so that she could listen to his heart. It was beating firm and steady. “It is a good morning,” she replied. “Oh, Josh, I love you so much.”

  “Words I’ve wanted to hear for so long,” he said quietly, his voice a deep rumble vibrating beneath her cheek. “Words I was afraid I never would hear.”

  She cupped a hand around his face. “I wanted to tell you back at Dunsmoor. I was afraid, spooked by all the cameras rolling, worried about what it could mean.”

  “What does it mean?” he asked, turning so that he could look at her.

  “Everything,” she said in a low tone. “I want to be with you, even if I have to leave my family.”

  “Gina, I wouldn’t make you do that. I love your family. I love you.”

  “You didn’t look like you loved Rocco much yesterday when you were talking at the party.” The scene was imprinted on her mind, and she regretted the part she’d played in it.

  “It’ll be okay between Rocco and me.”

  “Especially because of what you did for Frankie.”

  “Even if that hadn’t happened, Rocco and I would be able to reach an understanding. Once he finds out that I want to marry you, he’ll come around. I’m thinking of asking him to be best man.” Josh disengaged himself and propped himself on his elbow so that he was gazing down at her.

  “You—you’re asking me to marry you?”

  “I’ve loved you since you first walked down that long staircase at Dunsmoor Castle, Gina Angelini. Consider this a formal request for your hand in marriage. Will you marry me, my love?” He smiled, kissed the tip of her nose, kissed her earlobe, kissed her chin.

  “Yes, Joshua James Corbett the Third,” Gina said, her heart expanding to take it all in. “I will definitely marry you.”

  Josh smiled. “Good, because I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And your family, of course. Rocco, and Mia, and the Tonys, and Donna….”

  She was laughing by this time.

  “Now that it’s settled,” he said, “what do you say we call someone? I’d like everyone in town to know we’re engaged. Who shall it be? Your aunt Dede, or Uncle Fredo, or Rocco? I know I can count on whoever it is to spread the word, and by the time we emerge from this apartment, people will be lining up in the driveway to congratulate me on winning the heart of the most wonderful woman in the world.”