Almost Forever Read Free

residence, although he wasn’t sure if she lived out here or had a place in town. Beyond the house was an orchard of round, dusty gray trees loaded with oval green fruit he recognized as olives.
    By the time he returned to the festival area, the crowd had begun to dissipate. The vendors were packing the remaining merchandise and dismantling the booths. Most were local artists or bakers who traveled around the state, displaying their wares at fairs or festivals, so the setup and teardown were smooth operations. The band was also packing up and loading their instruments into the back of a van they had backed up to the wooden stage.
    Justin sat on a glider that was deep in the shade and watched the orderly winding down of the festival. Several of the vineyard workers were emptying and hosing out the grape tub. Obviously, it had been for show and to give the visitors a memorable experience rather than to actually harvest the juice. But given the volume of products that were being sold in the gift shop, the financial loss of a few dirty grapes wouldn’t be missed.
    Surrounded by all the lush greenery, there was peacefulness in spite of the activity going on around him. A tiered stone fountain splashed nearby, its trickling water blocking most of the peripheral sounds. Justin found himself relaxing more than he had in months. His job kept him hopping, so he rarely sat around and did nothing. His only respite was the family dinners at his grandmother’s place almost every Sunday. But since both of his brothers were also in law enforcement, the conversation was usually centered around active or solved cases, so none of them were ever really off the clock, even though Grammy strongly discouraged shoptalk.
    He felt someone plop down on the glider next to him, and he realized he had closed his eyes and maybe even dozed off for a minute. He didn’t even have to look to know Mrs. Roberts had joined him. She smelled like lemons and flowers, a scent he had noticed earlier.
    “I see you’ve gotten caught up in the magic of this place,” she said, her voice tired. “No matter how hard I’ve worked during the day, I can come out here and sit for a while, and everything seems better.”
    He turned to her with a smile. He hadn’t expected her to be so…human. If she was a femme fatale or a killer, she was hiding it well. “Hello, ma’am, I’m Justin Archer.” He tipped the brim of his hat. “I apologize for not introducing myself earlier.”
    “Things were pretty hectic, Ranger Archer. I’m Lori Roberts.” She smiled broadly as her eyes fixed on his. She reached around to shake his hand. “But then, I guess you already knew that.”
    “Pleasure.” Justin shook her hand. What a dumb-ass thing to say…“pleasure”? “Did you take care of your emergency in the kitchen?”
    She leaned back and exhaled. “I lost my chef for at least a couple weeks. It wasn’t a break, just a nasty sprain. But I know those can sometimes be worse. We were able to finish off the day with the assistant chef, but I’ll have to hire someone temporarily. We have the annual Wine Guild dinner in two weeks, and then the olive harvest events the week after that.” She shook her head and sighed.
    “I’m sorry to interrupt your festival, but I have some bad news.” Justin didn’t want to break the mood, but he needed to get to the point of his visit. “Is there somewhere more private?”
    She lifted her head and looked at him. For the first time, worry flickered across her eyes. “Of course.” She stood and had started to lead the way to the winery building when a young girl ran up and threw her arms around Lori’s waist.
    “Mommy, I had so much fun today.”
    Lori automatically adjusted the barrette that was holding the girl’s long blond hair in a messy ponytail. “I’m so glad.” She glanced back at Justin. “Sweetie, could you go help Raquel in the dining room? I need to talk to this nice man for a minute.”
    The girl focused her