“Pearl canceled on me because she said she had to sell Antonio’s wine for him.” Mom lowered her voice. Trina was busy stacking empty wine cartons into a pile a few feet behind the booths, so she was out of earshot anyway. “Antonio’s in big trouble, isn’t he?”
I filled her in on Jose’s offer, Richard’s foreclosure threat, and Antonio’s refusal to deal with either of them. “To top it off, he forgot to actually bring almost all his wine today. It’s like he’s lost his mind. I’ve helped all I can. Unless things change, he’s going to lose everything on Monday.”
Trina came back over, looking teary eyed. “It just dawned on me. This will be my last wine festival. At least, my last wine festival with Lombard Wines.”
Mom patted Trina’s arm. “We’ll figure something out, Trina. Let’s just get through today and enjoy ourselves. We won’t let Antonio down, I promise.”
What did Mom mean? Was she planning witchcraft of her own or did she have something more practical in mind?
Mom winked at me. “Here comes your boyfriend.”
I stole a glance behind me and saw Tyler walking across the gym toward us. He had an air of authority about him, even out of uniform. His jeans and a black t-shirt hugged his lean, muscular body in all the right places. As he drew near, my heart skipped a beat. I wanted to rush over and wrap my arms around him. I felt a rush of emotion that had nothing to do with any spell of Aunt Pearl’s.
Tyler smiled as his gaze met mine. “Everything okay so far?”
I nodded and then turned back to Trina. “Hopefully today goes well. After the festival, I’ll do whatever I can to prevent the winery from falling into…” I caught myself before I said, ‘enemy hands’.
Tyler placed his hand lightly on my shoulder. “Where’s Antonio?”
Trina explained that Antonio had gone to retrieve his forgotten wine and added, “He’s been so disorganized lately. All his money troubles have really started to weigh on him. Maybe Desiree’s deal is better than nothing. He’d get a little money. He could use it to start a new winery all on his own, without Jose.”
Mom nodded. “A fresh start is a good idea.”
“Where’s Aunt Pearl?” I scanned the gym, but there was no sign of my sparkly red-sequined aunt.
“Last I saw she was moving her RV,” Tyler explained. “She wasn’t too happy about it, but somehow I convinced her that more parking meant better sales for everybody. She finally agreed with me.”
That struck me as odd, but then again, Aunt Pearl had been especially helpful lately. She had been eager to bottle Antonio’s wine yesterday. Had she changed her attitude, or was she up to something?
Mom smiled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Pearl has a nap in her RV. She told me she hadn’t slept a wink all night. She was exhausted from all that work yesterday.”
I frowned. Most of her work had been spellcasting, not manual labor, so that didn’t make much sense.
“We’re never going to break Desiree’s chokehold on first place, but maybe one of us will win second place,” Trina said. “That should convince wine buyers to try our wines.”
“At least there are two additional judges this year,” Tyler said. “That’s a big improvement over just Richard. Judging should be more impartial at least.”
I shrugged. “Three judges instead of one is good in theory, but it won’t change the end result. Richard handpicked them. One is a part-time bank teller who wants full-time employment. The other is Richard’s golfing buddy. They’ll do whatever he wants and just rubber stamp Desiree’s win.” The additional judges were the result of a public outcry last year, and Richard had reluctantly agreed to share judging duties. Unfortunately, only two people volunteered.
Trina frowned. “Isn’t there anything you can do, Tyler? Isn’t corruption against the law?”
“Technically yes, but it’s difficult to prove and even harder to prosecute,” he said.
“Such a shame that it’s a fixed contest every year,” Trina said. “It’s frustrating to think of Lombard Wines coming in second place for the fifth year in a row. Nobody’s had a chance ever since Desiree opened up her fake winery. She buys other people’s wine and passes it off as her own. Everybody knows and yet we can’t do anything about it.”
Aunt Pearl’s voice came behind me. “If the sheriff won’t do anything, maybe it’s time for a little vigilante justice.” Her words sounded a little slurred, like she had already dipped into the wine. Of course, everyone day drank at the wine festival, but it hadn’t even started yet. A drunk Aunt Pearl meant that her propensity for messed-up magic just went up a notch.
“Now Pearl…” Tyler held his hand up to object.
I turned to Tyler. “Was she already drinking when you told her to move her RV?”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not even here!” Aunt Pearl pushed her way between us and turned to face us. The red wine in her plastic wine glass sloshed back and forth as she teetered on her feet. It was a good thing she was wearing red.
“You’re drunk!” I tried to take the glass from her hand, but she wouldn’t let me. She snatched her hand away and, in the process, sent wine spraying all over the place.
“Look what you’ve done, Cendrine!” Aunt Pearl swayed on her feet as she studied her empty glass. “Now it’s alll gone…” She staggered backwards several steps.
I caught her by the waist and almost went down with her as I tried to steady her.
Where she had gotten the wine from? None of the wine-tasting booths had opened yet.
Aunt Pearl’s voice grew louder as she swayed unsteadily on her feet. “Listen to me, Sheriff. You allow this travesty of justice to continue, and soon we’ll all be taking
