Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Micah

"How long does it take until we can drink these?" Micah asked as she gently ran her fingers over a cluster of grapes. She'd been rather shocked to discover there were actual mountains in Texas and not just hills. Local wineries dotted many of the valleys they'd passed. Precisely planted rows of lush vines covered acres of land with a sea of green leaves shading various types of grapes.

"If you're talking about that particular cluster, I'm guessing a couple of years at least," Stone said. "However, we can buy a bottle or two to enjoy when we rejoin the others."

They'd joined a small group of other people to tour the family-owned facility, but Micah had been far more interested in the actual grapes being grown than in any machinery, though she had asked her Daddy if the huge metal vats were the "shiny" part of his poem.

"No, baby, these are just a bonus."

Micah thought the true bonus was when he asked a worker if he could take her out to one of the pastures so she could see the grapes up close and personal. With permission granted, they'd hiked away from the group and were now standing between two rows.

"Daddy, do you think they'd mind if I tried a grape? I'll pay for it."

"I'm sure one is fine, but I'm warning you it's probably pretty sour because…"

All Micah needed to hear was the part of it being fine as she studied the cluster to determine which was the one perfect grape among what she'd learned was called a "bunch". She'd narrowed the choice down to two of the fattest grapes, when she heard the warning timbre in her Daddy's voice.

"Micah—"

"I am hurrying, but it needs to be the perfect one, Daddy. This one is bigger, but see how pretty this one is? And it's sort of a pinkish yel–"

"Micah."

Something in his voice had her looking up only to see he wasn't gazing at her, but off at something in the distance.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to leave?—"

"You said I could pick a?—"

"Now!"

His tone one she'd never heard before. It had her chest tightening and the hair on her neck standing on end. "Daddy?"

"It's okay, baby. Everything is going to be just fine. We're going to walk very slowly back to the gate. Just stay close and follow me and whatever you do, do not run."

Okay, if that was supposed to calm her, it failed miserably. She was about to tell him so when she heard what sounded like a snort, and not a cute little snort from a baby pig or a sweet puppy, or even a horse. This was a deep, loud snort and when it was followed by another, all she could envision was some one-eyed, huge monster ready to reach out and grab her.

"Daddy–"

"Don't run," Stone reminded, his hand finding hers and squeezing. "Don't make any sudden movements. I think he's just blustering a bit."

He?

What she'd just heard hadn't sounded like it came from any man. As a trauma nurse she'd heard plenty of sounds men made and that angry, snort-snuffling wasn't one of them. She wasn't truly aware of moving but must have as the orderly rows of vines disappeared when they came to the edge of a narrow path. Looking down the dirt road had her bladder clenching and threatening to fail.

"Shhh, it's okay. I won't let him hurt you."

Micah didn't bother asking how he planned on preventing that, just prayed he was right. The huge animal staring at them had to weigh ten times what Stone did and her Daddy was not a small man. And then there was the fact the bull had another thing her Daddy didn't. Horns spanned at least six feet and ended in what appeared to be wickedly sharp points.

Her soft whimpers were deadened by the bull's continued snorts. Micah could swear she saw the dirt swirling into a vortex with the animal's inhalations only to burst into particles of red when he snorted. She also would have sworn she could feel the earth trembling beneath her feet when the behemoth's hoof lifted only to paw at the ground.

"Daddeeee…"

"Almost there, baby. Just a few more steps," Stone said. "Just keep walking backward."

How he could be so calm when she was pretty sure she was about to have a heart attack, she didn't know. It wasn't until she saw him reach for the gate they'd entered that she began to think they might actually make it. But when he pulled the gate toward them, the bull took it as a sign of possible freedom and charged.

Micah screamed and her feet left the ground as Stone grabbed her and practically flung her through the gate. She landed on her feet but stumbled with the momentum and fell on her butt, watching her husband attempting to pull the gate closed before the bull gored him. It was going to be far too close for comfort, and she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed harder than she'd ever prayed before.

"Hey, baby, it's okay, we're fine."

Her eyes flew open and then she burst into tears quickly followed by strangled laughter. Throw in some hiccups, the inability to suck down oxygen, and blurred vision and she figured she'd be seeing angels any moment. Part of her thought that would be pretty cool and part of her wondered if she could room with Lydia or would have to wander around pastures full of bulls until it was her time to sprout her own angel wings.

"Micah, just breathe, baby. I've got you."

Since death didn't instantly claim her, she became aware of hands running up and down her back, and the ground beneath her had softened considerably. Looking up, she saw her Daddy and the concerned expression on his face. "Just breathe, babygirl. In and out, breathe with me."

She nodded and followed his instructions, the terror slowly dissipating as the professional in her understood she'd been on the brink of a full-blown panic attack. It took a few minutes until she wasn't having to concentrate on breathing, just allowing her body to do so naturally.

"Better?"

"Much," she assured him. "That was… was…"

"Scary as fuck," Stone offered, which made her giggle and slap at his arm.

"You owe a dollar to the swear jar."

"If you'd heard all the cursing I was doing in my head, you'd tell me to stick an entire Benjamin in that jar."

Micah laughed. "I think we can let those go. After all, you did save my life."

Stone chuckled and bent to kiss her forehead. "That's a bit of an exaggeration since I'm the one who put you in danger in the first place."

"That's okay, you didn't know that bulls and wine go together. But I think I'll keep any more wine tours confined to the tasting rooms. Oh!" Looking down, she realized the grape she'd selected had somehow made its own escape from danger. "Wow, these are some pretty hearty grapes, aren't they?"

Stone nodded as he set her off his lap in order to stand. While he dusted off the seat of his jeans, she popped the grape into her mouth. His laughter at her expression drew the attention of the bull, which snorted again from a few feet on the other side of the gate.

Micah spit the pulp of the grape onto the ground, her lips pursed and her eyes watering a bit.

"Sour?" Stone asked.

"Like eating an entire box of Sour Patch Kids in one fell swoop," Micah admitted.

He took her hand and they headed back toward the cluster of stone buildings that housed the tasting room. "We'll get a couple bottles of wine to enjoy later and you can get some water."

"Sounds good," Micah said, taking the opportunity to do some rather unladylike spitting, swearing she could hear the bull snorting his own laughter. As Stone reached for the door handle, Micah pulled against his hold. "Wait, um, would you mind checking my behind?"

His eyebrow shot to his hairline. "Babygirl, I'm always up for looking at your gorgeous ass."

Slapping his arm again, she hissed, "Shhh, I just want to make sure I don't need to change shorts before we go inside. I think I might have wet my pants."

Stone turned her around and then back again. "No worries. Your butt is as cute as ever and dry as my throat. How about we do some wine tasting?"

"Okay, but only a few sips. As much as I love wine, I'm sorta ready to get on with the dining part of the poem."