Up In Smoke: Spirit of the Soul Wine Shop Mystery (A Rysen Morris Mystery Book 3) by K.J. Emrick Page B

loops of twine, making small talk with them the whole time.  They were here from Nevada, leaving soon, enjoying the sights, and yes they would love some brochures to take home with them.  Their friends simply must come to Cambria.
    Rysen waved to them as they left.  Such a nice couple.
    Maybe someday that would be her and Josh, taking vacations together for no reason other than to be with each other, not worried about anything but seeing where life might take them.
    She was supposed to meet Josh for lunch, actually.  They had taken their time about getting back together after their last argument.  He said that he had forgiven her for kissing another man, but she wasn’t so sure.  He had every reason to be upset at her.  That other man had been Brandon.  No matter how much she tried to convince Josh that it hadn’t meant anything, she could see the look in his eyes that told her he knew better.
    So did she, actually.  Those few stolen kisses with Brandon had been, well, amazing.  Sparks.  Fireworks.  Butterflies in her stomach.  The whole thing.  She’d made up her mind to be with Josh, though, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
    Did she smell smoke?
    The store was oddly silent.  That was when she knew something was wrong.  Standing there at the cash register, listening to the silence of the space around her, she could feel something wasn’t right. 
    And that was definitely smoke she was smelling.
    “What the hell…?”
    She turned around in a slow circle.  There didn’t seem to be anything wrong.  Maybe she should call 911? Have someone come and check things out?  No.  There was no reason to bother the local fire department just because she thought she smelled something.  Maybe she was having a stroke.  No reason to bother anyone over that.
    Heh.  There.  That put it into perspective.  Nothing wrong, just Rysen being silly.  She figured she should check the rest of the store anyway.  Just to be safe.  Behind the sales counter a door led to a little office space.  There was a downstairs, too, a cellar where they stored the wine stock and other things.  A quick walkthrough, and then she could get back to dusting the back shelves like Christina had asked her to do today.
    The door to the office opened to a nightmare of flames and smoke and heat.
    The store was on fire.
    Panic set in quickly.  Thick, black smoke rolled out of the back room as she stood there and her only thought was that she should have cleaned those shelves first because there was no way she was going to get it done now.
    Flames licked at the walls, and the furniture, and all of Christina’s carefully organized files were burning.  Was this what Hell looked like, she wondered?  Something you loved, truly loved, being devoured by fire?
    The jarring buzz of the smoke alarm finally going off snapped her out of her daze.  There were two smoke alarms.  Both of them were out here in the sales area.  There was one downstairs in the cellar, too, but the walls and the floor were stone and cement and the chances of the fire spreading down there were slim but if she didn’t—
    Something in the office crashed to the floor, engulfed in red and orange flames.  She jumped back, smashing hard into the sales counter, and scrambled for the exit. 
    It was when she was out on the street that she realized she did need to call the fire department after all.  Staring stupidly at the front of the shop, she patted her pockets over and over.  It wasn’t there.  Her cell phone.  It wasn’t there.
    She’d left it back in the store.
    By now the smoke was filling the front room.  She could see it clearly through the front windows.  All that wine, she thought suddenly.  All of Christina’s hard work!  Even as she stared in disbelief the fire ate its way up the interior walls, burning away the scenes of ripe grapes on the vine.  The smiling face of a woman with a glass of deep red wine was slowly engulfed, her white teeth