" He nodded ratherproudly."A simple apprentice?" I asked, baffled."The darn snake of an apprentice sneaked up from behind," hesaid, looking embarrasse... while he shook his head."Sneaked. Weren't you fooled?" I asked, wondering how on Earthsomebody could be stupid enough to be fooled into a bottle."Oh! Well... Yes, fine. I was fooled, the simplest darn trick in the book and I fell for it; you don't need to use the salt," thegenie said, looking a bit insulted, like he felt a bit dumb overthe whole. “I love you...”“Oh God,” she gasped back, “Me too!”There was a long moment of silence, and then Stephie whispered in a tiny voice, “And what about me, Howie? What about me?”I was stunned. I moved to her and, took her in my arms. I could hear her unsteady breathing as sure as she could hear mine. We moved together and kissed slowly, but with each swirl of our tongues, we drove deeper and deeper, faster and faster. I held her tightly, shoving my hardon up against her vulva, and she pushed back. I. I’d go out to the vineyard and see what they were going to do in the interim. Ted and Lisa were sitting outside on the porch, sipping on some tea when I arrived. ‘Hawk!’ Lisa cried as she ran out to hug me. ‘We just heard you got your job back! I’m so happy for you!’ I held her and smiled. ‘Yeah. I’m still all jelly inside thinking about it. How’s Studly doing and what about your job?’ She grinned at me. ‘Grouchy and I’m still employed. I figure that I’m going to give him a few days to recover. In a way it reminded my of Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith show. All it needed was Aunt Bea and Don Knotts to make it official.When I got to Cabin Tavern the bartender just said ‘hello there’ and slid a room key down the bar to me. I was impressed when she said the guy fixing my car had called ahead to let her know that I was coming. Must be she didn’t get too many strangers in there.I took my suitcase up to my room and came back down. I asked about getting something to eat and she told me.