Mountain Storm

Chapter 12

Malik POV

After the reading, I went to my bar and engulfed myself in work. I really wanted to get Lisa off my mind, but all I kept thinking about was her. I haven't been able to get her out of my head for ten years, so why I thought it would work now, I have no idea.

I had other relationships in the past few years, but they never measured up to her. Her laugh, her smile, her everything infected my very being.

I tried to pick up the phone to call her several times, but then I would hang it up again. 'She wouldn't want to talk to me, she left here to build herself a life of her own. Why would she want a cowboy that didn't want to leave our hometown?

I hadn't realized I was rubbing a hole in the table I was wiping until Aaron asked, "You trying to make the table disappear boss?"

"What?' I asked as I looked at the table. "Sorry, guess my mind is elsewhere."

"Or should you say, ON someone else?" He smiled.

Aaron was the only one that knew about me and Leecee. We have become pretty good friends over the past couple of years, since I opened 'Boots', and we have had our fair share of talks and hanging out.

"Is it that obvious?"

"It sure is, ever since she walked in a few nights ago with her friends. I thought you were going to drop the glass you were cleaning."

I nodded my head, adjusted my ball cap and threw the towel over my shoulder and walked back behind the bar to find something else to do.

"Hey boss, why don't you get out of here? It's pretty slow today, and you look like you could use some time to think."

"You're right, I'm not doing much good here anyway."

I grabbed my keys from beside the cash register and headed out the door.

I took off my ball cap, smoothed back my semi-long quiff hairstyle and placed the cap on backwards. I grabbed my sunglasses from my saddlebag on my black and silver 2017 Harley-Davidson Softail, and straddled the seat. I kicked her into life, revved the engine a few times, put her into gear, checked my mirrors and pulled out of the parking lot.

I rode for a few miles on the country roads, just feeling the wind in my face and the sun on my back. It was particularly hot today, but the wind is keeping me cool enough.

I made a few turns without even thinking about it and found myself at the top of Belleville Mountain. I parked my bike along the side of the road, and found a big boulder to sit on. The view of the valley from up here is breathtaking.

On one side you can see the farm lands of Belleville. The plots of growing land are cut out like geometric shapes with their sharp edges. Some were perfectly square while others were shaped like rectangles and trapezoids. The other side had a few farms, but you can see more houses and roads.

It was extremely quiet. The only thing I could hear was the light breeze rustling the leaves on the trees and a few birds chirping. Occasionally, a vehicle would come up and down the mountain.

I sighed, closed my eyes and felt the setting sun on my face. I need to talk to her. I need to tell her how I feel. And now that her grandmother left a request that she open a restaurant here, maybe she will stay.

Lisa POV

After Peggy left, I contacted the airline and decided to change my ticket to Thursday instead of Friday. I might as well go back a day early so that I can get a jump start on the dinner.

"Logan, I am going to head back to Georgia a day early. I have to prepare for that dinner on Saturday."

"Will you be coming back?"

"Yes, I will come back next week. I need to get a few things taken care of there first, then I want to come back and take a look at that building Gram left me. Not sure what kind of shape it is in, but I guess I will find out."

"What time is your flight out?"

"Eight."

"Do you know when you are coming back next week?"

"Probably Thursday. I will let you know as soon as I figure things out."

"OK."

I went upstairs and finished packing my bags, then took a quick shower and went to bed. It was another sleepless night. Why can't I stop thinking about him? He obviously wants nothing to do with me.

I got up early, gave Logan a hug, got in my rental car and started the drive to the airport. I picked up my cell and decided to at least call Malik this time. It rang through to his voicemail.

'Hey, it's me,' I paused, 'I just wanted to let you know that I am headed back to Georgia.' I hung up the phone.

***

I opened the door to my office and sat down in front of my computer. I went through my emails, some of them from vendors and customers offering their condolences, others were invoices. I finished paying the invoices and entered the employees' payroll into the program, then went out into the kitchen.

Rebecca had placed all the dry ingredients we would need on the counter and I found the printed email I had sent her and her recipes. I picked up the papers and read through them, checking off the ingredients she had laid out, making sure she had not forgotten anything.

Rebecca came into the kitchen just as I was laying the papers on the counter.

"What are you doing back here?" she asked.

"I wanted to get back here to get a start on this."

"You know you could have spent more time with your family."

"Well, it looks like I will have to go back there soon anyway. It seems my Gram left me an old restaurant that she bought for me, she wants me to build 'Hush II'. She stated in her will 'You have great ambition and drive, I know you can make it work.'"

"Wow, that is awesome, Leec."

"I'm not sure about that though."

"Look, Leec, I may not have known your Gram, but I do know that she is right. You have great ambition and drive. I know that you will be able to make it work or at least figure it out."

Malik POV

I stepped out of the shower and saw that I had a missed call from Lisa. I listened to the voicemail and immediately my heart sank. She was gone, again.

What have I done? I know what I did. I gave her the cold shoulder. I didn't let her know how I was feeling about her, how I have been feeling about her for the past ten years.

I hurriedly got dressed, ran down the steps, jumped into my truck and drove as fast as I could to Gram's house, but it was too late, her rental car was already gone.

I pounded my fist on the steering wheel and drove back home.