Mountain Getaway

by Pine, Heather

  Rick glanced at his father, who was busy addressing the associates in the room. He now paid no attention to the two of them in the hallway.

  “Rick, I wanted to ask you something. You can refuse me, if you want.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “I want you on my team. What you did in there was outstanding and showed character. I want people who put their family above business. There are too many people in this city who would do anything to get ahead, but you have principles, and when I see someone like you, I don't want to see them get away. It would also appear you need a job.”

  “I do.” Rick held the business card in his hands. “I'm just not sure if I can accept. You would want me to be in the city and I—”

  “There's no rush. And I have many employees who work remotely across the country. Where you live is of no concern to me as long as you get the job done and do it well.”

  “How would Valerie feel about it? I don't want to make things awkward for her.”

  He smiled and gestured for Rick to follow him to the elevators. “Valerie will be fine with it. She is hoping the two of you can remain friends and it won’t be awkward when you run into each other. Of course, you would only run across each other when you’d be in the city, and I doubt we'd see much of you around the building when you have that place of yours in Lemon Grove.”

  “Yeah, about that…” Rick sighed and watched a load of passengers get off the elevator. “I've considered selling the place.”

  “You're not selling to Robert Fletcher because your father wants you to, are you?”

  Rick shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I might sell to Robert, but not because of my father. Did Valerie tell you I—”

  “Met someone else? Yes, she did. She said she felt rather intimidated by her. The young lady was quite attractive from the sounds of it, and kindly left the two of you to talk. It takes trust to leave a man alone with another woman.”

  "I don't believe our relationship was quite ready for Valerie's arrival. I haven't been able to reach Molly since she left Lemon Grove."

  “Hmm… I see.” Charles' voice grew quiet.

  “She owns a coffee shop with a friend in the city, so I came here hoping I could find her, but she wasn't there. I thought I would talk with my father while I was here and make it clear with him where I stood. He has held things over my head for too long and I need to be free to make choices without it affecting my relationship with my father or with Molly.”

  “Now that you've had your conversation with your father, what are you going to do?”

  “Go home, I guess, and keep trying to talk to Molly.”

  Charles slapped Rick on the shoulder. “If she's worth the risk of standing up to your father, you shouldn’t give up on her. She'll turn up eventually, and when she does, you will talk things through. And on another note, I like that cabin of yours. It would be a shame to sell it to Robert. If you are serious about wanting to sell, call me. I am looking for a vacation property.”

  “I will keep you in mind, for sure.”

  “Well, I'd better get back in that meeting room or your father will wonder if I don't want to deal with him anymore, either.” Charles pressed the call bell for the elevator and squeezed Rick's shoulder. “You're a good kid, Rick. Do consider my offer. I think you would make an impressive addition to the team and you'd be very happy with us.”

  “I will consider it.”

  Charles stepped back into the meeting room and Rick watched his father barely acknowledge his return. As Rick stepped into the elevator, he exhaled and thought about the offer Charles had made. Working for him would be an excellent option if it weren't for the connection to Valerie. If talking to Valerie had made Molly bolt, how would she react to hearing Rick took a job with Valerie's father? But being out from under his father's thumb would be a good thing. Yes, it was a tough conversation to have with him, but it was the right thing to do. The only problem was it left Rick without a job. He had enough money to get by for now, but it would eventually dry up. There were people around town who would give him the odd job here and there, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep him from going into debt.

  Knowing he had a job offer made the bitterness of his split from his father more bearable, but he had no choice. His father’s need to keep up appearances in front of his associates was more important than giving his son five minutes of his time. To appear in control, he told Rick he could clear out a desk he didn't have. The most he could do was return the company laptop he had in his office at home, but he hadn't worked from the city building in years. His father was putting on a show for the others in the room. The only hope Rick had came from the comment that they could continue the conversation later. Unfortunately, his secretary would need to book the meeting. It wouldn’t be a father and son chat, but an employer to employee conversation. As the elevator reached the bottom floor, he realized that he was ready to leave behind the need for his father's approval. The only approval he needed was his own.

  Today had become a fresh start. No matter what played out romantically, he would continue on a journey that would lead him to greater independence and freedom. His chin lifted and a smile spread across his lips. He was a free man. While he loved his parents, he had his own life and, with each step, he felt himself drawing closer and closer to Molly.

  In the parking lot, he pulled his phone from his pocket and found a missed call from Carla. The phone shook in his hand when he saw she had left a voice message. What if Molly told Carla she didn't want to speak to him?

  “Hey, Rick. It's Carla. I tried calling Molly, but she didn't pick up. She sent me a text message saying she had been driving when I called. She said she'd call me back later. I just wanted to let you know I tried. I'll call again when I have something to share. Take care.”

  At least he had Carla on his side. There was still hope he could talk to Molly, and hopefully soon. Rick longed to hear her voice and hold her in his arms again. He needed to tell her what he had done, and why: because there was nobody else for him but her.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Molly stood beside her tent and took a deep breath. Only a slight smell of smoke hung in the air, no doubt carried to Lemon Grove on the wind. It felt good to breathe in fresh air once again, and even better to stand next to her assembled campsite. Luckily for Molly, Glenda hadn’t booked anyone into her original campsite and Molly quickly got to work putting things back together. She smiled to herself as she recalled the way Glenda sighed as she registered Molly back into trusty campsite number twenty-three. It would seem she wasn't pleased to discover Molly returned, but it was Glenda’s interest in Rick that most likely played a factor in the reaction.

  Dusting off her hands, Molly removed her camping chair from the trunk of her car and popped it open before flopping into the seat. It had been a long day, and she was ready to rest. It wasn't only the physical exhaustion from disassembling and assembling her equipment, but the emotional weight of leaving Lemon Grove and what she would face when she returned. Her body was reacting in its own way, and she would climb into her bag soon enough for some well-deserved sleep.

  She pulled out her phone and checked the display. Three missed calls. Two from Rick and one from Carla. And then there were the text messages, mostly all from Rick apologizing and another two from Carla asking her to call when she was available to talk. With nothing else to do, she might as well tell Carla she was, once again, in Lemon Grove because of wildfires. At least someone should know where she was in case of an emergency.

  * * *

  Her bed was warm, and she was glad she cleared away the largest stones before placing her tent. While her sleeping mat was thin, it was comfortable when not lying on a stone. She slept well, even if she initially struggled to fall asleep. It was Carla's fault that Molly lay wide awake for several hours while the rest of the visitors slept in their trailers. Had Carla only told her on the phone call about the coffee shop and how well her cousin was doing in Molly's plac
e, she would have fallen asleep immediately. Instead, Carla’s words echoed in her mind.

  “He came into the shop… looking for you.”

  Rick was in the city?

  “He said he can explain what happened. He doesn’t love her.”

  Why would he choose her over the leggy blonde?

  “I think you should believe him.”

  Molly lay on her back, staring up at the roof of her tent, thinking about the Farmers' Market. Now that she was calm, she could recall the signs she hadn’t noticed before. Rick moved away from Valerie and leaned toward Molly. He gave curt responses to Valerie’s comments. Maybe Patsy was right when she said Rick had moved on from Valerie and was interested in a relationship with Molly.

  Her heart wrestled with swirling emotions. Perhaps he was worthy of another chance? Rick had made many attempts to talk to her and went out of his way to speak to Carla. Giving him the opportunity to talk about what happened might clear the air and allow them to at least be friends. But now she would be the one who would need to get him to talk to her after refusing to take his phone calls and avoiding him for so long. The rejection must have hurt. Surely he would probably react in a similar way and make her sweat over him not returning her calls. But was Rick really like that? The man she knew seemed to not hold a grudge. He had tried to talk to his ex-fiancée when she came to the Farmers’ Market, when others might have ignored her instead of trying to find a balance between ending a conversation and keeping Molly comfortable. She finally understood his awkward predicament, and the understanding carried over into the morning. As soon as Hudson would arrive, she decided she would call Rick herself and tell him she was back in town… and invite him to talk when he came by for Hudson.

  Noises echoed through the campground: the sound of visitors clearing out their sites. She checked her watch. Hudson should have come by already this morning to sniff around her tent and beg for attention. Maybe Hudson was mad at her for leaving and found another family to visit? Hopefully not. She had been looking forward to seeing him and had her chair and blanket ready. As soon as he came, she would sit in her chair and let him lay on the blanket at her feet.

  Another thirty minutes passed and there was still no sign of Hudson. Now, Molly found herself standing at the end of her site, looking up and down the road for any sign of the dog. The occasional trailer drove by as campers left the campground, but Hudson still hadn’t arrived. Molly locked up her car and walked down the road, following the loop around the campground. Hudson understood how to take care of himself and he didn't have to come visit her at her site if he didn't want to, but something nagged at her to search. She had to know if he was here. If she spotted him at another site, flopped on the ground to take in attention from other visitors, it would give her relief. If she didn't find him, she would need to call Rick. After completing the loop, she checked her site one last time before walking to the campground office. The door was closed and Glenda left a sign hanging from a hook indicating she would return in two hours. With Hudson not sitting at the office door and no sign of him at the campground, Molly couldn't wait any longer. Hudson was late, and if injured, it would be best to find him before something worse happened to him.

  She pulled her phone from her coat pocket and dialed Rick's number.

  “Molly.” His relief was clear across the phone. “Thanks for calling me back.”

  This conversation had to wait. While Rick wanted to talk about what happened at the Farmers’ Market, it was far from Molly’s mind, at the moment. “I'm sorry. I had a lot on my mind. But, I'm back in Lemon Grove. Hudson hasn't arrived at the campground yet. Did you let him out today?”

  “He should have been there a while ago. I was wondering why no one had called me.”

  “I've walked around the campground to see if he was visiting someone else, but I don’t see him. Glenda's office is closed.”

  “He might have found something on the way there and got distracted.” Now, Rick’s rushed voice wobbled with concern. “I’m going to make some calls to ask if anyone has seen him. I'll call you back as soon as I know anything.”

  “Okay,” Molly said. “I'll wait for your call.”

  She choked away a lump in her throat. Waiting for Rick to call her back seemed like hours, yet after the many checks on her watch, it had only been ten minutes. She hated to think Hudson might be waiting for them to find him while she was pacing around her campsite. At least she had Rick calling around to see if his neighbors in Lemon Grove had seen Hudson making his morning rounds, and she hoped someone had spotted him. His calls seemed to take more time than necessary. Surely Rick wouldn't waste time and leave her to worry.

  Molly wanted him to call, not only with news that they had found Hudson, but to hear his voice again. She wanted to give him time to talk about what happened. After talking to Patsy and Carla, she needed to hear his side of the story. Only, it seemed impossible to hear it now when Hudson was missing. It would have to wait until they found him, hopefully in good shape.

  The sound of gravel under tires alerted her to Rick's truck coming up the road. She strained to see into the cab of the truck, only to spot the empty seat beside him.

  “Hop in,” Rick said, bringing his truck to a stop at the end of her site. “We can check a few of his favorite spots.”

  Without hesitating, Molly tossed her blanket into her tent and jumped into the seat next to Rick. Clearly, no one had news of seeing Hudson.

  “I called everyone,” he said. His eyes shifted back and forth from one side of the road to the next, checking the woods lining the shoulder. “I have a suspicion I know where he might be.”

  “You do?”

  Rick drove at a crawl as they both looked out the windows. “He has a few places he visits. It doesn't happen that often.” He pulled out onto the highway and drove no faster than the posted speed limit, perhaps slower. While Molly wanted to rush, going faster could also mean missing a glimpse of him. Slower was better.

  “Thanks for bringing me along to search for him. I figured you might not want to talk to me after—”

  “I've been wanting to talk to you. You've been on my mind every day.”

  “Yes, but leaving and ignoring you was a little immature.”

  “You're here now.” He smiled and adjusted his grip on the steering wheel.

  Molly rubbed her hands against her knees. Rick was sitting only a few feet away, and she loathed the distance between them. It lingered there like a huge crevasse neither felt safe enough to cross. Some of the distance was his fault, but she couldn't put the blame solely on him. Her temper and desire to run away had contributed to the void. Her actions must have had some impact on him and their relationship.

  “I appreciate you giving me space to think,” she said, even though he hadn’t given her space at all. If she had listened to his voicemails and read his text messages, he would have overwhelmed her with his pleading.

  “I figured if you wanted to talk, you would have responded.”

  Molly fidgeted in her seat. She had wanted to respond to him, but her anger kept her from dialing his number. There was a part of her that wanted to understand why he hadn’t turned Valerie away and another part that wanted to forgive him. “She seemed really into you, so I thought I was getting in the way.”

  “She was the one getting in the way,” he said. “Valerie and I were over a long time ago.”

  “But she said she saw you in the city. When she said that, I thought—”

  “It was my father. He called me back for a business meeting and tried to set us back up as part of some plan of his. He has these ideas about merging companies with Valerie’s father and forcing him out as a competitor, so no better way to do that than have me marry the man's daughter. When she saw me in the city, Valerie remembered she enjoyed the time we spent together because neither of us are like our families, but we aren’t meant for each other.”

  “If you were engaged, you must have loved her.”

  Rick turne
d off the highway onto a dirt road and followed it through the trees. “When you spend enough time with someone, eventually you become connected in some way. It never felt the same as... with you.” He stole a glance and smiled. “Valerie likes you and thinks you are very sweet.”

  “I hardly said anything. And I left.”

  “She's used to women who are dominant and ready for a fight. She saw how upset it made you and how upset it made me when you left.”

  “So now what?”

  The truck came to a stop in front of a boarded up cabin with a chain-link fence surrounding the yard, and Rick laughed. “There he is.”

  Molly leaned forward to get a view of a dilapidated cabin and Hudson. In its prime, this would have been a cute cabin when there was paint on the exterior and someone made repairs to its roof. Leaves and small twigs now covered the wraparound deck, which could use a good sweeping and a few boards to replace the railing. Abandoned, a chain-link fence kept visitors out.

  Hudson lay on the top of the steps. His head rested on his front paws, but he didn’t look asleep. He appeared sad and barely acknowledged their arrival.

  “He comes here sometimes,” Rick said, exiting the truck.

  She hopped out and stood beside him. Her hand brushed the side of his and she felt a rush through her arm. It had been too long since they last touched. “What is this place?”

  “This cabin belonged to Hudson’s previous owner before he passed. Hudson comes here now and then to visit, even though the old man is gone.” They walked over to a gate in the fence where a padlock hung from a chain to prevent trespassers from entering the yard. “I worry about how he’ll be when they demolish the house. Robert Fletcher bought the property to expand his resort a few months ago. Soon, there won’t be a house for Hudson to visit.” Rick slapped his legs. “Come on, Hudson. It’s time to go.”