Chapter 47
Lisa straightened up her hotel room and went to the bathroom, and brushed her teeth. She realized that she was stalling on calling Jason back, so she finally took a deep breath and dialed his number
"Hello?" said Jason when he answered his phone.
"Hi, Jason, it's Lisa Stillman. I got your voicemail, and that is not what I expected, I have to admit." Lisa hoped she was making the right choice by calling him back.
Jason grunted in response and then went on to explain. "Well, I didn't expect buying a horse with Michael to end that way either. He has been pushing to invest in my stable a little more beyond the one horse, and I had been putting it off. Something told me not to do it, and now I'm very glad that I didn't."
"I'm sorry that I left so abruptly earlier, but I was surprised to see him, and I also didn't want to give him any of my money." Lisa wasn't sure if she really needed to apologize, but she didn't want to mess up a potentially good business relationship.
"I can certainly understand that," responded Jason. "I hated having to pay him back for his investment, but I didn't want to be in business with someone like him. My dad was adamant that his employees were an extension of him, so he treated them the way he wanted to be treated and wouldn't allow anyone else to treat them poorly either."
"Your dad sounds like a good man. My dad was similar. Once I found out how Michael was behaving, I threw him out and called security to let them know so that they could make sure that he left." Lisa was starting to feel good about working with this stable owner.
"Are you still in Lexington, or have you already made plans to leave?" asked Mr. Martin.
Lisa sighed. "I tried to find a flight out today, but there wasn't really anything that worked, so I decided to stick with my original flight in the morning. I'm sorry that I left so quickly. I did get a text from my stable manager that he wasn't going to be at work due to a death in the family, but I knew that was a possibility before I left."
"I understand wanting to leave. I'm sorry to hear about your stable manager being away from work. Since you're still here and can't leave until morning, if you want to look at the horse a little more, feel free to come back. I'm going to be home all day today anyway."
Lisa had no idea how it would go, but she didn't want the trip to be a complete waste. "You know what? I think I will come back. I hated to leave because I was somewhat interested, but I didn't want to do business that involved Michael Winters."
"Well, I don't blame you one bit. I don't intend to do business with him anymore, either. I know we don't know each other well, but it's always good to find someone who cares about how they do business. Why don't you come back now and my wife and I will serve you lunch. How does that sound?" Jason asked.
"That sounds lovely. I'm just going to call my husband back and let him know my plans, and then I'll make my way back there." Lisa ended the call once Jason agreed to the plan. This wasn't how she saw her day going, but she was thankful that she had found a fellow horse breeder who insisted on treating their employees well and didn't want to be in business with unscrupulous people.
After calling Jack back to tell him her plan, Lisa freshened up a little more in her hotel bathroom and then went back down to her rental car and drove back to the stable. She hoped that this time would go better and that she would be able to buy the horse.
As Lisa was getting out of her rental at the stable, Jason Martin walked over to greet her. "Welcome back. I'm so sorry about everything earlier. I didn't know that Michael behaved that way, but I'm glad to know now so that I don't have to do business with him anymore."
Lisa waved him off. "I can move beyond that. He's just a distasteful chapter in our lives. It's always nice to know that there are fellow horse breeders who run their business in an ethical way. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new, but that can be an issue in this business. There are many people that I have walked away from when I found out how they ran things."
Jason nodded. "You're right. I, too, have walked away from people who were just out to make a buck and didn't mind abusing their animals and cheating in order to win. Let's go look at Stormy again. You didn't even get to finish looking him over earlier."
Lisa was once again impressed by the horse. She liked what she saw, and she began to discuss terms with Jason. She didn't drive as hard of a bargain as she normally would have, but she thought it was a gesture of goodwill to him that she trusted him and was willing to work with him.
After they had agreed upon the terms of the sale, Jason's wife, Jennifer, called him on his cell phone to let him know that lunch was ready. He led Lisa up to the house and pointed out interesting things about the grounds as they walked to their destination.
Jennifer was waiting on the front porch when they arrived. "Hello, I'm Jennifer, Jason's wife. Welcome to our home."
Lisa smiled at Jennifer. "Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it."
Jennifer opened the door and ushered Lisa and Jason inside. "It's the least we could do after everything that happened this morning. I'm so sorry about that. I was never around Michael without Jason, but I did notice he seemed to like the ladies. I'm sorry that he was inappropriate with your employees. We'll have to do something nice for our employees. Jason said his stable manager and some of the other men often tried to play interference, but they weren't always successful."
"Well, thank you, just the same." Lisa looked around at the home she had just walked into. "Your home is lovely. I spend so much time in hotels when I travel for work. It's nice to be in a house."
"Jason would agree with you. Whenever he has to leave, he misses being home terribly. He'd stay here all the time if he could." Jennifer looked over at her husband and smiled lovingly.
Lisa chuckled. "Jason sounds like my husband, Jack. He really doesn't leave much and is perfectly happy just being at home. It helps that he runs a cattle ranch, so he pretty much needs to be home to take care of the cattle."
"Oh, wow!" exclaimed Jennifer. "Cattle ranching seems like a big job."
"It is, but he loves it." Lisa got a wistful look on her face as she thought about her husband.
"You look like you're missing him," observed Jennifer.
"I am. We were in a car accident a couple of months ago, and it really forced us to spend a lot of time together while I recovered from my injuries. I'm finding that I don't really like being away from him or our home." Lisa was surprised at how homesick she was for Heartland considering she didn't even know who Jack was when she woke up in the hospital.
Jennifer pointed to a door in the hallway and said, "There's a powder room off the kitchen if you want to freshen up. We're going to eat on the back porch. It's just right through those doors straight ahead."
Lisa went to get ready for lunch. After using the facilities and washing her hands, she smoothed her hair down and straightened her clothes. As she was leaving the washroom, she ran into Jason, who was heading to the back porch and followed him out.
Stepping out onto the back porch of the Martin residence, Lisa gasped at the view. There were rolling hills and trees and a couple of mares with their foals grazing in the paddock behind the house. "Oh, this is beautiful. I can see why you wanted to eat out here."
Jennifer pointed to a chair with a view of the property. "Lisa, you can take that seat there. Jason, I forgot the lemonade. Can you bring the pitcher out?" Jennifer sat down at the table with Lisa. "So tell me about yourself, Lisa? How did you get into horse breeding?"
Lisa liked this woman. She was sweet and had a thick accent that Lisa would call southern. This was a topic that she could talk about without having to work around her memory loss, and she was grateful for that. "I got into it through my parents. I inherited the land when my father died. I had been living in the States with my first husband, Dan. We were both in this industry, but it didn't work out after I went home to take care of my dad when he was sick and realized I had been missing Alberta and Fairfield more than I had been missing Dan. Taking over the stable was absolutely the right choice for me. I love my job."
"I can't imagine living so far north. We do get some cold and snow here, but it's nothing like Canadian winters." Jennifer shivered at the idea of a Canadian winter.
Lisa chuckled. "Yes, it does get cold in Alberta, but we also have the Canadian Rockies, and they are so beautiful. Plus, it's just home. I grew up there, and I love it."
"Oh, I understand that," said Jennifer. "I'm from Eastern Kentucky in Appalachia. People will say it's beautiful, but it's also very poor there. There's a lot of poverty, and some people are turned off by that. It's home, though, and I get back as often as possible to see my mama and my daddy. Those mountains are in my blood."
Jason came back out with a pitcher of lemonade and set it on the table.
"I've not really visited Eastern Kentucky, but my ex-husband Dan and I drove through there on a trip to Roanoke, VA. It was very beautiful there. I can see how you would love that area. How did you end up here in Lexington?" asked Lisa.
Jennifer looked over at her husband and smiled. "I went to the University of Kentucky for college. One summer, I got a job as a stable hand for Jason's dad. I recognized Jason from campus. We had some mutual friends, but we didn't really know each other well. That summer, we ended up working together a lot, and we fell in love. I was just so impressed by him, and he never treated me any differently because of where I come from. That's not always the case. Some look down on poor people from Appalachia. I only went to college because I got some good scholarships. I was the first person in my family to go to college."
"My wife is being modest. She is brilliant." Jason reached over and took his wife's hand. "I couldn't run this business without her. She studied business at the University of Kentucky, and I studied Equine Science and Management. The business stuff we went over out at my office is all Jennifer. She doesn't always deal directly with the horse people, but she oversees our business as a whole."
"Well, it sounds like you're perfect for each other. Seeing the way you look at each other is just making me miss my husband. I can't wait to get back home to him." The only thing Lisa really wanted at the moment was to be in her husband's arms.
"So, Lisa. Do you have any children?" asked Jennifer.
"No, I don't. It never worked out for me. However, marrying my husband has given me grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live with us. Our granddaughters' father also lives on the property with his new wife." Seeing the look on their faces, she realized she needed to explain. "I know that sounds awkward, but their mom passed away a long time ago so, it's not as weird as it sounds." Lisa shook her head at her family situation.
"It sounds like you have a home full of family, and that's not a bad thing. We're empty nesters ourselves. Our kids are all grown and married. They are starting to have kids of their own, but they're also focused on their careers."
"You seem very proud of your family," said Lisa.
"We are. They are great kids," said Jason. "Let's eat, and then we can finish up the details with the horse."
Lisa enjoyed lunch. The food was good, the company of Jason and Jennifer was nice, and the scenery was beautiful. She was glad that she had come back to buy the horse. It struck her as she was sitting there that she had missed this part of her job. She missed getting to meet interesting people and getting to know them over a shared meal.
After they finished lunch, Lisa thanked Jennifer for the delicious meal, and she followed Jason back to the stable office to finish up the sale of the horse. They worked on transport for the horse, and Lisa left feeling pleased with how the day had ended up.
She considered calling Jack on her way back to the hotel, but in the end, Lisa decided to process everything that happened while she drove. Once she arrived back at her hotel room, she pulled out her phone to call Jack.
"Hello, Lis! How did it go?" Jack asked when he answered the phone.
Lisa was so happy to hear Jack's voice that she almost cried. "Hi! It went well. I bought the horse and his wife made lunch for us. We ate on their back porch where there were rolling hills and trees and some mares and foals grazing. It was so beautiful. Not as beautiful as Alberta, but beautiful nonetheless."
"That does sound nice," admitted Jack. "I'm glad that it worked out for you. I'm so proud of you."
"I'm glad too. I hadn't realized how much I missed this part of my job. My fear about people finding out about my amnesia has kept me at home so much, but I couldn't stay there forever. I have to get back out here and do my job." Lisa talked to Jack for a while, but then she started to get hungry and wanted to look for somewhere to get some dinner and then get to bed early so she could get some sleep and be ready for her flight home in the morning.
When Lisa's flight landed in Calgary the following afternoon, she was very ready to get to her car and get back home. She was thankful that she hadn't checked a bag so that she could just head straight to her car and get home. The drive home seemed to take forever because she was so ready to take a shower and relax after she got home.
When Lisa parked at the fence at Heartland, she took a moment to think about her past couple of days and really appreciated that her business acumen was still there. She felt good about how things had turned out, and she was proud of herself for going back and getting the horse once everything came out about Michael.
Jack saw that Lisa had arrived and walked out to the car to greet her. He opened the door to her SUV. "Hey Lis! Welcome home."
"Hey, I was kind of lost in thought. I didn't even see you." Lisa smiled and got out of the car so that she could give Jack a hug and kiss.
"I'll grab your suitcase and we can head inside. I'm so glad to have you home." Jack opened the back of the SUV to grab Lisa's luggage.
Lisa looked around and took in her surroundings. "It's good to be home. I need a shower and maybe a nap. I feel gross from traveling, and I'm exhausted.
"Well, let's get you inside then." Jack ushered Lisa into the house. He put her suitcase in their room. He turned around, and Lisa had been following behind him. He pulled her into his arms. "I needed another hug. You being home for so long after the accident spoiled me. I missed you like crazy."
"Aww, you're sweet. I love you." Lisa reached up to place a kiss on Jack's cheek and then pulled away. "I'm going to head to the shower. You know, I could go for a cup of tea. Could you make me one while I'm in the shower?
Jack nodded. "Sure thing. You go get cleaned up, and I'll get you a cup of tea."
"Thanks, honey. Boy, I missed you." Lisa grabbed clean clothes and headed for the shower.
After watching Lisa walk to the bathroom, Jack smiled to himself about how happy he was to have his wife back home and went to get the water boiling in the kettle on the stove.
Lisa joined Jack in the kitchen after she got out of the shower. Her face lit up when she saw that he had a cup of tea ready for her as well as a few cookies. "Aw, thank you. This looks great."
The two of them sat at the table in the kitchen and chatted while they drank their tea and ate cookies. Lisa got caught up with what happened while she was out of town, and they just enjoyed spending time together.
Lyndy walked into the house with Katie. "Lisa!" Lyndy ran to give her a hug.
Katie smiled when she saw her great grandma. "Hi, Lisa! Did you have a good trip?"
Lisa stood up and hugged Katie. "I did. It's good to be home, though. I'm glad this first trip was short because I'm not used to traveling yet." She then sat back down at the table to finish up her tea.
"It's good to have you home. GG missed you. He always does when you're gone, but I think he missed you extra this time." Katie looked over at Jack and grinned at him.
Jack leaned forward. "She's right. I did miss you extra this time." He reached across the table and squeezed Lisa's hand.
Lisa enjoyed dinner with the family. She didn't even mind Tim being his usual Tim self who couldn't help butting into situations that had nothing to do with him. Being next to Jack at the table and spending time with everyone else made up for that.
When they went to bed that night, Jack and Lisa cuddled together and took comfort in their close proximity. They talked a little, but they mostly just enjoyed being in the same place.
To Be Continued
Author's Note: I haven't forgotten about this story. I've just had a lot going on. My dad is dealing with several major health issues and it's been pretty stressful. We're thankful that he's getting treatment at one of the best hospitals in the country. On top of all of that, I had to rewrite part of this chapter and the next few chapters. It's been hard to focus on writing with everything else happening.