Page 43 of Deadly Storms (Sunrise Lake #3)

“Shabina, we have a huge favor to ask. We took on a massive job, not realizing it was going to be such a large undertaking or that it would take so much time or manpower. Edward Fenton hired us to completely go through his home and clean every room. To be fair, he boxed up a tremendous amount of the old clothes, personal items and knickknacks, things he had trouble getting rid of after his mother passed. He even pulled down the old drapes in all the rooms and had a dumpster brought in to make it easy to throw things away. Still, he has an enormous house, and I’m not certain it has seen the light of day for years. ”

Sally took up the narration. “To make a long story short, he’s on the Search and Rescue team and has been gone for a couple of days, so hasn’t been home to help us.

He told us to keep going, that it was important to him to have the house cleaned and aired out.

We know what they may find, and we want to do this for him, but it’s taking so much time.

Our crew usually cleans your café at six each night.

Would you mind if we come much later? Albert and I will come ourselves. It could be extremely late.”

Shabina glanced over at Raine, unable to help herself, although she couldn’t possibly have overhead.

What were the odds that Edward suddenly had an interest in painting?

In changing his house, which he’d kept the same for years?

And Bale’s escalating behavior toward her?

Had this change in Edward started on the bird-watching tour?

Before? She tried to think back. Were there signs of Edward pulling away from Bale the way Jason had?

Jason separating himself from Bale could have paved the way for Edward to take the steps to do the same.

“I have no problem with you coming in late,” she assured.

“Thanks for your understanding,” Albert said. “This is a big break for us. He’d like us to clean every week. We clean his office at the airport, but the contract for a house that size would allow us to keep more of our workers on through the winter.”

Shabina nodded her understanding and forced herself to greet the four university students at the next table.

It would have seemed rude if she’d skipped them.

Since all four spoke the language, she greeted them with the traditional Arab greeting, using flawless Arabic.

She repeated a greeting in French to Jules Beaumont.

They answered her solemnly in the same languages.

She asked if they needed anything. Deniz Kaplan from Turkey complimented the coffee and the breakfast dish she’d made specifically for him—fried eggs made with minced ground beef topped off with pepper and tomato paste, olive oil and parsley. It went perfectly with Turkish bread.

Emar Salhi and Jamal Talbi from Algeria both asked her to make a traditional Algerian breakfast for them. It consisted of eggs, peppers, tomatoes and onions. She served their breakfast with plenty of toast and their favorite coffee.

Jules Beaumont preferred the more traditional breakfast of potatoes and sausage. She’d served him stoemp (mashed potatoes) and pork sausage with gravy.

All four had seemed to savor the breakfasts from their homelands. She was happy to be able to provide them with something from home. She just wished she wasn’t so paranoid. Having Rainier close helped tremendously.

“Where did you learn to cook these dishes?” Deniz asked. “My mother would praise such an ability and want to keep you in the family. She would tell me to bring you home. Mashallah. ”

Keeping her hands together, Shabina gave him a tentative smile.

“ Mashallah. ” She returned the blessing.

When he continued to look at her expectantly, she forced herself to answer the question.

“I was fortunate enough to live in Saudi Arabia with a family for a year. In that time, I was given many valuable lessons I’ll never forget.

Baking and cooking were just a very small part of what I was taught. ”

Before she could turn away, he asked another question. “Would you consider returning?”

A note in his voice and the speculation in his eyes set her heart pounding. “My life is here. My family, my fiancé, this café.”

“That’s too bad. I can feel your love of the country in the food you cook. Perhaps you would change your mind if you came back.”

There was nothing to say to that. She did have love for the people.

She gave another smiling half bow with her hands folded and wished them a good day as she moved on to the next table.

She could feel Deniz’s gaze following her.

He wasn’t alone in his staring after her.

Jules did the same. What was it about him that bothered her so much?

What did he want from her? Was Deniz simply interested in her because of her cooking skills? She had known men like that.

She greeted the three visitors from Washington, doing her best to push Jules and Deniz from her mind. The women were finished with breakfast and lingering over their coffee with scones in the hopes of having a word with her. Their faces lit up when she stopped at their table.

“It’s so lovely to see you again,” Shabina greeted them. “I certainly hope the food met your expectations this morning.”

“Favorite place to eat ever ,” Val said. “Stella told us we’d love the food, and she was so right. It’s amazing.”

“I wasn’t sure about waiting in line, no reservations and no standard menu,” Theresa added. “But I am so glad Val and Janine insisted we give the café a try. I think I’m learning to be adventurous.”

“Wasn’t that the point of this trip?” Janine asked. “To prove to ourselves we could still do things we wanted to do, like we used to? Only in a much more mature fashion?”

The three women exchanged a look and then burst into laughter.

“I don’t know how mature we’ve been,” Val admitted, “but we’ve certainly had fun.”

“That’s wonderful. How long have you been friends?” Shabina asked.

“We lived in the same neighborhood as children and went to the same schools,” Theresa supplied. “I’m a little older, so I tell them I’m the boss.”

Janine nodded very solemnly. “She’s so good at being bossy.”

“I’ve had quite a bit of practice,” Theresa said. “These two get out of control. I never thought I’d see the day Janine lost her mind over a man, but she has. Now, here we are, still in Knightly while she does her best to reel him in.”

Janine tried to look innocent, but it was very clear Theresa was telling the truth. “Okay, they are the best friends ever to stay with me while I explore the idea of actually being in a relationship with someone after saying I would never do it.”

Shabina was almost afraid to ask. “Who is the lucky man?”

“You know him. Edward Fenton. He owns the helicopter service in town. He’s the most wonderful painter. It took me forever to get him to show me his work. I love to paint, but I don’t compare to his work.”

“Janine is really good,” Val said, breaking off a small piece of scone. “But I agree with her, Edward is amazing. We all went out to the canal together to paint last week.”

“There were blue herons,” Janine said. “Just walking along the canal. Edward captured them beautifully. Mine weren’t the best. He thought they were good, but his were vivid and looked so elegant and real.”

“We ran into Sean,” Theresa added. “He seemed very upset that Edward was painting with us. The two of them walked off together and seemed to be having a heated exchange. Then they moved where we couldn’t see them and were gone for a bit of time.

When Edward came back, he was alone, and it looked as if they may have gotten into a physical altercation.

We asked Edward about it, but he said not to worry, that Sean got into moods. ”

“I think he made fun of Edward painting with us,” Janine said.

“Why did you think that?” Shabina asked.

Val nodded in agreement. “Edward said disparaging things about his painting after the run-in with Sean.”

“The way he talked about his painting made us think Sean had influenced him negatively,” Theresa said. “Edward had admitted to Janine he hadn’t made any real attempts at artwork since school. He was already feeling very shy about his work.”

“I try not to say bad things about people,” Val said, “but I think Sean needs a therapist.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Janine said. “I think everyone needs a therapist, but then I am one.” She laughed at her own joke.

“He may have been having a bad day,” Theresa pointed out. “We don’t know what goes on in someone’s life. We can only try to treat them with kindness and hope they benefit from good energy.”

Val rolled her eyes. “Theresa, I swear you’re the only reason we’re going to make it through the pearly gates if there are gates. You’ll pull us on the top of your wings.”

“You’re such a heathen, Val,” Theresa said, but there was amusement in her voice.

Janine burst out laughing. “You’ve stumbled onto an ongoing argument between the two of them. Val is our scientist, and Theresa is a woman of faith.”

“One doesn’t exclude the other,” Theresa said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Val agreed, “but common sense tells me when men like Sean are mean to everyone around them, kindness doesn’t win out. If that were true, at his age, he would already be a decent human being.”

“Maybe,” Theresa said, “but I think we should all try kindness before we resort to being mean ourselves.”

“Telling someone they need therapy isn’t being mean, Theresa,” Val said. “It’s helpful advice. I could have said something entirely different, which is what I was really thinking.”

Shabina struggled to keep a straight face despite hearing the information that Edward and Sean had been in a physical altercation and both had been at the canal near the same place where she had discovered the spices and dates dumped in the bushes.

The three women’s friendship reminded her so much of what she had with Stella, Raine, Harlow, Vienna and Zahra.

She might not have known her friends as long, but she knew that relationship was strong and lasting.

It was clear to her that these women knew they could count on each other, and they always backed one another up.

Theresa was the one to roll her eyes. “Ignore her, Shabina. She sounds awful, but she truly has a heart of gold. We’ll be regulars in your café for breakfast or lunch for the next couple of weeks. Stella is helping us find a place to stay in Knightly. She knows so many people.”

“She has a line on a little guesthouse—it’s only two bedrooms, not three, but it’s still ideal for us,” Janine said.

“A kitchenette and living room and, best of all, it has a pottery studio right on the property. The couple give pottery classes. If I end up staying longer, the couple will consider extending the lease.”

“You must be talking about Tom and Judy Rosewood. They’re incredible and so kind and thoughtful. Their property is beautiful. Have you seen the guesthouse yet?”

“Not yet, just pictures,” Val said. “But it looks picture perfect. The gardens are impressive.”

Shabina had to agree. “I’d better get busy, or my own staff will fire me. I really do hope you get a chance to meet with Tom and Judy. They’re very special people.”

She gave a friendly wave and returned to quickly breaking down tables and setting them up for new customers.

She stayed on automatic pilot as she turned the information she’d inadvertently gotten from the women over and over in her mind.

She wanted to talk to her friends and Rainier about what she’d discovered.

She helped pack supplies in the SUV Avita and Pablo were driving up to the base camp.

Rainier stood with one arm around her, making it easier as she hugged them both goodbye.

Shabina had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that their brother was gone.

She could see the despair on their faces.

They both felt the same way. The fact that Rainier shook hands and assured them that the café’s staff would do whatever they could to help, rather than offer platitudes of hope, convinced her that he had that same bad feeling in his gut as well. Even Vaughn looked grim.

“This is a bad situation,” Tyrone said. “They have to catch this guy.”

“They will,” Rainier said. He did sound confident about that. “Let’s get back to work. All of you have been amazing. I can see why Shabina has nothing but good things to say about you.”

“After we close, I still have to interview a couple of potential waiters and waitresses,” Shabina reminded. “And the cleaning crew is coming in late tonight.”

“Whatever you do, Shabina,” Patsy said, “don’t do your bleeding-heart thing.”

“I’m not like that.”

“Yes, you are,” Vaughn, Tyrone and Patsy said simultaneously.

Rainier nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “She is,” he agreed.