Page 1 of Owen's Heart

OWEN

I can smell the sweet-spicy scent of cinnamon as I walk into Mildred’s Cafe. “Good morning, Mr. Clemonte,” Mildred calls out as I enter the building.

Mildred Brown is the owner of the café and has a hands-on approach to her business. She is a feisty sixty-something-year-old woman with smooth, ebony skin that contradicts her years.

“Good morning,” I reply, stepping up to the counter. “Now, Mildred, what have I told you about calling me Mr. Clemonte? I’m just plain old Owen.”

“There is nothing plain about you, Owen,” Mildred lets loose a chuckle. “You and your brothers are every bit as handsome as your dad. May the good Lord rest his soul. That was a good man, and he raised yawl boys rightly into great men,” Mildred went on to say.

“I thank you kindly,” I reply, giving her a wink before taking a seat on one of the stools.

“Where are your brothers, by the way. You three usually come in for breakfast together on a Saturday.”

My brothers Lance, Anson, and I are the owners of Clemonte Ranch in Prattville, Alabama. I’m the youngest at thirty-one, Lance is thirty-three, and Anson the oldest is thirty-five. Our father Hank left us equal shares in the business after he died a year ago from a heart attack at sixty-five. Our mother, Virginia, had died five years earlier from liver cancer.

We missed our parents something fierce even if we were all able-bodied grown men. The ranch was flourishing thanks to our combined efforts. Lance is the accountant and makes sure everything is in order with our finances. He has always been a wiz with numbers. Anson and I handle mostly everything else, along with the additional employees we hire around the ranch.

“Anson is on a business trip. He had a lead on some cattle out in Texas. Lance is busy this morning so that just leaves me.”

Mildred gives me a sweet smile. “Well, what will you have this morning, Owen?”

“Give me the usual. Pancakes, bacon, sunny side up eggs, and a cup of black coffee.”

“Got it,” Mildred replies. I’ll have the waitress bring it right out,” she adds before going through a set of swinging doors that lead to the kitchen.

I glance around the café. It’s not too busy this early, but I know the crowd will pick up as the day goes on. Ten minutes later, a plate filled with my favorite meal is placed before me.

“Here you go,” a familiar voice that I know all too well says.

My head jerks around. My eyes clash with a pair of dark brown eyes. My heart slams against my chest. “When did you come back here,” the words slip past my lips in shock.

“Here’s your coffee,” Rania Brown, a girl I dated through college, says dryly. She’s not just any girl, but the love of my life. She sits my mug beside my plate with a light thud. “Will there be anything else, Mr. Clemonte?”

With my question ignored, it only makes me have more.

“Rania?” I will my heart rate to slow down as I take her in. I haven’t seen Rania since I graduated from the University of Alabama. Rania had been a Junior back then. She had broken up with me over something ridiculous.

I can’t help but take in her shoulder-length black hair pulled back into a low ponytail. I take in her dark, relax-fitted blue jeans and a plain black buttoned-down collared shirt with the lettering Mildred’s Café engraved into the upper right side.

Rania is more beautiful than the last time I saw her almost ten years ago.

A region of my lower half starts to react from the familiar smell permeating my nostrils. The scent is all Rania. I missed it. I didn’t know how much until I was in her presence again.

“Are you back home for good? Are you working for your aunt now?” I question her, my food forgotten.

“If you must know, my Aunt is having knee surgery soon. Since I’m the only family she got that she can count on, I’m here to run the café until she can take over again. Does that answer your question?”

All the old feelings I felt for Rania start to resurface again. My love for Rania is a living and moving thing that has a heart of its own. I can’t stop having feelings for her.

When she was staying in New York, I could pretend that the feelings I had for Rania didn’t exist. But with her standing here in front of me, I can’t deny the love I had for her in the past is still as real today as it was then.

My stare continues to stray over her curves. Rania Brown is all woman, and the dark honey of her skin has a healthy, supple glow to it. The college Rania has nothing on the beautiful woman standing before me. Her full hips have rounded even more, and her full C cup breasts make me want to reach out and test their softness in my hands.

“My eyes are up here, cowboy,” Rania’s voice cuts into my perusal.

My green eyes slowly travel back up to hers, and a slow grin arches one side of my mouth. Rania is absolutely gorgeous, and I have to make her mine again.

“Indeed they are, and what beautiful eyes they are too.” I stare at her long enough to capture a picture of her orbs that are beautiful enough to write a song about into my mind.

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