Chapter30
Figuring Things Out
Dash’s POV
“Where are you taking me?” Zinnie asked.
Aggie was watching Melitta for us. I made sure this outing took place right after Zinnie fed Melitta
and our baby girl had a full belly and sleepy eyes.
“I’d like to show you something, Zin, if you have about half an hour.”
“What about Melitta?”
“I’ll watch her,” Aggie said from beside me.
“What do you want to show me?” Zin asked. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
“It’s easier if I show you so I can explain everything all at once,” I told her.
Zinnie’s eyes darted to Aggie.
“Your little bee will be fine without you for a bit,” Aggie assured her. “Besides, you aren’t going far if she starts buzzing.”
“Let’s go, then,” Zinnie agreed. Unenthusiastically, reluctantly, but she agreed. I took anything
as a win lately.
Walking outside with Zin, I helped her into Aggie’s electric cart, and then we took off.
“You’re being mysterious,” she said to me.
“Only for a few more minutes.”
She didn’t say anything else until we pulled up in front of a small cottage nestled in a small grove
of trees.
“Here we are,” I said.
“Are we visiting someone?” she asked, looking around curiously.
I turned to my wife, and I had the sudden visual of holding a dove, opening up your hands and
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watching the bird fly away.
“No, we’re not visiting anyone. Nobody lives here anymore.”
“I don’t understand, Dash.”
“You said you might want to stay here at Serenity forever, Zinnie. So I talked to Aggie about how to make that happen if you really want to. She said there was a small cottage available that no one was living in. A very nice couple raised their family here and lived in the cottage until they decided to move in with their daughter two years ago once she and her husband became empty nesters. So Aggie said if you want to live here with Melitta, it’s yours.”
She looked at the house again, this time taking it in as a house for herself and our daughter. It was
a navy blue house with crisp, white trim and shutters. It had a small porch just big enough for the two rockers. There were flowers on either side of the stairs leading up to the cottage, and a red
welcome mat in front of the door.
“How much is it?” Zinnie asked.
“Nobody owns their houses here, Aggie said. It’s all community property. You have to be a
member of the commune for two years before you can build your own house. Aggie said her
granddaughter was able to build right away because she grew up at Serenity. You would have to
wait the two years. They do this to make sure that people who wish to join the commune are
serious about it, and they figure that two years is enough time to determine if people want to be a
part of Serenity.”
“I could live here permanently?” she breathed at the wonder of it. “Melitta could grow up here?”
“Yes,” I said, hating that at one time she would have said we could live here permanently.
Branch came out of the house at that point and nodded to us. “You want to come in and see the house? I was just making sure everything still looked good, and I didn’t see anything that needed to be done other than some dusting and vacuuming.”
“Yes, please,” Zinnie said, walking up the steps onto the porch.
“I’m going to take off,” Branch said. “You can lock the door when you leave.”
“Branch, I could just live here?” she asked sweetly.
Branch grinned at her.
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“You could. We didn’t have too much when we started Serenity. We all pitched in the little we had to buy supplies for the houses, and then we all worked to build each house on the commune, one at a time. But we all lived in tents until we had enough houses to crowd into. We had the understanding that we would be caretakers for the houses, not owners. If you decide to live here, Zinnia, you’ll be expected to contribute to Serenity in some way. Beekeeping, gardening, working the farmers market, whatever you feel called to do to add to the community.”
“It sounds ideal.”
Branch smiled at my wife. “It’s hard work, Zinnie. You live here, you contribute, you pitch in when
a family may need some help or extra support. We all work together.”
“Like I said, ideal.”
He barked out a laugh.
“Thanks, Branch,” I said and he gave me a brief wave as he walked off.
Zinnie walked into the house and looked around at everything, while I followed behind her,
looking at the floors and ceilings. The kitchen looked a little dated, but Branch and Aggie had told
me that we could update the little house if we were willing to pay for it.
My wife peeked into the bedrooms and closets, the one bathroom, and the kitchen. The living room and dining room made up one large room and that was it.
“It’s perfect,” Zinnie said. “I like all the windows.”
“The fireplace is really nice, too.”
“It’s cozy.”
There wasn’t any furniture, but I knew Zinnie was picturing the rooms filled with cozy chairs and couches, rugs on the wood floors, some end tables — everything.
“I want it, Dash.”
“Then you can have it.”
“What about you?”
“Well, I talked with Aggie, and she said I could stay in the barn or there’s three small bachelor cabins that had room enough for a twin bed, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. She said they’re
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nothing fancy, just ten by ten rooms basically.”
“Dash, you could stay at our house, and see Melitta on the weekends.”
“I want to see her every day, Zinnie. I’m not going to be a weekend father. I also don’t want to leave you alone all week and not give you any help with her.”
“It’s a long commute.”
“It is. And if I get tired of losing out on two hours a day with you and My Little, I’ll look for a different job closer to Serenity as soon as my contract’s up at the end of the year.”
“What about our house?”
“We can sell it or rent it out.”
“Rent it? I’d rather sell it,” she said. “Unless you want to hold onto the house to move back to it if
you get tired of this arrangement.”
“I don’t think you’re ever leaving Serenity,” I told her. “Which means I’m not leaving Serenity. It
was the two options I thought of for dealing with the house, but the rental one is not my backup
plan. If my wife and my daughter are here, then I’m here. It’s that simple, Zinnie.”
“It’s that complicated, Dash. I have questions and I have doubts. A lot of both.”
“Ask me, Zinnie. Ask me anything.”
“Why aren’t you trying to talk me out of this? I was expecting you to pressure me to come back to the house, use guilt, whatever it took, to get me to leave here.”
“Your eyes. Your eyes look happy again,” I said. “I dulled your eyes, put that suspicion in them,
took away your happiness, and I’m not going to do that to you ever again.”
“Until work consumes you again.”
“I have some ideas for fixing my work situation, but I know I haven’t been a good husband, Zinnie. You’ve been coming in second to work, and that means I haven’t paid attention to you the way I should have. Your needs were coming in second, and your feelings were, too. My career became my focus, which meant I wasn’t focused on you, which meant I didn’t defend you against your family the way I should have.”
“I’m figuring things out, Zinnie, figuring out all the ways you were hurt and how much I was to
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blame for all of your pain. Getting you a house here on the commune where you’re happy is the first of many steps on this thousand–mile journey to better myself so I can be the man and husband and father you want beside you.”
That look on Zinnie’s face told me that a million different thoughts were speeding around in her head, but I saw the second she pulled one out of the morass and settled on that as her next subject
to discuss.
“I want to know what happened the night Iris came over after I left you. Every last detail.”
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.