Epilogue
Proof Of That
Dash’s POV
Now and years in the future…
I was changing Melitta’s diaper when I heard Zinnie call me from the other room, and her voice
sounded…strange.
“Be right there, baby,” I said, finishing the diaper change as quickly as possible. “Let’s go see
what Mommy needs, little bee. Buzz, buzz, buzz.”
The sound never failed to make her giggle, which, in turn, melted my heart.
Zinnie was standing at the window that looked out into the backyard, her arms crossed over her
chest.
“What is it, Zin?”
“Why are there two baby goats in our backyard?”
Whew. For a minute I’d thought there was something seriously wrong.
“Oh, Aggie asked last night when she was leaving the house if we could watch them until she and Branch got back from their cruise. You had just gone to see why Melitta was crying. I didn’t think she’d drop them off this fast.
My wife’s head swiveled slowly to look at me, and I realized maybe there was something seriously wrong. And I might be in trouble.
——
“Are you insane?” she asked, and yep, that — along with her narrowed eyes
was all the confirmation I needed: I was in trouble. “This means we’re now the proud owners of two baby goats! I’ve been doing so well on fighting off her attempts to turn our backyard into the animal kingdom!”
“Oh, no. No way,” I hastened to reassure my wife. “I know how Aggie is and she promised me it was temporary, and she’d take the kids back the minute they returned from their Alaskan cruise. We even shook on the promise!”
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Aggie had been so helpful and supportive of Zinnie when she’d arrived here, I didn’t think returning the favor for ten days when Aggie desperately needed our help would be a bad thing.
I have all the animals covered while we’re away except for the two baby goats, Dash. Could you possibly help us out, so I don’t have to worry? My doctor said stress isn’t good for my heart.
“Dash!” my wife was practically snarling. “Their cruise is more than a year and a half away!”
Oh, shit. No wonder Branch had been smirking at me behind his wife’s back. The fucker.
On the bright side, if there was one, I knew this was a bad thing I’d done. Sometimes it doesn’t take long to figure out you fucked up. It depends more on how long it takes you to admit it and to about righting your wrongs. I’d learned my lesson long ago about a number of things, but
go
there was still obviously work to be done. Like never believing a total con artist disguised as a
little old lady.
“I’ll call her right now. I’ll get her to take them back,” I said, thinking that look in my wife’s eyes
didn’t bode well for me.
In fact, if I was being completely honest, Zinnie’s entire face was scaring me.
“It won’t do any good,” she snapped. “I’ve seen her in action before. There are two hard and fast rules in this world: you never invite a vampire into your home, and you never promise to watch Aggie’s animals. And quite frankly, I think I’d rather deal with a vampire!”
This was bad.
“But…they’re so cute and happy hopping around?”
my
She looked out the window again, and her voice went up an octave. “Dash, they’re in raised
beds, eating my seedlings!”
I transferred Melitta into Zinnie’s arms and rushed out the door to save her plants. For the next half hour, I chased the baby goats around the yard, trying to keep them out of the vegetables. As I chased them, I got Branch on the phone first.
“You knew!” I accused him.
“I knew,” he said. “But I love watching my wife in action, so who am I to interfere?”
I hung up on him and called Sunny.
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“Aggie dropped off two baby goats and they’re getting into Zinnie’s vegetables and I need Flint over here right away to help me build a fence around the beds that the goats can’t get into — hey!
and I need to know how to care for them and do they need some sort of hey! get out of there! shelter or something and I need to get food for them and no! no! don’t eat that! don’t you dare!
11
—
and I’m afraid Zinnie’s going to kill me, Sunny, and in case you didn’t know it, your
mother–in–law is a total charlatan.”
As always, Sunny was calmness personified as she waded through my verbal onslaught.
“I’ll send Flint and Light right over with tools and lumber. I’ll be over later when you have them
contained. As far as Aggie…didn’t you suspect something when she kept encouraging you to fence in your backyard to keep the deer away from Zinnie’s garden?”
“No! Like an idiot, I thought she was trying to help us keep the deer out of the garden!”
“And as for Zinnie, she won’t kill you, Dash. The universe is big enough to hold all of our
mistakes, and this is a mistake I’m sure you’ll add to the list of other ones you’ll never make
again. Flint and Light should be there within fifteen minutes. I’ll be over later.”
**
~
Zinnie eventually resigned herself to Kick and Butter becoming part of our family, and I think her
acceptance was due in large part to the three hives I’d ordered for her birthday after consulting
with Sunny. Zin and Sunny had decided to add more hives to their apiary in a corner of Serenity that Flint had planted with wildflowers that were slowly starting to bloom. We got them settled just before dinner, and I slipped my arms around my wife.
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.