Page 61 of The Family Man

At the end of the night Zack walks me over to my house, kisses me good night and leaves.

Later that night I pull my sheets back and tuck myself in. I feel so well loved and sleepy. Loved, I feel loved. I didn’t want to fall for Zac, but maybe as time passes by I am.

During that night I hear a hacking, but I don’t get up from my bed. Maybe Zac is fixing something. Sometime ago, I would have wanted to kill him for making noise, but now, I just fall back to sleep.

The pounding of my door wakes me. Someone is screaming my name. I look across at my clock, 5:30 am.

Who the hell? I pull my phone off the table; I have four missed calls from Zac. I sit up as I realize the person pounding my door sounds like Zac.

I rush downstairs and open the door. “I mean sex was great, but—”

“Someone dug your tulips up, babe.” He is breathing hard. I look at the dirt on his hands, his face full of worry.

I push past him and go to the side of my home.

My heart sinks when I see my red, Kingsblood tulips dug up. Even the bulbs are destroyed. My purple Triumph Tulips, my Darwin Hybrids were all trampled on, their bulbs smashed and destroyed.

I pick up a single red Kingsblood. “Who would do this?” Tears are forming in my eyes.

Zac comes behind me. “We should call the police and make a report, baby.”

“Why would someone do this to me? They destroyed everything, Zac.”

He pulls me in. “We’ll figure it out, babe.”

An hour later the police are leaving with a report and my sisters are pulling in. The police say it could be teenagers who are just reckless. However, I feel like I’m missing something.

I can hear Cassia and Rosemary talking at the front door.

Anise comes into the living room, sits next to me on the sofa and hugs me tight.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s just, I don’t know.” I wrap my robe tighter around me.

“You think it is more than just teens?” Anise questions.

I look at my sister, in her cute black-and-yellow onesie like she rushed out of her home to help me.

“I do. But I don’t know who.”

“Maybe you should rest and come back to it. I will be staying with you okay,” Anise suggests. I get up and Zac leaves the girls and walks up to me.

“I will figure this out, okay?” He kisses my forehead and leaves.

ZAC

The best idea I had all week was taking my kids to work with me. Nikhil has been with my pastry chef, mixing and eating from the bowl with his spatula.

Poppy has not left my side. The questions are rolling in from her. Zac what is that? Zac, can I touch this? How does this work? Anyone else asking me all these questions would have annoyed me. My daughter, I’m bursting with happiness.

I will be launching this Friday, so everything is coming together. I order my produce fresh from the farmers in our area.

I open a woven basket to look at the bundles of fresh microgreens, parsley, and mint.

I pick up the mint, pull a leaf and pass it to Poppy. She smells it. “It smells like toothpaste! IS THAT TOOTHPASTE?” she shouts.

“Nope, but the oil produced from it is in toothpaste.”

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