Chapter 10 - The Garden on the Hill
By May, the frost had finally broken.
The three acres of land my grandmother had left behind in Dane County were alive with green shoots and yellow wildflowers. Adrian and I spent the Saturday morning walking the perimeter fence, clearing old branches that had fallen during the winter storms.
Near the old stone foundation where my grandmother’s farmhouse had once stood, an old peony bush had survived decades of neglected winters. Red-tipped stems were pushing their way up through the dark soil, robust and determined.
Adrian drove a wooden stake into the ground nearby, setting up a fresh support trellis. He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his forearm and looked over at me with a smile.
"The soil is good here," he said. "We could start the foundation for the cabin by July."
"July sounds perfect," I said, kneeling beside the emerging shoots to pull a cluster of dried weeds from around the root base.
My phone chimed in my pocket.
It was an email from Nathan Vance. The state investigation into Vance Property Holdings had concluded with a consent decree: Marcus Vance was barred from originating residential-commercial rollover contracts for five years, and his lending license was suspended pending administrative penalties. The predatory trap had been permanently dismantled.
I closed the email and looked up at the open Wisconsin sky, vast and pale blue above the rolling hills.
There were no emergencies to solve today. No checks to write, no lies to cover, no petulant sisters to soothe, and no mother demanding that I apologize for existing.
Adrian walked over, extending a hand to pull me up from the grass. I took it, feeling the calluses on his palm, the steady, uncomplicated strength of a partner who loved me for who I was, not for what I could provide.
"Ready to go home?" he asked.
I looked at the land, at the green shoots rising from the deep earth, and then back at him.
May you like
"We are home," I said.
And for the first time in thirty-four years, the sweetness in the air was entirely real.
