Chapter 21
Zinnia
When Jordan suggested that they start coworking, Zinnia fully expected production to overrule their plans. That didn’t happen.
They immediately began alternating between the pocket forest and his office. That morning, she was sitting in her favorite spot—the plush, pillowed window nook where she could just make out the valley—while revising another old webcomic from her dead projects file.
Jordan suddenly closed his laptop and spun around in his chair. “Have you ever played Grand Theft Auto?”
“No. Animal Crossing is more my speed.”
“Do you want to?”
“I don’t think I’d be any good at it.”
“Sure you will. Let’s go.” He was smiling at her like he had a trick up his sleeve.
She couldn’t wait to find out what it was.
Jordan led her to the game room…and continued straight past it, escorting her outside and to the garage. They decided to steal a shiny purple sports car with full leather interior, two seats, and a purring engine. It was so low to the ground, her back hurt getting into the damn thing.
“Are we allowed to do this?” she asked. Their camera pods idled nearby, still filming and likely radioing for guidance.
Jordan chuckled as he shifted gears. The car surged forward—Zinnia squeaked and grabbed the door handle. She watched through the back window as the Zaffre estate’s front gates grew smaller and smaller at a borderline terrifying pace.
Because her husband was a speed demon.
The idyllic wooded scenery began morphing into a green-and-brown splotchy smear. She glanced at the dashboard and instantly wished she hadn’t. “Maybe we should slow down?!”
“Private road. No cops.”
Oh. Right. Tickets were only a suggestion when you had money! “We’re surrounded by trees! Not trying to be wrapped around one!”
“I’d never let that happen.” He grinned like the devil himself, barely slowing down as the car hugged a winding corner at a dangerous angle. “You don’t feel that?”
“You mean my stomach falling into my ass? Yeah, sure, it’s great!
” In no time at all, the speedometer was back up to triple digits.
She pressed back against the seat, determined to ignore the nausea rolling in.
“I can’t believe you had the nerve to tease me about skydiving once every four years when you drive like this! ”
His demonic laughter didn’t rattle her nerves—it curled around her, tempting and smoky. She’d brave the flames, fire, and brimstone as long as he came with it.
Her grandma would be so disappointed in her right now.
Jordan suddenly began to slow the car down to a reasonable but still very ticket-worthy speed in the double digits. They shot out of the forest and into…flat prairie fields. Farmed land stretched clear to the horizon on both sides of the two-lane road.
“So, where are we going? I’m sufficiently surprised, thank you, and would now like some spoilers.”
“Just wanted to take my lady for a drive.”
“Aht, wrong title. I am your wife.”
“You’re also my lady.”
“Wife only.”
He snickered softly.
“Don’t do it,” she warned.
He could barely say the joke without laughing. “Do what, my lady wife?”
“I will bite you.”
“Oh no, not that. Anything but that. I would hate that so much.”
“You can keep your sarcasm too.” She gave him a half-hearted glare and he gave her thigh a reassuring squeeze—something inside her snapped like a rubber band.
“I also wanted to talk to you privately.”
“Uh-huh,” she agreed, still thinking about his hand…the solid weight of it…his fingers splayed across her skin…how she wanted to grab his wrist and tell him to do it again…
“Are you happy?”
“What?” She snapped to attention.
He stared at her in confusion for a beat too long.
“Watch the road, not me!” She gently turned his head forward and definitely did not notice how silky his freshly shaven skin felt. “I just didn’t hear what you said at first. Why are you asking?”
“Because you said you weren’t going anywhere but maybe we should. I don’t know if staying here is the best thing for our marriage right now.”
“You want to leave?”
Hope always had a funny way of appearing precisely when she didn’t want it. She’d already let it go and yet there it was, filling her up like a hot-air balloon. Jordan wanted his family. He’d told her that from the very beginning. Him wanting to leave early didn’t make any sense.
He glanced at her and asked, “Don’t you?”
There’d been other little changes besides their work schedule.
The clicker was gone. Get to Know You storyline afternoons had been suspended.
Their bungalow date nights now started an hour earlier on Wednesdays, and they used the time to play virtual board games with Grace and Fiona.
Her homesickness stubbornly remained, but her misery wasn’t nearly as potent as it had been.
“I want to be married outside of this,” she answered, firmly avoiding his question. “In my real life. The way I planned it. But if I could go back and change things, I wouldn’t do that either. I’d still end up right here so we might as well stay. Your family needs us.”
And she needed him.
Jordan
He continued driving until he reached a partially hidden right turn onto an unmarked path. The trees grew denser for thirty unnerving seconds, and then the car broke through into a fruit orchard drenched in early afternoon sunlight.
Zinnia’s skin glowed as bright as her smile. “Wait, where are we?”
“That was the secret back entrance to Grim’s Berry Farm,” he confirmed.
Her seat belt was off the second he pulled into the small dirt parking lot, and she had one foot out the door before he even cut the engine.
“Hold on, hold on,” he said, laughing. “I want to talk about one more thing before we go.”
She held back the adorable whine he’d come to expect whenever her impatience got the best of her. It was in her eyes, though—he leaned across the console until it was replaced by anticipation.
Lately, whenever they were this close, his first instinct was to kiss her. He resisted. Every time. “Did you think I wouldn’t believe you about the clicker? Or that I wouldn’t take your side?”
Disappointment flashed across her face. “It’s not about sides, Jordan.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
His blood boiled every time he thought about the damn thing. The camera pods had been ordered to never use or mention it near him.
Zinnia hated it. The PAs confessed to having a running bet for how long it’d take her to drop-kick someone. One of the bolder producers had even promised a bonus to whoever caught the outburst on camera.
What else had they been doing to her?
What else was production keeping from him?
Jordan had been so deliriously angry that it took Sadie playing the Stop stressing me out! I’m pregnant and I need you there, damn it! card to stop him from going full scorched-earth.
“Because, back then, complaining meant they won.” She shrugged. “Making things harder for you would’ve felt worse than being subjected to clicker torture.”
At a loss for words, he pressed his fist against his mouth. That selfless streak would be the death of him. How could his wife advocate so fiercely for everyone else but actively choose to do nothing for herself? His heart wouldn’t survive her.
Zinnia began staring straight ahead, through the windshield but not at any one thing. “I used to think that Grace and Fiona fell in love with each other and not me because I always ask them for too much. I didn’t want to risk you feeling…less for me because I’m too needy.”
He didn’t like that she never looked at him while sharing hidden pieces of herself but understood why.
She was giving him the parts she was most afraid to expose.
Breathless, all in a rush, here take them quickly before I stop myself.
She wanted him to have them but couldn’t bear to watch him take them.
“You’re not too much and I don’t want less,” he pledged softly. “I think we need a sabbatical. We’ll take a month off to regroup and then pick back up filming from there.”
“I don’t think they’d let us do that.”
“If it were possible, would you want to go?”
She licked her lips. Started to answer, only to stop herself. Fidgeted in her seat. He’d never seen her so clearly struggle against something she truly wanted. “It’ll make things worse when they just started getting better. They’ll find a way to blame me.”
“No, they won’t. They get it now—you’re a superhero, not a villain. If I secure a sabbatical, will you leave with me?”
“Well, I’m not staying without you.” She held his gaze.
His breath caught in his throat. He didn’t realize just how much he needed to hear her say that until she did. She was choosing him. He wasn’t surprised but…it was momentous all the same, healing something in him that had been broken for ten years.
“Then let’s go.”
Grim’s Berry Farm was a county staple and supplier.
Beginning as advertised, over the years they expanded into a full fruit and vegetable operation.
Their strategic partnership with Zaffre Hours involved only being featured every other year.
The gap insured public attention would wane until they were forgotten and the quaint orchard could go viral again.
Wylie and Lulie (and Eric) were already picking out their baskets and waved them over.
“You go,” Jordan said to Zinnia. “I need to talk to my dad first.”
“Don’t take too long,” she warned, walking away. “I’m watching you.”
“Good.”
Jordan waited near the prepackaged fruit stand for his dad to finish talking to Griff, the current owner. His mom was noticeably, predictably absent.
Being around his parents was…difficult. Forgetting to update the emergency evacuation protocol had been a genuine mistake.
His dad had apologized by including Jordan in the revision process and swearing to personally make sure she’d never be excluded like that again.
Zinnia would be protected at the estate and at home once the show went live.
That wasn’t enough in Jordan’s eyes.