31 - Brie
Home Truths
~
Brie
For the first time since I moved into the cabin, I was the first one to wake up and get to the kitchen. It was quiet, and so was my mind. No nagging feelings, no questions, no wondering.
The sun shone brightly against the white snow. The kitchen gleamed, and the knots in all the wood looked as if they had been placed there intentionally by some artistic genius. Perfect. Everything was absolutely perfect.
I searched through the pantry and, as if by divine intervention, all the ingredients for my mother’s gingerbread cookies were lined up on the top shelf. Again, perfect.
I pulled out the sugar, the flour, and the ginger and set them on the counter as heavy footsteps came down the stairs.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Gideon smiled, pulling me into a kiss.
“Good morning,” I smiled back.
He went about getting the coffee machine ready and started to make breakfast. Tobias and Lexi came down soon after. Tobias planted a sweet kiss on my cheek while Lexi hugged me sleepily.
“Good morning,” she yawned.
Her cheeks were puffed, and her eyebrows furrowed in a grumpy scowl.
“What’s wrong, princess?” I asked, bending down to her level.
“My cookies are finished, and Daddy says we aren’t going to the store for another few days,” she whined.
Everything was lining up perfectly. It just made sense. I planned to bake cookies with Lexi before she came down, disappointed that she had eaten through her sleeve of cookies before our scheduled restock.
“Guess what we’re going to do today?” I asked brightly. “We’re going to bake gingerbread men!”
“Do we really need more men here?” Gunner asked, coming down the stairs with his shirt slung over his shoulder. “And here I was thinking the male population of this cabin had reached capacity.
He leaned down and kissed my forehead and poured both of us a cup of coffee.
I sat down at the kitchen island, watching Lexi and Gideon crack and whisk the eggs, and reached for my phone in my pocket.
The weather was clear. It was even sunny for a winter morning in the hills of Idaho, but I still had no service. Even the satellite phone had no service.
I checked my phone now and then through breakfast, through Gunner’s plans for knocking in some panels that had come loose through the blizzards, and still there was nothing. No signal, no messages, not even a notification about calls I might have missed.
I slipped the phone back into my pocket and forgot about it.
There was enough to do in the cabin to make me forget I even had a phone.
Between mixing the batter with Lexi, teaching her that more sugar didn’t always make the cookies better, and defending the batter from Gunner and his insatiable sweet tooth, it didn’t bother me that I hadn’t spoken to Holly in days.
Not until the door shook with a hard and forceful knock.
We all froze. It never happened, not almost never, not rarely. It really never happened. The cabin was set in the middle of the property on a private road. There were no shops, schools, or any buildings within walking distance. The only people who turned up here did so on purpose.
“Expecting anyone?” Gideon asked, already heading for the door.
We were all too confused and surprised to answer.
He opened the door slowly, and Holly burst into the cabin.
“Where is she?” she demanded, looking around and spotting me in the kitchen. “Oh, my God! Brie!”
Her entire demeanor changed. At the door, she was angry and demanding, ready to fight anyone who stood between us. When she saw me, healthy, happy, and teaching Lexi how to roll the dough so it wasn’t too thin and delicate, she was more than just relieved.
“I was so worried about you!” she cooed, hugging me tightly. “So I came all the way here, by plane, by bus, and in a sweet old man’s rickety truck to bring you home.”
“Home?” Lexi asked.
I hadn’t even gotten a chance to greet Holly back. This was not how I wanted to introduce her to everyone, but I already knew introductions weren’t even part of her plan.
“What do you mean, home?” Lexi asked. Her voice was shaky, already holding back a flood of tears.
“Good morning, Holly,” I said, blinking at her wordlessly, begging her to stop talking.
“I mean, I get it. You needed to clear your head, and this is the perfect place to do it,” she explained. “It’s beautiful, really it is, the snow-capped mountains, the hills, the frozen rivers. Absolutely gorgeous once you actually get here.”
Tobias stood behind Lexi protectively. Gunner and Gideon stood stone-faced, listening as Holly went on.
“But the holiday is over. I’m not going to stand by while you throw your life away.”
Tobias cleared his throat and looked at me quizzically. It was my turn to speak, my turn to patch together the two lives I had lived separately.
“Holly, we should talk outside. There’s a lot I need to tell you,” I said, gently trying to steer her toward the door.
“And you can fill me in on the way home. It’s a long, long way,” Holly said, standing her ground.
“But this is Brie’s home!” Lexi shouted, turning to hug her dad. “I love her, and you can’t take her away from me!”
“We all love her, and she’s staying,” Tobias said through clenched teeth.
I steered Holly out the door and onto the porch so we could talk alone. The last time I spoke to her, I was undecided, but by the time she dropped in, I knew I couldn’t walk away from what I had here. It wouldn’t be simple because it meant I had to walk away from her.
“I knew it!” Holly whispered. “Tech billionaires don’t just move out into the middle of nowhere for the views. This is weird, Brie, very culty. The sooner you leave, the better. They can’t make you stay.”
Gunner stepped out with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. “Weird is an understatement. Tobias is more than just weird,” he said loud enough for Tobias and Gideon to hear him from inside the cabin.
“I’m Gunner,” he smiled, stretching out his hand.
Holly shook his hand suspiciously and thanked him for the hot chocolate before he disappeared inside.
“Watch the oven for me,” I called after him.
“Holly,” I laughed. “You came all the way out here?”
Holly rolled her eyes and sat down on the porch swing, looking out into the woods. I sat next to her and sipped my hot chocolate, preparing to explain myself.
“It’s beautiful out here,” I sighed. “I mean, we don’t get air like this out in the city.”
She sighed and sat back, relaxing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Things didn’t really go to plan,” I said with a soft laugh. “Holly, I fell in love, not once, but three times over. Can you imagine that?”
“Are you okay?” she asked, placing the back of her hand on my forehead.
“Better than I have ever been,” I smiled. “I know, it’s complicated. I can’t even explain how it happened. But it works, and we’re happy. I can’t walk away from that.”
Holly was quiet for a while. She looked around, then down at my shoes, and up to my face. “Not complicated, try crazy.”
“What do you mean three times? You’re with all of them?” she asked, scrunching her face.
“Sometimes all at once,” I whispered.
Holly stared at me wide-eyed. “And you’re only telling me this now?”
“Bad service,” I shrugged.
Holly and I sat outside with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread wafting from the house and caught up.
I told her about Tobias and Lexi, how they came out here with Gideon to get away from the hurt and sadness in the city, I told her about how Gunner hunts and knows the woods like he was born with a self-updating map imprinted in his brain.
They were every version of Prince Charming, and they were mine.
By the time I had summarized everything that had happened out here, the sun was setting and a cool breeze swept over the hills.
“So you’re happy?” she asked, nodding. She already knew the answer. She could see it on my face.
“Happier than I’ve ever been,” I confessed.
Holly sighed and stood up. “I can see that. It’s weird, you have to admit, but if it works for you, then I can’t pull you away from it.”
I stood up to hug her. I held her tight and rubbed her back. I had missed her, but it was only the beginning.
I was staying, nothing could make me go back to my life in the city. That chapter of my life had closed before I even knew it. It was over the moment I arrived here to three men competing over chopping wood and the most precious little girl cheering them on.
“Gideon has one of his stews ready,” Tobias said, standing at the door.
“I have to go before it gets dark,” Holly smiled apologetically.
“How?” Gunner laughed, practically bouncing out of the door. “We don’t have cabs out here and the bus only leaves from Salmon in the morning. I’ll drive you in time to catch it.”
“We have room, and it’ll give you a chance to get to know us,” Tobias laughed.
I walked Holly in to find a place set for her next to Lexi and sat down at the table for Gideon’s infamous meatball stew and mashed potatoes with everyone I loved around the same table.