Page 71 of A Return For Ren

“We’ve got routines,” she said. “I’m sure Dee does too with the kids. Mothers understand.”

“I’m glad someone does,” Ren said. “Do you want these gifts under the tree?”

“That’s good,” Colin said.

“I’ve got something for you and the girls. Not really a gift as much as a hostess thing.” Zara handed over the bag from Blossoms.

“Oh, lotions and soaps,” Dee said. “We’ve used these before. You got the girls' purses? Good lord, that’s a lot.”

“Not really,” she said. “My brother’s wife is Lily Bloom. Well, Lily Wolfe now. She and her sisters, Poppy and Rose, are the owners of Blossoms. The purses are a test line of what Poppy is doing for young girls. They aren’t on the market yet. My brother has a six-year-old, Willow, and she’s very into voicing her opinion on what needs to be added to their product line.”

Dee laughed. “I think Laine would get along with your niece.”

“Since my niece coincidentally has a flower name, she has staked her claim in the business,” Zara said, laughing.

“Good for her,” Dee said. “And please. I meant no offense. This was very lovely and generous of you. Ren is like a brother to me as Colin said. He’s had a lot of hard knocks lately.”

She looked over to see Ren and Colin in the living room. He’d pretty much abandoned her to Dee in the kitchen in the back where she’d brought the bag of goodies.

“He has,” she said. “He’s doing well though.”

“I couldn’t get much out of Colin in terms of your relationship back then. I will confess that I called to talk to Ren myself. He was upfront and took the blame for your breakup. You should know that. I have to remind myself he’s not perfect and I keep thinking you might have done something for him to break up with you regardless of him saying why he did it.”

“What did he tell you?” she asked, surprised he’d confess those things.

“That he couldn’t stay in Mystic and you couldn’t leave. We know he didn’t have a good relationship with his father. It took years to get all the details out of Ren, but again, he’s like family. You might be a bigger person than me to give him a second chance.”

“So I’ve been told,” she said, grinning.

“But the heart wants what it wants, right?” Dee asked.

“Exactly.”

23

Lifting Of His Heart

“See,” Ren said hours later. “That wasn’t horrible, was it?”

“No,” Zara said. “Not at all.”

“No reason to be worried or nervous either. Colin and Dee are great.”

He hadn’t expected Dee to be that upfront in her questioning when he first arrived, but Zara had handled it all well. Not that he expected any differently.

“They were,” she said. “Dee is a great cook. It was very nice of her to have us there for two meals.”

He laughed. “She loves to host parties and Colin isn’t into it as much. Any excuse she has to cook and plan she does it.”

Dee enjoyed cooking and he appreciated the meals she used to send him home with all the time.

“I like to cook but not so much host or plan a party. Maybe I get it out of my system planning with the kids and all the fun we have. It could be looked at as a party a day in some people’s minds.”

“But you teach the older ones,” he said.

“I do. That is a big part of it. We are trying to get them ready for kindergarten. Learning can be fun though. That is what we are doing. No homework obviously but splitting it up between fun and learning. I’m going to have Poppy and Lily each come in at some point and do some projects with the kids.”

“Projects?” he asked. “Like what?”