Eden’s mouth hung open. “I don’t know what to say. I wouldn’t have thought this was even a possibility. That’s got to cost a fortune.”
“Don’t worry about that. The peace of mind will be worth it. I can’t put a price on getting to have you guys with me, not having to travel back and forth.”
“This is seriously doable?”
“Yes. I’ve been talking to a lot of people this week about it. If you agree, I’m gonna have the moving company come out in a few days to take their own measurements and confirm before we mention it to Ollie. But I need your okay first. You’d have to really want to move. Talking about it is one thing, but doing it is another.”
“You’re sure Ollie would be guaranteed a spot at The Larchmont School?”
“Yes. The headmaster gave me her word on that. But you’ll need to talk to her, too—make sure you approve of it before we confirm.”
She took a moment to ponder, then smiled. “This sounds a little nuts, but I love the idea of moving the house. It’s the last thing keeping us here.”
My body filled with excitement at the prospect of having everything I needed and wanted in one place. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Eden beamed. “You did say you’d move mountains for me. I guess this proves it.”***Six months later, our dream became a reality. We ended up waiting for the school year to finish in St. George before we bit the bullet and moved our house all the way to California.
It was quite a journey and took several days because the truck carrying the structure had to crawl on the highway.
We’d apparently been the talk of the neighborhood as spectators lined up to watch while the workers settled the structure onto its new foundation.
After that, it had taken some time before we could actually move in.
Now that we were inside, Ollie kept pointing out how sometimes he would forget we’d moved at all, because everything was the same, aside from his school.
Thankfully, he was loving his new teachers and slowly making friends. Eden and Ollie moving to L.A. was the best decision we could have made for ourselves—not only because Ollie was adapting well, but because Eden was finally moving on with her life, having just enrolled in the music program at Cal State. She’d decided what she wanted to do, which was to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a music teacher. And while I was helping her with the tuition, she insisted on contributing, taking a waitressing job at a high-end restaurant. She was proud that she’d gotten it on her own, without my connections.
I was still running the studio alongside Benjamin, and we’d made no plans to change that anytime soon. He’d given me a commitment of at least another year. I was still deciding whether I wanted to sell my shares or eventually run the company. I was so thankful Benjamin had given me the time to make that decision.
Perhaps the biggest difference since Eden’s move was Lorena’s changing role in my day-to-day life. We’d determined that there was no better person to help us with Ollie while we worked—or in Eden’s case went to classes. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much housekeeping to do in our little place anyway, so Lorena became a trusted set of eyes we so desperately needed. She and Ollie got along well. He appreciated her humor, as I always had, and she was even teaching him Spanish.
Having Lorena’s help also made it possible for Eden and me to have some semblance of a normal relationship—one that involved having sex in private and going out on actual dates. I still kept my bigger house, though the long-term plan was to sell it and build another house based on the layout Ollie was familiar with, except bigger. We would then take our time, allowing him to get used to it before we moved in.
Hanging on to the big house came in handy, though, because Eden and I would sneak over there at night while Lorena stayed with Ollie as he slept. We would frolic in the pool, have sex in the shower as loudly as we wanted, and do whatever we damn well pleased. Afterward, we’d head home to be there when Ollie woke up in the morning.***A little while after the move, one of our favorite ways to spend a sunny weekend became taking a ride out west to Malibu with a cooler full of food and drinks.
Eden and I were alone in our room, getting ready to spend the day at the beach with Ollie on one such afternoon when I brought up something that had been weighing on my mind.
“Have you given any more thought to what the doctor said?” I asked.
Eden put down the beach blanket she’d been folding and bit her bottom lip. “We can bring it up today, if you want. You know how I feel about this. I’ve always believed anything like that should be his choice with no pressure.”