As she headed back up to her classroom to prepare for her afternoon students, Allie felt off-balance.
Her heart might be in the right place, but did italways, alwayshave to be bigger than her actual ability to make anything happen?
2
ASH
Ash Tailor finished chopping the last of the wood and sank the axe into the stump.
He took a deep breath of cold, pine-tinged air, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled slowly.
Ash had been frustrated all morning, though he wasn’t sure who he was really frustrated with—Maya, the school, himself?
He knew his daughter had a lot of energy, and that was fine. He’d been energetic and had a hard time focusing himself when he was a kid.
But it was different for Maya now, since she was in a brand-new school and no one here knew her.
It was hard to be angry with her for her nature, but he wished more than anything that the school had gotten the chance to know her better before she found herself in any kind of trouble. He knew how important first impressions could be.
She’ll be labeled a troublemaker, and she barely set foot in the door…
He regretted not making time for a walk before school yesterday. Stretching her legs a bit always seemed to help Maya use up some of that excess energy. He’d worked with her on self-control over the last year when she was getting ready for kindergarten, and thought they’d made some great progress, but maybe he could have done more to prepare her.
Mostly, he wished that the other kid hadn’t done whatever she’d done. Maya was high-energy, but she wasn’t mean. If she really did shove someone, Ash assumed she’d had her reasons.
But he couldn’t control any of that. What was done was done.
So instead of dwelling on it, he’d gone for a run down the path behind the house today and then chopped wood for an hour, hoping to shed his own frustrated energy before sitting in a meeting with the principal and the parents of the girl who Maya pushed.
He wouldn’t be any help to her if he came off as some kind of hot-headed flatlander himself.
Like he did with everything, Ash had done his homework before making the move to Sugarville Grove. After weighing all their options, he knew Vermont was the right place for himself and Maya right now.
Removing himself from the fast pace of the city and escaping the temptation of endless work was one big reason for the move. His fierce competitive streak had always served him well… until it hadn’t. Now that he was a full-time single dad, he was afraid his drive would ruin his daughter’s life if he didn’t find a way to put his focus on her instead of his business all the time.
Getting away from his company headquarters and living in the real world felt like a great way to quit his habit of overworking cold turkey. If he wasn’t in the office, then he couldn’t stick around doingjust one more thing. Now, when a video meeting ended, he was already home.
Hopefully, with time and practice, he would become the kind of man who could be content with what he had, instead of constantly searching formore.
And besides, the legacy he’d always wanted to create seemed to finally be in his grasp. If that wasn’t enough, nothing would be.
More importantly, he knew that giving Maya a home where she had room to run and get plenty of fresh air would be a relief for a little girl with such big energy.
But he also knew that the kind of small-town community where he wanted to raise her would be hard to break into for a city guy like him.
So he’d bought a small house on a big piece of land not too far from town—nothing fancy. He traded his Mercedes for a used pickup truck, and replaced most of his business suits with jeans and flannels. It was sure to come out sooner or later that he had money—anyone who bothered to do a simple internet search would learn that in no time. But there was no point flashing it around and making the two of them any more different than they had to be. Besides, nothing the money bought ever really made him happy anyway.
Ash jogged up the porch steps, then kicked off his boots and headed into the warmth of the interior.
The cottage wasn’t big or newly renovated, but it had a ton of character and was just the right sizefor himself and Maya. It felt homey in a way the penthouse back in the city never had. He’d painted Maya’s room himself, and chopped all the wood that was burning in the little stove. And he’d do as much as he could of the rest that needed doing, so that it continued to feel like it wastheirs.
After a quick shower, he debated for a moment before dressing in a clean flannel and a pair of khakis.
In the city, he definitely would have suited up to meet with the school administration of one of the swanky private schools Maya would have attended.
But this was a different kind of battle, better fought quietly and with respect for the fact that this was a taxpayer funded institution. And as far as he could tell, every dollar of revenue in the community was hard-earned.
Not like mine wasn’t, he thought to himself grimly as he headed to his truck.
