One last Chance

Stay-at-home-dad

*Charles*

I was so happy when we were able to take Aly home from the hospital. Her inflammation levels had gone down. She was completely healthy again. Timothee wanted to see us every two weeks for a little blood draw for now though. He wanted to make sure the levels didn't go back up.

However, that meant that Evi and the girls would either have to come in every two weeks, or they would have to move back in.

I didn't want to rush it, but I had to admit that I really liked the idea of living with them again. To be a family again.

And I had found the perfect place for it.

But I wanted to talk about it with Evi alone first. We took the kids to my mother's house first, and she was so happy to see her granddaughters. Aly literally freaked out when she saw my mom and Liliana was also immediately blown away. So we could leave the girls with her with a clear conscience while I went out with Evi.

She had lowered the window a bit and her hair was blowing in the wind. She had her eyes closed and was humming along to the music on the radio. I reached for her hand. She squeezed it immediately.

I glanced to the side and my heart soared.

It was already autumn, but we had a particularly sunny day and it was pleasantly warm. Outside, the trees and the fields were glowing in the warmest colors.

We drove even further out, out of the city, further into the countryside.

At some point we turned onto a quiet road. I headed for the big old country house.

"This is beautiful." she said, glancing at the house.

"It's my grandma's house," I turned off the engine "I've had it for six months and I'm restoring it."

"You?" she laughed "You have two even lefter hands than me!"

"I taught myself a bit.", I returned "But thanks, I'll remember that.".

She giggled "Show me, I want to see." she looked at me with a big warm smile before we got out of the car.

I unlocked the front door for us and let her enter "Wow, really nice." she whispered.

I loved this house. I had been here a lot in my childhood and now I was making the place my home. I had been here a few times with friends, but I had never brought a woman here. That I would bring Evi here, however, had not been a question for me for a second. I had never restored this house for myself alone.

But I would not force Evi to move into the house with me. I would offer it to her, but I would not force her. I wouldn't make that mistake again.

I showed her the whole house.

Each room and finally we sat on the terrace in the autumn sun. Wrapped in a large knitted blanket, we leaned shoulder to shoulder and looked out over the large meadow behind the house.

"If you want, you and the girls can move here. I still live in Monaco. So you would be alone here. So I would come here and support you, of course, but..."

"Charles, I don't need to. We have our house in Switzerland and you know, Aly has her friends there. She's going to go to school there. I can't just take her out of there. As much as I love your offer, we have our life there, our house."

"Oh, okay.", I nodded. I hadn't thought about that before. I nodded "Then I will find an apartment near you so I can support you."

"You don't need an apartment, Charles. We have a guest room. It's not a very big house, but it'll do," I nodded again.