synopsis: maya had a difficult childhood, raised in foster care after her mother gave her up as a baby. she never had anyone stable in her life except for her best friend, malachi, and his family. the strong bond they created made them people she never wanted to lose. she stayed with them for a period of time in her early teens, but ultimately had to go back to her assigned foster families that always turned out to be temporary. as they grew, the two became distant. malachi shifted to a new crowd—one that maya did not have a place in. he dreamed big of having his own bar, moving from the small town of willow creek to san myshuno very soon after graduating high school (without a word to maya).

she inevitably moved on, but held him in her heart as she too pursued some semblance of a dream. she found out she inherited a small cottage in henford-on-bagley from an estranged grandmother, not even knowing how they connected her to the land, but she wasn’t going to pass up opportunity to escape her hometown. she healed from her past as she spent her days growing plants, taking care of her farm animals, and getting to know the townsfolk. she also took a train to britechester while she worked towards a degree in botany.

one day, maya volunteered to babysit for one of her neighbors, taking their toddler to a park she used to play at in willow creek for an afternoon. as if he knew she was back in town, malachi appeared before her looking colder, more tattooed, and certainly way more attractive than she remembered. they exchanged contacts and reconnected, continuing where they left off.

and…the rest is history.

they’ve gotten married now, they have three little babies, and malachi and his family are thrilled to have maya back in their lives. they have a cute house with chickens and a garden, maya’s a (foxbury alumni) botanist and malachi’s in the culinary career as a mixologist. they still live in henford, their babies still so young it’s hard to even think about moving somewhere new. their children are daisy, archer, and then they have little rosemary (aka rosie) who’s a very new infant. daisy and archer were born before they married, so those two got to participate in the wedding which was cute. i’ll most likely end up playing with all of the kids rotationally.