“And we have a license?” she asked.

“Yes, I told you. It’s in process.” He kissed her gently on the lips. “What, you don’t trust me?” he said playfully. He kissed her again, pressing her mouth open with his tongue, and Serotina felt the effect of this vibrate through her body. She thought of how he’d helped her to get into the ocean and open up in group circle with her darkest secrets. Of course, she trusted him. “You worry too much,” he whispered. “You have someone to catch you now.”

* * *

The next morning, after meditation, yoga and breakfast, Serotina went upstairs to get dressed for her shift at NatMark while everyone else went outside to work. Before showering, she retrieved her laptop from under her bed, where it remained most of the time. She began to research growing cannabis plants, jotted down some notes and continued to think while she worked at the grocery store. By the time she saw Micah again that evening in his room, she was eager to share with him what she’d learned. “You said those plants are about six weeks old?”

Micah nodded. “I’ve been keeping the lights on eighteen hours a day, turning them on before meditation and off before I go to sleep.”

Serotina flipped through her notes. “So, if we switch to a twelve-hour light cycle, they should go into flowering state and be ready to chop down and dry in a couple months. And if we add thousand-watt bulbs to that space, we can increase the yield.” She looked up at him. “If our yields are as high as I’ve been reading, we can generate a half-pound from each plant . . . What does that translate to?”

“Premium grade sells for over a hundred dollars an ounce, so that’s . . .” Micah reached over to the nightstand and pulled a mobile phone out of the drawer.

“Almost a thousand dollars a plant, and . . .” Her mind starting blurring with the numbers.

Micah tapped at the screen for a few seconds and turned it toward her. So many zeroes. “How many do you think we could fit down there?”

“I’d have to measure the space, but we should be able to fit a lot if we’re methodical about it,” she said. “Can we get more?”

Micah smiled. “As many as you need, darlin’.”

“Since the full cycle is four to five months, we should probably have multiple cycles going, so we always have some maturing at different times, a steady supply.” Her brain churned as she thought through the growing cycle and the systems from the Botany Lab she could put in place. For a moment, her mind registered that it was crazy that she was thinking all this about marijuana.

Micah leaned forward, took her face between his palms and kissed her. “You’re amazing, Sero. I knew you were the right person for this.”

“We can get the solar panels.” She smiled.

“We can get the solar panels,” Micah repeated. “And the dairy cows. And another composter. And maybe some heavy-duty farm equipment. We can get it all.” Micah closed his eyes for a moment. “You’ll have help,” he said. “Jasmine can help you set things up and take care of the plants. Rufus is building a website to start processing orders as soon as we’re ready.”