Epilogue
LUCAS
One Year Later
“Has this trail always been this steep?” Julia asks behind me, slightly out of breath.
“Yup.” I chuckle, pushing aside a tree branch so it doesn’t smack her in the face.
“No, I think it got steeper.”
“Or we got older.” I laugh.
She stands up straight, putting her hands on her hips. “You haven’t even broken a sweat! How is that possible?”
“I do this every day,” I say with a straight face.
“What? Really? How? I’m with you every day. I think I’d notice if you disappeared to go on a hike up Elk Mountain.”
I boop her on her—very sweaty—nose. “I guess you’ll never find out.”
“What are we doing up here, anyway? I don’t think we’ve hiked this since college.”
“There’s something I wanted to show you.” I turn around and continue hiking.
“Couldn’t have shown me at the bottom of the mountain?” she mutters, making me chuckle.
We hike a little more until we reach a clearing.
Not just any clearing. Our clearing.
I’m sure we’re not the only ones to have found it, and we’re certainly not the last ones to use it based on how clear it still is, but it was once ours.
Taking her hand, I lead her to the fallen log that doubles as a bench and take a seat. We don’t say anything for a moment. I let her catch her breath while the sky starts to turn pink and orange with the setting sun.
“Do you remember when we came up here after graduation? How does that feel so long ago but also not, at the same time?”
“Yeah,” she says, a light smile spreading across her face. “I can’t believe they went ahead with the reunion, too. As if we don’t see everyone around town daily.”
I shrug. “The town likes to party.” I turn my hand in hers, lacing our fingers together. “Who would have thought we’d end up here, all this time later… together?”
Even though we’ve been dating for a year, my heart races at the thought of us actually being a couple. I’ve been in love with Julia for so long, it seemed unattainable. As if it were a star that was close enough to burn, but always slightly out of reach.
“Well, I think we both know that it wouldn’t have been me,” she jokes.
It was an awkward few weeks when we had first started dating.
Julia hadn’t fully accepted that the change wouldn’t ruin us entirely, but once I showed her that it could be little things, like cuddling on the couch while watching our favourite movies and holding hands while walking through the farmers’ markets, she started to relax.
Well, mostly. We still had to dodge comments from the town, but that’s something that will never change.
Since then, we’ve been able to fall into a routine that is uniquely us. Driving to and from work together, spending our free time doing the things we’ve always loved doing just—together.
“You know, there is something I’d like to change… about us,” I say, giving her hand a squeeze.
“There is?” She gasps, looking up at me. I hate that there’s a hint of fear in her eyes, but in a moment, she’ll understand.
“Yes, I, uh…” I cough into my hand as I look over my shoulder, hoping that I don’t look suspicious. “It’s something small. Well, no, not really, but there’s something I’d like to change. About us.” My words get louder with every breath.
“Earl! That’s us!” a voice whispers before soft music starts to play.
“What was that?” Julia nearly jumps up as she looks around, but I pull her back down onto the log.
“Nothing. It’s nothing,” I try and assure her.
“No, I definitely hear music. Is that ‘Always Be Mine’?” she asks, trying to look around me.
“Julia. We have been friends our whole lives. I know we’ve only been dating for a year, but it’s not like we don’t know each other.”
“Uh huh,” she says, still trying to get up. “I see something moving in the trees.”
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, even though we’ve only been dating for a short while, this shouldn’t seem like a surprise.”
“Right… a surprise. There’s definitely something moving over there.”
“Julia Lynn Harper, will you marry me?” I blurt out before I completely lose her attention.
“What did you say?” she asks, forgetting about the moving tree, focusing only on me.
“He asked you to marry him!” a voice shouts out.
“Make sure you speak up for your viewers! There’s twenty this time!”
Julia looks at me, just blinking.
“Show her the ring!” another yells.
Remembering the box I have in my pocket, I take it out and open it, dropping to one knee in front of her.
“Julia, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. This last year has been the happiest of my life, and I hope that we can only keep getting better. Will you marry me?”
Julia gasps, covering her mouth with her fingertips as she looks at the ring.
“Well, don’t just leave him hanging!”
“Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!” she shouts, letting me put the ring on her finger before she tackles me with a hug.
“It’s about time! I can’t stay crouched in these bushes much longer!”
“Oh, stop it, Earl. No one made you crouch!”
“Is the whole town here?” Julia asks as the figures and music appear out of the trees.
“They insisted once word got out that I bought a ring.”
“Wait, how did they all get up here? There’s no way they all hiked this!” she exclaims.
“We rented a bus from the next town over. Drove up the service road,” Mandy says as she puts the speaker down on the log next to us.
“There’s a service road?” Julia jumps back. “You made me hike, and there’s a service road?”
“It added to the experience,” I say with a chuckle.
“You’re lucky I found out about that after you asked me to marry you,” she jokes.
I pull her into my arms, swiping a stuck-on hair from her forehead. “You would still marry me.”
She shrugs, looking down. “I guess you’ll never know.”
Placing the crook of my finger under her chin, I lift her face until she’s looking at me. “Oh, I think I do.”
“Lucas John Mathers, when did you get so smug?” The corner of her mouth ticks up into a grin.
“The day I realized that you’re going to be Mrs. Lucas John Mathers.”
I don’t wait for her to answer. Instead, I lower my lips to hers, giving her a kiss that sends our audience into a loud cheer.
This is what I’ve been waiting for.
This is what I’ve always wanted.
And it was worth every second of the wait.