Epilogue Beth - A found letter on Dale Rivers’s tombstone
EPILOGUE: BETH - A FOUND LETTER ON DALE RIVERS’S TOMBSTONE
Dear Dale,
I miss you, honey. I miss you every day. I hope you’ve been taking good care of Nora and Drew up there. I promise I’ve been trying to hold the fort down here.
Although, I do need to admit that over the years our little family has grown so much I don’t think I could wrangle this gang if I tried.
It’s the big family we always wanted, Dale. I wish you were here to see it, but I’m happy to sit here and tell ya all about it. You don’t really have a choice. I’m doing it either way.
Baby Sawyer isn’t so much a baby anymore. He has a wife of his own now, Margot. You’d fucking love her. She’s a little spitfire who keeps our grandson on his toes while they both chase our beautiful great-granddaughters around day in and day out.
Nora and Drea. Yep, named after them. I’m sure you’re not surprised I wailed in the hospital room when I met them. I know in my heart you sent them here. Thank you.
We have a second grandson now too, August. He’s a tough one, I’ll tell ya. Broody and grumpy, and it took me quite a while to gain his full trust. But I couldn’t imagine life without him. He’s shaping up to take over the riverside with Sawyer. You’d be so proud.
He went off and had a baby with Mary Jane and Ronald Stiles’s little girl, Daisy. And I know what you’re thinking. That sounds like trouble. Our Daisy Darling is nothing like ’em. Thankful for that. And their baby girl, Kit, she’s magnificent.
Remember little Red? Not so little anymore either and also with a family of her own. She had some shit to go through, but it all worked out in the end. Her husband, Miller, he’s Margot's brother. They have two girls, Penelope and Goldie. Oh, and a cat. He’s an asshole. You’d love him.
And I can’t forget Margot’s mom, Melanie.
Dale, I promise I’ve kept my vows. My eyes have never strayed.
No need when you know you’ve got your person waiting for eternity with you up in heaven.
But Melanie LeClair is my soulmate. The universe must have known I needed someone like her to live out my days with.
I think she’s my last case of meddling, given how I’ve seen her with the high school’s English teacher, Madison. But that’s a story for another day.
I love you. I miss you. I say it every day, but I can’t wait till I see you again.
Keep my side of the bed warm for me up there.
-Beth