Epilogue #2
Mason spotted Sarina behind the gazebo and acknowledged her urgent wave. “It’s time to go.”
“Go?” Sky raised his brows suggestively and started to tow Mason to the house.
“Not that! Not yet,” he laughed, then tilted his head towards the gazebo. “Sina has commandeered a cart. Let’s find Little Sam.”
He was with Nadine and was excited when he heard they were going for a ride in a golf cart.
Not wanting to ruin his fun, no one mentioned their destination as Mason drove them to the cemetery, holding Sarina’s hand as Sky and Sam sat in the backseat.
They had to have been a curious sight, dressed for a wedding and cruising past headstones and monuments as the sun set.
Their first stop was at Nana’s grave. Sina gave Sam her bouquet and he placed it in front of the headstone.
After Nana’s death and funeral, they told Sam that the headstones were to help family members remember loved ones and talk to them after they had gone to rest with the angels.
He told Nana all about Sky and Mason’s wedding and how his moms were taking him to Canada for a week to visit Lexie’s family.
“Who’s this stone for?” Sam asked when Mason parked and carried him to Lance Gifford’s grave.
“This one’s for Uncle Lance,” Sky said as he lowered and kissed his fingers. He pressed them against the headstone and traced Lance’s name.
Sarina was leaning against Mason’s side as Sam rested on his other hip. “We’ll tell you all about Lance, later, when it will make more sense to you,” Sarina said to Sam. “All you need to know right now is that we wouldn’t have Sky and we wouldn’t have you if it wasn’t for Lance.”
Sam’s eyes were huge as he nodded and looked at the headstone. “Thank you, Lance,” he said and blew it a kiss.
“Thanks, Lance,” Sky agreed with a chuckle, petting the grass. “None of this would have happened if you had half an ounce of self-control. But we managed to turn the mess you left behind into something healthy and good, and we’re all happy now.”
“Yes, we are,” Sarina agreed with a tearful smile at Sam and then at Sky. “What a story,” she said, causing Sky to burst into a giggle.
It passed to Sam and that was it for Mason. He started to giggle too, and Sarina chimed in with her big, booming laugh. They hugged their bellies and each other as they stood over Lance, gasping for breath and reeling at all that the man had left in his wake.
“This, Lance would have loved,” Sky eventually said once he’d caught his breath. “He loved love a little too much, and the only thing he loved more was to laugh. Sometimes, I think it was his sense of humor that attracted the Suttons to him. We barely have any of our own.”
“What are you talking about? I’m funny,” Sarina said, signaling that it was time to go.
“You are pretty funny,” Sky agreed. “Funny looking,” he added, causing Sam to burst into more giggles as they walked back to the golf cart.
This was another beautiful moment that Mason would always remember. He hoped Sam would too. Mason kissed Sam’s cheek, his heart full. He felt so blessed as Sarina smiled up at him and Sky glanced over his shoulder and winked.
“Hold on. Take Sam for me,” Mason said as he passed Sam to Sky and kissed Sarina’s cheek when she gave him a questioning look. “There’s something I have to do,” he told her, then turned and jogged back to the headstone.
Mason never gave much thought to the afterlife or Heaven.
He was too busy living and doing his best to be a good Samaritan to worry about whether there would be eternal consequences or not.
And he figured that if he lived an honest, decent, and useful life and looked after his family and his neighbors, he’d have nothing to worry about later.
But just in case there was an afterlife and Lance was watching…
“Hey, Lance.” Mason gave the headstone a friendly pat.
“Lord knows I’ll never understand or approve of the way you handled your affairs, and I’ve had more than enough reasons to swear at you over the years.
I even wanted to kill you a few times,” he confided.
“I don’t know where you are, but I hope you’re not giving them too much trouble because I don’t want to have to sort that out, too, when I get there. ”
He turned back and sighed dreamily as Sky helped Sarina into the golf cart.
“I thought Sina and Sam were enough and that I was as happy as I could be. I was wrong. I wasn’t living and loving with my whole heart.
I was incomplete, but you created two perfect, magical humans who were exactly what I needed.
And now, with Sina’s help again, we’re making a fourth.
I’m so damn happy, and I’m so grateful, which is deeply conflicting because why couldn’t you keep your dick in your pants, you horny old asshole? ”
Mason bit into his knuckle and paced a few steps away, refusing to laugh. He took some deep breaths, then went back to the headstone.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. You gave me a perfect son and the love of my life. Sky is everything I’ve ever wanted. I still have to pinch myself in the morning when I wake up and he’s still here. They’re my world, I’ll always treasure them, and I know I have you to thank. So… Thank you.”
With that, Mason gave the headstone one last pat, then turned and went to celebrate his second wedding with the love of his life and their wonderfully weird, mixed-up family.
The End