Epilogue
Journal Entry #423
Well, Doc. This is it. The last journal entry you’ll read of mine. Does it still count as an entry if I’m ripping out the page to mail to you? It doesn’t matter, I guess. It’s been a hell of a ride, eh? Maybe you think that way about all your clients. I’ll tell you one thing, my bank account is happy as hell that I’m no longer gonna be seeing you. And Goldi’s happy that I have no reason to go back to Nashville. Less chance of running into Marissa that way. Not that she’s been a problem ever since I threatened her with a restraining order.
Anyway, thanks for the recommendation of someone closer, someone who could see Goldi and me. Other than starting a new Nar-Anon closer to my house, that was the last step to leave my old life behind and make Sugarlake really feel like home again. Home. Can you believe it? I can’t. A year ago, this all felt like a dream that was out of reach, and now we’re breaking ground on a house that I’ll get to build with my own two hands. One that Goldi designed from top to bottom. She’s still fucking perfect. Finally teaching dance at the studio that helped bring us together. I hope that one day I’ll be helping her build her own studio. She hasn’t told me that’s what she wants, but I see it in her eyes, and fuck, I want to give it to her. I WILL give it to her.
I’m proposing tonight. I’m nervous as fuck. Spent a million fucking years trying to pick out a ring. Another hundred trying to plan the perfect way to ask. I had a big celebration planned, invited everyone we love and even the ones we don’t. But I canceled it. Instead, I’m gonna take her out to the lake. The stars that always lit the path to her are gonna be the ones that illuminate her face as she tells me she’ll spend the rest of her life with me.
I can only fucking hope.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Damn, those words have saved me more than once.
Also… since I won’t be seeing you again, I might as well tell you. That private investigator I hired a year ago to look for Lily? He called today.
He found her.
Read Book 2: Beneath the Stands