Epilogue #3
But Lea shook her head stubbornly. “You’re all living these happy, beautiful lives,” she said.
“Marie’s engaged and starting a family. Joni’s got Nathan, and her career is taking off.
Kate’s moving to LA. Matthew, you have Nina and Olivia and this perfect life in Boston.
And meanwhile, the kids and I are stuck back in that same neighborhood, sucked back into the worst memories of our lives every single day. ”
Lucas watched every person in the room break a little as Lea spoke. By the time she was done, they’d all wilted. In shame, maybe. But also love.
He’d never experienced anything like it.
“I—” He cleared his throat as every face turned back to him.
“I just want to say, I think it’s admirable.
Both what you’re doing for your family, Lea.
And also how much everyone in this room clearly loves you.
I don’t know about them, but can I just say, if you ever need anything out there, any kind of help, please call us, day or night.
I don’t care that we’ll be in France. Marie and I will do whatever it takes to get you what you need.
” He looked down at Marie. “Right, baby?”
Her bright eyes shone up at him with so much love, he honestly thought he might die from the heartache of it all.
“Right,” she whispered, then reached over the back of the couch for Lea’s hand and squeezed it. “I’m proud of you, Le. It’s hard to go out on your own. I know you’ll do great.”
The conversation calmed then as the family wanted to know more about Lea’s new life. Eventually, as Lucas could have predicted, their curiosities settled back on him.
“So,” Matthew said as he returned from the kitchen with his third cup of coffee, “what are you actually going to do with yourself in France? I mean, beyond washing dishes and knocking up my sister.”
Lucas felt Marie stiffen beside him.
“Lucas is going to study plants, you mannerless lout,” she said. “He’s going to solve Darwin’s ‘Abominable Mystery.’”
She looked up at him with a grin, and he couldn’t help but grin back. Just when he thought he couldn’t love this woman more, she went and remembered something like that .
“Which is?” Kate asked.
Marie winced. “Er…Lucas?”
He chuckled. “It’s a term that refers to the mysteriously rapid diversification of flowering plants during the Cretaceous period.”
Every Zola’s face turned blank.
“It’s about why there were suddenly a lot more flowers,” he clarified. “Still one of the great unsolved puzzles in evolutionary biology.”
“Oh!” Joni perked up. “So he’s a dork like Nathan. Mattie, we have nothing to worry about now.”
“Am I a dork?” Nathan wondered. “Really?”
“A super hot dork, babe. But that’s why I love you.”
Marie chewed on that luscious lip of hers. “Can you answer that question in Saint-Cyprien?”
Lucas kissed her temple, his heart swelling with love for this woman. Because he knew she wasn’t asking because she doubted him, but because she wanted to make sure he could have everything he wanted. Just like he did for her.
“I can do that anywhere I have you,” he told her softly.
“That’s all very romantic,” Matthew said dryly, though he wasn’t totally immune to the romance in the room anymore, Lucas noted, if the way he was holding his wife’s hand was any indication.
“But how are you going to pay for research if you’ve given away all your money?
I doubt answering abominable mysteries comes cheap. ”
“I transferred my shares in the company, not my personal assets. I left us with some pocket change.”
“How much pocket change are we talking?” Lea wanted to know.
For the first time since this morning, Lucas felt genuinely uneasy. He looked down at Marie.
“It’s okay,” she said. “But you don’t have to say anything.”
He sighed. It was better to get it out there. “About five hundred million dollars.”
Every person in the room gasped. Marie, most of all.
“Five hundred million dollars is pocket change?” Joni asked faintly.
“But I thought…” Marie looked like she’d been smacked in the face.
“My personal assets are a bit harder to liquidate in just a few mo, so I’ve had them transferred into both our names instead,” he informed her quietly. “I can still get rid of them if you want, But, like I said, I’d rather not. I just want…” He trailed off, unsure.
“Want what?” Marie asked.
He cupped her face with one hand, running his thumb over the apple-red curve of her lower lip.
“I want to fall asleep at night knowing I can take care of my family,” Lucas replied.
“I want you to have all the babies you want and not to have to worry about getting food on the table. I want you to be able to choose to do your job because you love it, not because you have to. And I want us to be able to live and work wherever we want, in whatever place we choose to make our home. As long as we can keep enough for that, we can dump the rest in the river for all I care.”
Marie looked around at her family—her beloved, chaotic, wonderful family, several of whom shrugged as if to say “take the money”—then turned back at him.
“Can we keep enough to protect our world?” she asked softly.
Lucas felt something tight in his chest finally loosen as he pulled her close. “Yes. We can definitely keep enough to protect as many worlds as we want to build.”
Sometime later, Lucas found himself standing at the window watching Marie’s nephews construct another world of their own out in the snow.
She came up behind him, slid her arms around his waist, and lay her cheek on his back until he tugged her around to stand in front of him so he could rest his chin on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “I know today was a lot.”
“It was a lot,” he agreed. “But good just the same.”
“Even after Matthew punched you?”
Lucas chuckled. He was going to have a nasty bruise tomorrow. “Even then, yeah. It means they love you enough to protect you. I never had that, and I’m glad that you and our little one do.”
“You will too,” Marie said quietly. “You’re family now.”
Family. The word settled into his chest, taking root there. It was a small root, but he knew it would grow, just like her promise.
“I love you,” he said, turning her in his arms so he could frame her beautiful face and kiss her again.
He couldn’t seem to stop kissing her. He hoped that feeling would never fade.
“I love our baby, I’ll probably come to love your crazy family too, and I definitely love the life we’re building together, Marie Zola. My sweet, sweet Marie.”
Her smile made his heart feel ten times bigger. “Even if it’s messier than you planned?”
“Especially because it’s messier than I planned. The best things always are.”
THE END
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