Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
L ucas and Gale left California the following morning to chart a course back to Nantucket Island. The route across the country was different this time, taking them from LA to Las Vegas, through Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana. It was slated for forty-seven hours. They decided to drive ten hours a day to make it back to Nantucket in time for the Whaling Museum Festival. Lily wrote that she bought a flight. She planned to reach Boston on the morning of the festival. Lucas and Gale would pick her up and take her to the island.
Lucas started the drive to Las Vegas. Out of the corner of his eye, he checked on Gale frequently. She was quiet and contemplative, but sometimes she smiled so big and so beautifully that Lucas knew she was thinking of him, their trip, and the entire mess of having a twin sister. She was genuinely happy. But she didn’t know if she could trust her own happiness. Lucas understood that.
Highlights of their second trip across the country included eating at a diner renowned for having the biggest biscuits in the entire state of Nevada. They saw the biggest picnic basket in the world; they took selfies in front of the biggest tower of hay. They ate fast food, candy, and a few salads here and there because Gale said her body was rebelling against her and she needed something fresh. Lucas was happy to stop wherever she wanted for as long as she pleased. Heck, he didn’t mind missing the Whaling Museum Festival if it came to that. But now that Lily was a part of the equation, he knew how essential it was that they get back.
In Indiana, they went for a walk through the neighborhood near their hotel and grabbed ice cream cones from a little shack. The woman selling them told them the history of Indiana, including the origin for their nickname, “Hoosier.” Gale and Lucas chuckled about it and called one another Hoosiers for the remainder of their stay.
“I’m really going to miss driving all over the world with you,” Gale said that night as they fell asleep.
“There’s a whole lot left in the world,” Lucas reminded her. “Maybe we could go to Rome or Greece or China or…”
Gale kissed him to quiet him. “We’ll see everything together from the front seats of a rental car.”
To Lucas, it was as romantic as his wedding vows. Even more romantic because they said them in private. They weren’t for show.
Sometimes Lucas tried to make sense of the fact that Monica had married him and cheated on him and left him like that. Sometimes he forced himself to remember that very first date, when she’d told him she just wanted to be friends. Lucas had pushed it as far as he could. He’d felt so sure about her. She’s the one.
But in reality, romance shouldn’t be forced. It should flow naturally, like two streams coming together to make a river. It shouldn’t feel like a chore.
It should be like forty-seven hours of driving across the continent. Moving forward. Both eyes straight ahead. With plenty of laughter along the way.
In his life, Lucas had been called many things. A history nerd. A sap. But ultimately, he knew he could be quite romantic to a fault. His romantic side hadn’t allowed him to see the truth about Monica.
He had his eyes fully open now.
But when he looked at Gale, he saw a funny, kind, whip-smart woman. He saw a woman who promised to take things slow and consider his feelings first. He saw a woman who’d been cheated on, too.
I will protect you, he wanted to tell her. But he also knew she didn’t need protection. She could take care of herself.
Being with him didn’t mean using him. Being with him meant loving him for who he was.
Two days away from Nantucket, Gale turned to Lucas in the driver’s seat. “I’m going to invite the girls to the Whaling Museum Festival. I want them to meet their aunt.”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. “That’s a great idea. And it’s bound to be a full-on Nantucket festival. Tina pulled out all the stops.”
“Exactly.” She pressed her lips together. “I want them to meet you, too.”
Lucas’s heart jumped. He squeezed the steering wheel. “You think they’ll hate me?”
“I can’t imagine anyone hating you.”
Lucas considered telling her that toward the end, Monica had hated him. Her black eyes had followed him around their home. She waited for him to make a mistake so she could scream. But he didn’t want to sound like a broken record. In fact, ever since he’d left Nantucket with Gale, he’d thought less and less of Monica. It was as though her ghost slowly faded away. Good riddance.
It occurred to Lucas as he drove that he’d clung to her ghost because he didn’t have anything else in his life that mattered to him. Monica had become a source of history for him. He’d been able to go over and over the facts of their relationship without focusing on anything new.
But for the first time in his life, he was setting the stage for a new era. It was time.