Epilogue - Becca
EPILOGUE
“Holly G?” Lucky’s deep voice calls to me through the haze of sleep. “Are you awake?”
“No.” I groan. “Go away.” I pull the flap of my sleeping bag over my head, though my heart instantly speeds up at the sound of his rumbling laugh.
“Come on now,” Lucky croons, his weight pressing down on me as strands of his hair sweep across my face. “I don’t want you to miss this.”
Peeling back my eyelids, I blink the sleep away to find Lucky’s face inches from mine, his smile wide.
“Morning, beautiful,” he chirps, dipping his head to trail kisses along the edge of my jaw and the sensitive skin just below my ear.
Despite the chill in the air, my entire body warms, and I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him flush against me.
“Morning,” I mumble, snuggling in as close as I can.
“Come on, there’s something I want you to see.” Lucky attempts to pull away, but I tighten my hold.
“Nope, I’m good right here, thank you.”
Lucky laughs, but obliges, rolling over so that he’s not crushing me, but still holding me against his chest, his fingers tracing shapes along my spine. It makes my entire body tingle.
“You’re right.” His nose skims the shell of my ear. “This is way better than looking at the baby deer that are right outside our tent.”
“Wait . . . really?” I practically squeal.
“Shhhh.” He presses a finger to my lips. “Don’t scare them away.”
Grinning, I untangle myself and unzip my sleeping bag. The air in the tent is crisp, so I reach for a hoodie and my knit hat, slipping them on before grabbing my camera from its bag.
Lucky holds the tent flap open for me, and I step out into the damp morning air.
The rising sun casts our campsite in a pool of golden orange light, reflecting off a whole family of deer grazing near the tree line.
There are several does and adolescent bucks, but my eyes land on the two fawns, their spots stark white against the backdrop of the trees.
I lift my camera, adjusting the zoom, and take several shots, moving slowly so as not to scare the herd.
“That was amazing,” I skip over to Lucky once the deer have moved on. “The babies were so cute.”
“I figured you wouldn’t want to miss them.” Lucky grins over the fire he’s coaxed to life and hands me a steaming mug of coffee.
I take a sip and nod, my mind already thinking about how I’m going to edit the photos to bring out the cinnamon color of the fawns’ coats. “Let’s just hope I got the settings right.”
“Oh come on, Holly G,” Lucky waves a hand, plopping down next to me. “Your photos are amazing.”
“You’re biased,” I roll my eyes. “You think everything I do is amazing.”
“That may be true, but I know talent when I see it.”
My insides warm at the words. “Thank you. I still have a lot to learn, though.”
“Well, you’ve got time,” Lucky drawls, throwing an arm over my shoulder and pulling me close.
I snuggle into his side and take a sip of my coffee.
He’s right. Without my platform dominating my life, there’s a lot more time to pursue new things, and I did end up taking a photography class.
I took a few, actually. Fiddling with my camera, and trying new angles and lenses gives me a kind of joy that I hadn’t imagined for myself.
With my mom living full-time at a rehab facility in Georgia, I’ve also been able to stop spending every second of every day worrying about how we’re going to pay our bills.
We ended up selling the house, which helped a lot, and I was able to sort the rest out. Things are still tight, but manageable.
I wince a little though when I think about the weeks after the Starlight Challenge, when I’d confronted my mother about her drinking problem.
It had taken a lot of time, tears, and professional help before she finally admitted that she was out of control, but eventually, she’d agreed to go to rehab.
The road to recovery was long, and I knew we still had some challenges ahead of us, but we’d tackle them together as a family. I didn’t have to clean up her messes anymore, and the relief was overwhelming.
Lucky was with me through it all, traveling back and forth from Alabama to Chicago to hold my hand and dry my tears.
And when he’d finally decided what he was going to do with his platform, I’d jumped at the chance to accompany him.
Going from heart-stopping stunts to travelling to new and exciting places was an easy transition for Lucky.
I think my favorite part was watching him discover a new passion, something that he truly loved.
Travelling and documenting his adventures has given Lucky a new purpose, and it’s been so amazing watching him uncover a whole new side of himself.
He’s still in front of the camera with his larger-than-life personality and incredible smile, but now he’s focused on showcasing all the amazing sights and excursions in each new destination he travels to.
He still does a bit of thrill-seeking. Zip-lining in Guatemala. Walking the pink sand beaches in Bermuda. Hiking a Blue Square trail in Yosemite. But he’s extra careful these days, which I very much appreciate.
His platform has never been bigger, and with all the opportunities for collaborations and sponsorships, Lucky doesn’t even need the money we might’ve won from the Starlight Challenge. Dozer did end up calling both of us with tempting contract offers, but we declined.
I’m content to travel with him, practicing my photography skills while I take online classes. I’m finding that I still love having a camera in my hand, especially since I get to capture more than just my own face.
I’ve sold a few of my photographs, and I’m slowly booking clients as I gain experience.
It’s been terrifying diving into something new, but exhilarating in a way that filming makeup content never was.
For the first time in a very long time, I feel like me.
Not Becca from Smoke and Makeup Mirrors.
But Becca Evans. Becca. And I really like her.
Every day is a new adventure, a new experience, and the best part is that it’s real.
Lucky and I don’t film together, don’t put anything about the two of us online.
People like to speculate, and there’s always comments on his videos, but our relationship isn’t something that we feel obligated to share.
It’s just for us.
Just Becca and Lachlan.
“What should we do today?” I ask, looking up from my screen. “The park ranger said there’s a really pretty waterfall a few miles down the trailhead. We could go hiking and—” I trail off, noting the look on Lucky’s face. “What?”
“Nothing. Has anyone told you how beautiful you look in the tent?”
“In the tent?” My brows scrunch. “We’re not in the tent.”
Lucky smirks. “No, but we could be.”
I only have enough time to bark out a laugh before he’s on me, cupping my face with his hands and parting my lips with a kiss that steals my breath.
He tastes like coffee and mountain air and every single cell inside my body ignites when he touches me.
I used to think that nothing would ever compare to the life of a content creator, that nothing could top the feeling of watching the numbers climb, of seeing a video go viral.
But this moment, with Lucky’s fingers tugging at the hem of my hoodie, with his lips skating across my skin in a way that makes my heart threaten to leap out of my chest, I know how wrong I was.
This life—without filters or captions or comments—isn’t anything like the highlight reels.
It’s so much better.