Epilogue #4
I had a bracelet handmade for me for every single year Raff and I had been together. They were on constant rotation, depending on my outfit.
As for Raff, he still wore that one I made him all those years ago. Even though he’d needed to restring it seven times already when it got too stretched out.
So then we spent the afternoon sitting around the dining room table making jewelry with the kids while talking about our upcoming vacation.
Just when I wasn’t sure my heart could get any fuller, Raff reached across the table, slipping a bracelet on my wrist.
Raff - 24 years
“Fuck if that ain’t the best view I’ve ever seen in my life,” I said as I walked out onto the balcony with two mugs of steaming coffee.
“It really is gorgeous, isn’t it?” Lula asked, glancing over at me.
“Baby, I’m not talking about the mountains,” I said, passing her a mug. “I’m never talking about the landscape if you’re in it.”
“You’d think, after this many years, you would run out of new ways to compliment me.”
“It’s your own fault for being so damn gorgeous.”
She was, too.
She’d aged. We both had.
But those smile lines? Those were proof of how many times we sat around laughing with our kids, the club, or completely on our own.
The white hair peeking out that she was sure to dye as soon as we got back to Shady Valley? Those were evidence of how many years we had shared. How much joy and love we’d shared.
“So, how are you feeling?” I asked as we both leaned on the railing, looking out at the sprawling snow-capped mountains.
“I never imagined that our vacation house would be in a cold location,” she admitted. “But it is nice to see the snow.”
We hadn’t done some grand investing in personal real estate over the years.
Because she was right—it was wasteful to have several houses that you didn’t live in.
But we’d made the calculated decision to get a chalet in Whitefish, Montana as a getaway.
We figured it would be the perfect place to spend the holidays.
Which was what we were doing there. Setting up the house for all the kids to make their way in.
The trees were up, garland hung, and the presents, well, the presents still needed wrapping.
But we would get to that later.
“Slash said he wants to borrow it next month for a little retreat with Nyx.”
“And Riff said he wants to borrow it over Valentine’s Day,” Lula told me. “And each of the Murphy brothers have dibs on other times of the year.”
“See? Told you it wasn’t a waste. With our extended family, someone is gonna be here most of the time. Isn’t that what we wanted it for? Gathering.”
“It is,” she agreed, leaning her head on my shoulder. “Thanks for talking me into it. I know I was really dragging my feet.”
It didn’t take much ‘talking her into’ it. Once the kids were all out of the house, going on their own adventures, she jumped at the chance of having a vacation home to entice them to.
Well, that, and her dream of having a cold, snowy Christmas with lots of lights and family. Like we’d been watching in our romance movies since we got together.
We loved our Christmases back home, but this was only going to notch the festivities up.
“Elk!” Lula chirped, throwing out an arm to point them out.
Damn if that didn’t take me right back.
To that first road trip. To her pointing out every cow, bird, deer, or critter we drove past.
“Can’t get any more Christmasy than that,” I said, setting down my mug so I could move behind her and pull her back against me.
“Sure it can,” she said.
“How?” I asked, nuzzling into her neck as a cold breeze kicked up, blowing over us even way up on the balcony.
“There,” she said, nodding toward the long, empty road that led to the chalet.
Sure enough, there was our eldest’s truck chugging toward the chalet.
Not far behind him was our daughter’s sleek sedan.
And, finally, our other son’s SUV.
Like they’d coordinated it so they would all arrive—a day early—to surprise us.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That’s even better.”
Lula relaxed back into me, her hands absentmindedly toying with the bracelet on my wrist. The color had worn off the beads years ago, but I refused to take it off.
“None of this would have been possible,” she said, “if it weren’t for you being such a stubborn ass.”
“If it hadn’t been for you being so easy to love,” I countered.
“Liar,” she said, turning to shoot me a smile. “I did not make that easy.”
“Maybe not. But you made it worth it.”
She leaned a little further to get a kiss.
“You don’t think he brought that damn chuckwalla, do you?”
“It’s gonna be in a Santa hat in our Christmas picture.”
“Oh, God. You’re probably right.”
With that, we turned to go back through the house to stand on the interior balcony looking down at the front door so we could watch the kids making their way in and taking in all the decorations.
We didn’t have to wait long.
The front door burst open.
The kids filed in.
Along with two dogs, a cat, and, yes, a chuckwalla.
“We did this,” Lula said, nudging me with her shoulder.
“Yeah,” I agreed, wrapping her up. “Yeah, we did.”
XX