Page 8 of Emily's Moments
“What happened?” he asked, concerned, wiping the tears off my cheeks. I blinked rapidly. When did I start crying? Ducking my face away from his hands, slightly embarrassed, Ididn’t even know I was crying, I handed him the journal that was open to his bucket list. I glanced up at him as he read it.
“I want to do this. I want to take the whole family to France to see the chateau he bought and fixed up. I want to go to all the national parks over the summer with the kids. I want to plan a trip to do all of this, with the whole family. You guys included, you’ve been family long before his passing. I want to spread a little bit of his ashes around everywhere we go. That way, he’s been there too.”
He smiled at me and nodded.
SEVEN: The Living
Emily’s POV
What was a woman to do when your whole family decided they would take the full summer to go and complete every item on their bucket list and yours? Go along for the ride. When your kids and grandkids unilaterally decided that you would be going to Europe, and visiting the countries Jefferson did? Make sure the passport and luggage are ready to go. And then they went and booked igloos- yes,fucking igloos– to watch the Aurora Borealis?!
Sobs were all I could manage over the next few weeks. Happy tears, sad tears, grateful tears. I had asked, placing the journal with his list on the table for all of them to see. Then I asked. It was the first time I’d had everyone in my home since before he passed, and it was full, practically exploding. Raven and Stormi sobbed. The grandkids were over the moon excited. And then it was like everyone went into planning mode. They laid out all the information they had about each item on the bucket list one night, about a week after I’d talked to Kai and showed him the list I’d found in the closet.
These were the people who loved Jefferson and me most in the entire world. Of course, they would be so fucking awesome as to start researching which places were best to go and when, looking up cool and unique places for us to stay, things we could do, and any huge ‘must-see’ things in the countries we would be traveling to.
“How about we make this a yearly thing? Like, every summer we take, minimum, six weeks completing things off the list?” Stormi asked that night, “Since this is the first year, we’ll do the full three months of summer and complete as much aswe can and just enjoy the time together. It doesn’t all have to be overseas, either. Most of the stuff Papa wanted to finish was here in the US. Visiting the state parks, camping, and visiting every state. We could start with that and finish the summer in France to check on the chateau. Then every year after, we take six weeks to knock things off.”
“Or if we all want to keep going, we can. We keep going until we get everything crossed off.” Ryder suggested, trying to look as casual as possible when he brought it up. I knew that he would want to keep going and doing and seeing. The boy had a thirst for knowledge and travel. He was only halfway through his schooling, though. He couldn’t stop now. Not when he was so close. I couldn’t see him staying in one place long. Maybe he’d be a lawyer like Kai and travel everywhere. Maybe he’d stick to the cyber stuff, but he’d be able to keep it on the legal side since he was a lawyer, also? Who knew? He could do whatever he wanted. His whole life was ahead of him, and he was grabbing it by the horns.
“We take everyone. For every trip. It’s what he would have wanted,” I tried to keep my voice from wobbling. “We make sure that we’re all well enough to travel and do everything,” I added, wanting to make sure that Sebastian could be there, at his healthiest. Which was the most important thing.
And travel we did. We started with the states surrounding us, not going too far, so we could be back for his final treatments. Once he was declared healthy enough, we started expanding our travel to France to see the Chateau. Walking inside, my breath caught.Thiswas where he was.Thiswas where he was waiting for me.Thiswas where I felt his love the most. I couldn’t explain it.
A place I’d never been, or known about, but that was filled with love. There were a few things that needed to be done in order to get the home in my name, but that was alright. We hired a gardener and housekeeper to check on it while we weren’t here. As the years rolled on, we ended every vacation there. Eventually, I moved there permanently. I needed to be close to him, and with the staff, there wasn’t much for me to do other than enjoy myself.
The family came every summer, mostly the grandkids, and we would travel Europe together. I was waiting for them to come in any day now, and I was excited.
I was ready.
EIGHT: The Goodbye
Ryder’s POV
Gran insisted we travel, and who was I to tell her no? I talked with my professors so that any time Gran needed a travel companion, I was able to go with her. I would attend classes virtually, submit my work over email, would tune in for classes online. They were all very understanding, and I didn’t let my grades slip. I went with Gran on every trip she took. She wanted to go everywhere and see everything after that first trip to the chateau. It was like her zest for life was slowly coming back with the little trips we took across the states, but after the first trip to France…that’s when it came back in full force. When it came back, fully, she took off. By year two of our traveling plans, she had planned half the trip herself, only accounting for six weeks' worth of plans and making sure that it worked for all of us.
When I had offered to travel with her for the next six weeks of summer, I think it surprised her. But once I offered, and my siblings found out, they offered. Then the cousins offered, and soon so did the rest of our family.
“I don’t have any of that planned yet.” She said, sounding shocked and touched, and a little overwhelmed.
“That’s okay, Gran. We can plan it!” Brody, Grey, and Dax, both sets of twins, all nodded along, agreeing with the three of them, while Stevie and Jettson jumped on Gran’s computer. Sage started reading out Grandpa’s Bucket List to make sure that we could have a comprehensive list of our own. None of us wanted to write anything in his books. Those were Grans, and she was the only one who was allowed to do such things. We worked hard that summer and every summer after. We’d been to about fifty countries so far, and all fifty states, whenGran announced she wanted to make the move to France. It was six years after Grandpa Jefferson passed. She had learned the language, making all of us learn too, charmed the locals, and instantly fell in love with the countryside chateau. She had a car there for when she needed to go to the city. A bicycle was her main mode of transport.
She lost weight but got much healthier living over there. She was happy, smiling all the time, and we were constantly visiting on holidays. She came back frequently until her seventy-fifth birthday. That was when she started to slow down. Traveling was getting harder on her, and she said she just wanted to stay at the chateau.
She was almost seventy-six and had asked me to come visit her for the summer. It had been fifteen years since she lost Jefferson, and she kept him alive in her memories every day. I had to admit, when she told me she felt him the most at the chateau, I agreed. It felt like he’d poured his love and care into the place, setting it up for their retirement. The car pulled up outside the gate of her chateau. I paid the cabbie and got out, looking up at the long driveway up to the beautiful blue door of her favorite place, the one Jefferson bought for the love of his life long before he met her. He’d kept as much of the old charm as he could while still upgrading everything about the home. It was minimal, while still letting the grandeur of the original plaster and woodwork shine.
“Grand-mère?” I called out, opening the front door. It was unlike her to leave the door unlocked, and as I listened, the home was too quiet. I was on guard, searching, going from room to room, looking around the chateau. I hadn’t seen her yet, and I’d searched damn near everywhere. I didn’t want to alarm my family yet, but something felt wrong. Something felt off.
I made my way to the back patio and found her lying on one of the chaise loungers she had on her stone patio, still in her night clothes and her floppy hat that Jefferson had bought before he passed. I slowly approached, checking my watch; it was already three in the afternoon. She should have been‘ready for the day’as she always said. She was an early riser. But with the sun, and ready for the day by no later than seven in the morning.
“Grand-mère?”
She didn’t respond. I squatted down next to her, placing my hand on hers to give her a gentle shake to wake her. She was cold to the touch. Much too cold for it to be healthy. I lifted her hat and removed her sunglasses. Her eyes were closed. Her phone slipped from her hand. Picking it up, I saw a text that was sent this morning, around eight.
She’d sent a text to Jefferson’s phone number. The same one, she kept working, paying for a phone that was never used, just so she could call and hear his voice on the voicemail. A lump was forming in my throat, tears lining my eyes as I realized what had happened.
“It lets me pretend he’s still here, and he just missed my call when I miss him so badly it hurts something deep within my soul,” she’d told me once before when we were watching the northern lights together. It was one of the many times over the years that she’d been open and honest emotionally with me, but it was one of the moments that hurt the worst. I hated that I couldn’t stop her pain.
I stood and backed away, calling the police to let them know that I’d found her. That she was gone. They came out and questioned me. I also called my family while I was waiting for the police and the coroner to show, and they were on all flightshere. Mavrick just had his eighteenth birthday a few weeks ago and was looking forward to coming out here this summer to have his first drink with Gran. He’d been saving that special moment for her. This was going to fuck with the little guy.
