The Unexpected Path

Epilogue - Lucas

1 year later...

The grass noisily ruffles beneath me when I sit, crossing my legs and getting comfortable. The breeze around me immediately picks up and circles me like a warm welcome. I smirk.

"Can never resist saying hi to your boy, huh?" I lean forward and brush a hand over the gravestone. "Hey, Mom."

Another breeze whips through the air and this time I laugh, setting my hands behind me on the wet grass.

"I always tell Landon you do this when it's just us but the little shit never believes me." I shake my head. "Hard to believe he graduated high school yesterday. Figures you made a video for that too. I got to admit, I thought I was special in that regard."

There's a waver in the wind, like she's laughing, and I smile.

"We miss you," I say quietly. "Fuck, we miss you so much. So much has happened that you should have been here for, Mom. It's still not fair that you're not here."

I hate the silence that greets me. She should be making some smart-ass jab at me or giving me shit or coddling the fucking out of me when I don't deserve it. I rub my hand over the grass, wishing so fucking bad that I could hug her one more time. I've needed them so much.

"Your boy made something out of himself," I whisper, rubbing my thumb along the dirt. "You always knew I would. You should be here gloating. You should especially be here today."

I swallow hard and reach inside my pocket, retrieving my phone. I open up the most recent picture on my camera roll and stare down at it.

It's a billboard in downtown Boston of Zack and I. It's advertising the grand opening of our architecture firm, HC Holdings. Hunter and Cage. We never saw it coming. After graduation we had nothing we were passionate about and millions to our name. What the fuck were we going to do — sit around and cash it in? I felt so goddamn restless, like I was wasting life especially when I knew how short it was. During one of my sleepless nights the idea just came to me.

I wanted to open a cancer research center in Mom's name.

I wanted to honour her life but I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to see through the whole project myself but I knew I couldn't do it alone. I ran the idea by Dad who'd never looked so fucking proud of me. I knew I could do it too, with Zack's help, because his degree was in architectural studies. He agreed immediately. It took us a year to put it together start to finish. As of now the firm is in our fathers' names because we still don't know shit but as soon as we turn twenty-six, their stocks go to us and we'll run it from that point. That means we have three years to learn everything we can about how this works. It's going to be busy and difficult but now we both have something to do and it's fucking worthwhile. In three years, we're going to open that research center for Mom. I'm going to see to it myself.

"Give me three years," I tell her with a tight throat. "As soon as I become head of the firm, I'm signing on as leader of this project. I'm going to do it, Mom. You might be gone but you're going to help millions. I promise."

I don't say anything after that, just enjoying this silence with her for a couple of minutes. Giving her time to digest all of this. I know she hears me. I have to believe that or I'd go fucking insane. I still need her. That's why I visit her grave all the time. That's why I talk to her when I'm up and can't sleep. Although I'm getting better at that. Tia finally convinced me to try therapy with her and I've gotten down to only staying awake two days in a row. She's confident in another year I can manage sleeping properly again. Says I'll need it if I'm going to run a firm someday. It's a good motivator, I'll give her that. It's amazing how much more level-headed and calmer I am when I'm actually getting sleep.