Coming Home to the Mountain: Complete Edition

Epilogue 2

Epilogue 2

TALLIE

It’s a solemn day.

One year ago, a freak mudslide came through the town of Hobson and almost killed me.

And it did succeed in taking my sister from me.

I’m at her grave, kneeling in front of it and setting down a bouquet of daisies, her favorite. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of you, Julia. I wonder what you’d say about me falling in love with a cop. About getting married so fast. I bet you’d laugh your ass off about all that. Probably about how saccharine his family is too. I know you’d love him, though, especially after he popped Marcus in the face.”

My heart wrenches when I see her birth and death years. They’re far too close.

“Lucy’s doing well. She’s starting to talk. I do wonder how she’ll take being a big sister. Or a big cousin. It’s still all too confusing for me. I wish you were here to say it simply like you always did. But I’ll try to think of how you would raise her. Try to carry on your memory. Try to make you proud of me. That's all I can do.”

I stand up, still feeling torn up inside. Part of me wishes I was the one who wanted to try to go look for help, urging her to run along with Lucy. But then I’d have never met Graham. And that makes me feel so damn confused. That this wonderful chapter of my life started with such a tragedy.

I try not to let it get to me. After all, what’s done is done, and I can only look forward.

I head back to the car, where Graham stands tall, and Lucy is right next to him.

“Mommy!” she says running up to me and grabbing me by the knee. When she started talking, she chose to call me that, and she calls Graham Daddy. Eventually we’ll have to explain it all to her, but she’s still much too young.

I scoop her up and ruffle her hair. “Did you behave yourself for Daddy? Come on, sweetheart. Grandma’s waiting for us. She’s making a big dinner.”

“I get to see all the babies?”

“Yes you do.”

Anise Rough’s roster of grandchildren had been steadily expanding. She was perfectly happy to be called grandma by Lucy, despite the technicalities.

We climb into the truck, getting Lucy nice and secure in her seat.

Graham smiles as he turns the engine. “The M and D word still sound strange, but you know with what you heard from the doctor last week, we’re going to have to get used to it.”

I rub my abdomen, picturing it. Our family is growing. A little brother or sister for Lucy – even if it’s not technically true, that’s how we’ll raise them. And I know Lucy’s going to make a great big sister.

When we get to the house, the weekly Sunday dinner is in full swing. I am immediately whipped into the kitchen to help prepare the smorgasbord of food for everyone. This week we’re making a gigantic lasagna, and Annie doesn’t half-ass anything. We’re using fresh tomatoes and peppers and I’m put to work dicing them up alongside the rest of the family.

“And to think, before I came Home, I’d only had frozen lasagna out of a box,” I muse aloud.

“That’s barely lasagna,” Lemon says. “You’re in for a treat if you’ve never had Grandma Anise’s Everything From Scratch Lasagna.”

“Well, I bought the pasta premade.”

“You gotta draw the line somewhere, and I guess for Mom that’s not having her own pasta press.” Lemon taps her chin. “Maybe I should get her one for Christmas...”

I feel like I’ve fully assimilated into the Rough family. No one ever brings up the tragic start to my relationship with Graham, or how different my upbringing was from his. They’re just loving, caring, and accepting.

Like a family should be.

When my part of the meal preparation is done, I go to sit down, exhausted. Graham comes up behind me, massaging my shoulders.

He leans in to kiss me on the cheek, and I just smile.

On top of family, I’ve found peace. I’ve found love.

No matter how much I think I don’t deserve it, or I doubt myself, at the end of the day?

I’m simply thankful beyond measure.