Page 8 of Emily’s Moments (Shorts #3)
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 as we 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. This was where he was.
This was where he was waiting for me. This was 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.