Page 9 of Emily’s Moments (Shorts #3)

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, when Gran 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 flights here.

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.

***

When it came time for her funeral, she’d wanted to be cremated, much like Jefferson.

She also asked that, if there was anything left on her bucket list, that we take her along and cross it off.

She’d asked that she be ‘sprinkled like fairy dust’ around the chateau’s property first. She’d also left the chateau to my mom and Aunt Stormi, along with anything else that was left.

It was to be divided amongst them and her grandchildren.

Both Mom and Aunt Stormi agreed to turn it into a family vacation spot, allowing us to stay there whenever we wanted, year-round.

As the person she’d asked to read her eulogy, I was nervous, but I knew what I was going to say.

“Emily Patel. My gran. My grand-mère. She was my mom’s boss when Mom started working at her design company.

Then she became like a grandma to me, because my mom didn’t have family.

Then she was my Gran. She took us in. She claimed us as hers,” I had to blink a few times, and took a shaky breath to calm myself.

It was like my throat was closing up, the emotion clogging me.

“She never had biological children herself. But she left this world, loved beyond measure by her two children, Raven, my mother. And Stormi, my aunt. And by the ten grandchildren she had and the hope of great-grandchildren one day. She took us all on her adventures, all over the United States and all over the world.” Memories of all our trips flashed before my eyes.

I closed them, taking another deep breath.

“But I think she would have said her family and her husband, my grandpa Jefferson, were her greatest adventures. She loved us fiercely. She brought Jefferson into our lives and gave all of us a grandfather, or a father.” I paused, sniffling and looking out at all of the people my grandmother had touched in some way in her life.

Both neighbors from France, friends who were able to travel, and all of her family had gathered here to send this incredible woman off right.

“She loved him so fiercely; she once told me it felt like her soul had been connected to him when they first kissed. She would tell me stories of love when I was a little boy. Watching my mom and my biological father split was hard.” The first tears fell, but I kept going because Gran was worth everyone hearing how amazing she was to me.

“I didn’t think love was out there. I was a jaded kid, and unbeknownst to any of us, she was seeing someone.

She told me one night, ‘When you kiss someone, and it feels like every atom in your body is buzzing inside of you, every hair stands on end, and you feel like you’ve just come home from a long day and can melt into that person, that’s when you’ve fallen in true, complete, eternal love.

That’s when you’ve given your soul to someone.

’ And I’ve held out for that, because she found that, and I’ve never seen a woman more loved, more satisfied with her life, and more carefree than her.

She lit up every room she entered. She was someone I strive to be like.

” I look down, I tried to subtly wipe the tears that were in a free fall down my face.

This was the hardest thing to talk about.

“I found her. She was meeting me that day because she wanted to be sure everything was set, legally speaking. ‘Just in case’ and ‘You never know,’” I said in her voice, a quick smile on my face before the emotion and tears caught up to me.

The tears were so thick I couldn’t see the notes in front of me anymore.

I closed my eyes and then just started speaking from the heart.

“Those were her two favorite sayings after she lost Jefferson. His loss was unexpected and sudden, and she never wanted us to be as lost as she was when she lost him. She always wanted to be prepared. That day, the day she passed, as best we know, she’d gone outside early that morning.

She’d had her phone with her and was relaxing on a lounger outside.

She sent one text. It was the last thing she ever sent to anyone. ”

I tried, but couldn’t stop the tears, my jaw trembling like the little boy I was inside who just needed one more hug from his Gran and for her to tell me everything was going to be okay.

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times before the words finally came out.

It was a strangled sound that sounded nothing like my normal, strong voice.

She loved him that much. She knew she was coming home to him finally.

I’d never told anyone this, and was about to tell everyone.

She knew. She knew that was it.

“I’m coming, Jefferson.”