After Elizabeth left, after Lucas collapsed to the floor, he didn't want to move. He wanted to close his eyes and open them to find he had only been having the worst nightmare possible. But the longer he sat on the rug in his office, a small part of him expecting Elizabeth to return, he hated himself for allowing even a shred of hope to taunt him.

He exited his office, waving off Gustave's concerns, and returned home. His parents' photograph teased him as well, the promise of love and marriage an illusion. As much as his mother and father may have gotten back together, the fact that their marriage could fall apart in the first place had altered something in him. Had broken something in him.

Early in the summer during his mother's visit, when she told him about confiding in Elizabeth about his father leaving, Lucas had been shattered. As he had told Elizabeth, it wasn't just that she had kept this information from him; it was that his parents, whom he now realized he had postured on a pedestal of idealism, they had broken his dream, his illusion. Yet when Elizabeth had reached out, had apologized, he had been seeking her out as well on that day. She seemed to have chosen him.

"I told Nathan that I can't give him what he wants. That I won't be seeing him anymore." She had said those very words. Lucas would not, could not, ever forget them.

Yet seeing her with Nathan, alone, holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes last night and knowing Elizabeth had chosen to seek him out, Lucas wondered what had altered since she had spoken those words. She hadn't even said goodbye.

Although the day still had hours left of sunlight, Lucas closed the curtains and shrouded himself in darkness, entombing himself in his misery. He lied to himself when he said he wouldn't drink. Knowing sleep wouldn't come, he took out a bottle of whiskey his father had given him five Christmases ago and numbed himself to the point he couldn't think, couldn't remember.

When Lucas woke, his head throbbed. He berated himself for his choices, from the alcohol to love. He checked the time, shocked to find it was the next morning. So, he had slumbered away the hours, oblivious to a world filled with pain and heartache. A world he wanted no part of.

"I should not have questioned or doubted what you know about love." His own words mocked him because now he questioned and doubted everything about love.

He realized he didn't even have a picture of Elizabeth. All he had were memories. The stabbing realization came back of witnessing Elizabeth embrace Nathan last year. Lucas had left because he needed to get away.

Now, as he gazed around his bedroom, he knew there was nothing...no one...keeping him in Hope Valley. It was time to take control of his life again, to not look back. Lucas had been known as a master of his own destiny, a man who didn't stay in one place for long. Even his own mother had been surprised he'd settled in Hope Valley. He packed his suitcase and would make arrangements later regarding the saloon and the oil company.

Lucas kept his thoughts on one trajectory: moving forward. He got into his car and stopped at the mercantile for some provisions. Florence sat at the switchboard, Ned behind the counter.

When Lucas approached the counter with several items, Ned greeted him and asked, "Are you going away, Lucas? This is quite a lot of food and such."

Lucas nodded. "What's the damage?"

Ned rang up everything and told Lucas the cost.

He paid, gathered his items, and headed out. Once in his car, Lucas drove until the town disappeared from view. The leaves were changing and already thinning in the early autumn, but the trees did their job of obscuring his view of Hope Valley.

There is no hope there, Lucas thought. He kept his eyes on the road, his heart closed, yet a pang of regret shot through him not long into the drive when his eyes landed on the bridge where Elizabeth and he had stopped after riding horses.

He pulled the car over and stared at the bridge. The scene wasn't much different from three months earlier, save the foliage. Lucas left the car and walked to the bridge. He leaned against the rail, running his fingers along the wood. He closed his eyes and allowed the wind, the birdsong, and the babbling stream to transport him to a better time.

"You have no idea how happy I am to be here with you." His words.

Lucas choked down a sob and pinched his eyes shut more. Feeling ever the hopeful fool, even on the verge of hopelessness, he willed himself to be with her there. To feel her soft touch on his hand. To hear her soothing voice. To see her penetrating blue eyes. To smell her sweet perfume. Even to go so far as to taste her kiss, a kiss he would never know.

Lucas stayed like that, eyes closed, for he didn't know how long. The phantom smell of lavender tickled his nose. Something warm brushed his hand.

"Lucas." Elizabeth's voice came on the wind or in a dream to him.

He opened his eyes and met hers. She stood inches away, her hand on top of his on the rail.

"You're not real," he whispered.

Elizabeth brought her other hand to his cheek. He leaned into her touch and allowed his eyes to drift closed again, longing to keep this sweet, excruciating dream alive a little longer.

The hand on top of his entwined fingers. A hand without rings. Lucas allowed her to take him. He surrendered completely, for if his lost love had driven him to such madness, he would embrace it. Better this sweet lie than the awful truth of bitter loneliness.

Then he tasted it-her kiss. The intoxicating tug of her lips on his invited him to return the kiss. A dying man's last wish or a last breath of air, Lucas inhaled every part of her. His hands wrapped around her, pulling her close. Any closer and they would be one.

When the kiss ended, Lucas opened his eyes. "You're real? Elizabeth…" His tongue was thick in his mouth, stoppering his words. He smiled and moved his lovestruck mouth. "Tell me you're real, Elizabeth." Dear God, please let her be real, he thought.

"Yes, Lucas, yes, I'm real. This"-she motioned between them-"is real. Please don't ever leave. I choose you. I love you, Lucas Bouchard. Your smile is worth a thousand sunrises, your kiss a million sunsets. I don't want to see another sunrise or sunset without you by my side." Tears streamed down Elizabeth's face.

Lucas wanted to kiss every tear away. His own vision blurred with liquid emotion as he said, "I love you, Elizabeth Thornton, and I swear, I'm never leaving again. Your hand holds my heart." He placed her hand over his heart, then kissed her bare fingers.

One day soon, he thought, her fingers will wear my love.