October 9th 2022

Chapter 282
Our Advance Toward Changes

Even though he had not been on vacation or on any kind of break, coming into the ranch that day, after having dropped off his wife and children at their schools, Lucas did kind of feel like this was the start of a new year for him, too. He supposed it was, with their new XCs officially coming on as of today, and the after school program kicking off as well… Part of him would have wanted to bring the triplets into green group already this year, even if they had just turned three, but he'd finally decided to wait until next year, when they would be four years old.

All of that, the groups and the XCs, would only come into play that afternoon. Right now, he had a whole day of work ahead of him, and the feeling remained. This was the start of a new year.

There was plenty going through his mind as he walked from the parking lot that morning, allowing that feeling to expand. Even though the boy was not here at the moment, he only had to think about him just now for him to feel present. Rafa… His would-be cousin…

He really couldn't have predicted how the whole scenario would turn out when his uncle had first seen that birthmark and sent their minds spiraling. The possibility that the twelve-year-old could once have been the baby boy that Michael Sullivan and Keith Reyes had named Levi, had loved as their son for eight days before they'd been forced to give him back… His mother had changed her mind, decided to keep him. They'd known this could happen, and deep down they were happy for her and for the baby, if it meant that he would be happy, loved and raised by his mother. And still… that lingering feeling… He'd been part of their family, and then he hadn't, and they'd had to wonder for all these years about how he was doing, whether he was okay…

Once the possibility had been brought to their attention, they'd been left with a dilemma of sorts. Were they supposed to just leave it alone, never knowing whether Rafa was Levi? And if they did want to pursue the truth, whatever it was, what would they do with it?

In the end, the answer had come in the most unplanned and unexpected way. It just so happened, one day, while out picking up a few things at the grocery store, that Lucas had run into Rafa's mother. Cristina Vega was his own age, though she hadn't gone to school with him at any time, to his recollection. Her son looked a whole lot like her. He was not with her that day, but when she and Lucas ran into one another, she stopped to chat with him, asking about the baby and the whole family. Even if she didn't say it aloud, he could see it in her eyes, whenever they'd interacted in the past, how grateful she was, both for the after school program when Rafa had been able to attend and then for the job that kept him at the ranch.

The next thing he'd known, he'd asked her if she wanted to sit and talk a while. He'd treated her to coffee. He wasn't sure what he was trying to do, what he was going to say, but something about the whole set up must have gotten her to guess. Whatever it was, her face had become calmly resolved, like she was giving him permission, whatever it was, to say or ask what he needed to get off his chest. So, he'd asked her about Rafa, about his father and what it had been like, facing the prospect of being a single mother at the age she would have been.

And she'd been honest. Of Rafa's father, she said very little, but did say enough to suggest he had been someone older, who had taken advantage of a silly infatuation, only to open her eyes to the truth the moment she'd told him she was pregnant. It had left her so broken up that she had set out to give her baby up for adoption. She had found a lovely couple, and she had been secure in the knowledge that Rafa would be safe and loved. She'd had him, and she had let them take him, and for a week she had felt as though she had given her heart away along with her son. She'd been so caught up in what had happened, like a cloud hanging overhead. It wasn't until after she'd given him up that the cloud had cleared away, and then she'd known… She needed him back.

After she had gotten him back, that was when things had truly started to feel right. It hadn't been easy at first, she could acknowledge that now, but she had gotten through it, they both had. She knew she had made the right call, every day she looked at her son, and Lucas could understand that so much.

It was as he was still contemplating her story so far that she'd gone on and revealed the piece of the puzzle he had not seen coming. By then, it had already felt as good as confirmed that Rafa had been Levi, but what he could not have expected would be for Cristina to know that, to know already what they had only just been figuring out. She knew of his connection to Rafa's would-be fathers, as she'd known of Michael's connection to Sullivan Stables, when she'd first registered her son into the after school program.

"It's strange, you know? None of my family has ever ridden horses, never so much as been up close to one as far as I know, and as to his father, well… But he's always been fascinated by them. Since he was a baby. I used to think it was the funniest thing, so I would run with it. Your uncles, when Rafa was returned, they sent a letter with him. I only had their first names to go on, and one photo of the two of them with their daughters and him. Years ago, when the archive opened, I brought Rafa to the ranch. I thought it would be fun for him. He loved the horses… And while we were there, I saw them. Your uncles. I knew who they were the moment I did, even spoke to them for a few minutes. They never saw him, and I never told them who I was, but… then I saw, about the program, and I thought… It would be good for him."

She didn't want to tell him, not right now, but she was open to enabling a connection between the Sullivan-Reyes family and Rafa. All she asked was that they wait until she could tell him herself. He didn't know his entire backstory. He knew bare strokes with regards to his father, and he also knew that she had nearly given him up. He didn't know that she had given him up, if for only eight days. How was she supposed to do that to him?

Lucas understood, and he promised to honor her wishes. All he needed to know was whether he could tell this much to his uncles. One way or another, it was working at their minds, this possibility that here was the son they'd nearly had. Cristina allowed it. She knew he'd have her contact information at the ranch, so she'd also told him to pass on her e-mail address, so that they might keep in touch, her and Michael and Keith. He had done as she asked, and he would not forget the way the news had settled like relief on his uncles. Already it could have been said to be enough, just knowing where their Levi had ended up, knowing that he was safe, healthy, thriving, loved… Lucas didn't know what they had all been discussing between each other so far, but he trusted that, in time, he would be caught up.

In the meantime, today, he had work to do, rounds to make… Somewhere at the back of his mind, he imagined how his girls were doing out there. Mackenzie and Aubrey, exceptionally for today at the high school with Maya before they got to spend the next few weeks at home with her. Marianne in first grade, hopefully in the same class as her young friends… and the triplets, over at the preschool. It was near impossible not to think of them the most, recalling the way they'd looked when they'd been left there. To this day, there seemed to be an extra need for him to protect them. He would still see them, small as they'd been at birth, the way they'd fit in his arms, all three together… It wasn't like that anymore, they were three years old, they were doing so well, but still… They were a unit, they had each other. They would be fine… he hoped.

When he'd run into Juliet earlier, she'd invited him to lunch with her, so when the time came, he went up to the house, finding her in the kitchen. He knew her enough by now to not be completely surprised by how much she planned on feeding him, going by what was already waiting for him on the table, but then he also knew that this wasn't an everyday thing. A spread like that usually meant a lengthy meal, not just for the food but for the discussion. She needed to talk to him about something.

Even though he knew it was going to come sooner or later, even though she had been preparing him for it for a while, it was still a surprise to hear that her eventual retirement now had a date attached to it… give or take. It seemed that he wasn't the only one to think of the year as starting now and ending with the schools. Juliet planned to retire at the end of this one. She wasn't sure yet how much or how little of the summer she would still spend here, but the plan was definitely for her to be gone by the time next fall rolled around, which meant that by the time Marianne started the second grade, Lucas would be in charge of the whole of Sullivan Stables. And in the meantime, Juliet would continue to mentor him, to ensure that, when she did step away, he would have everything under control.

"What are you going to do, once you're retired?" Lucas asked, if only because he was still a bit stunned and didn't want to sit there in silence. They'd talked about it before, sure, but there had always been the shield of it all still being far away. It was like when he and Maya and the others had been planning their post graduation trip, back in high school. They'd spent so much time preparing before they'd ever decided exactly where they would go.

"Oh, I won't be far," she promised him with a laugh that sounded like her way of saying 'you won't get rid of me that easily.' He smiled back at her. He wouldn't dream of it. "I am thinking that I would like to move out from this house early enough so that… whatever work needs to be done ahead of the summer…" she explained, looking around the kitchen. She was already feeling that she would miss this place, having lived here for so long, and he could sympathize. "It will make the commute to work very different," Juliet added with a smirk, and now he laughed. "I'll actually have to drive…"

"Say the word, and I'd be happy to pick you up and drop you off myself," Lucas told her, and she pressed her hands together, imagining it. She just might take him up on the offer. "Either way… It won't be the same without you," he added, and her smile softened like she might cry.

"Like I said. I won't be far."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners