February 22nd 2020

Chapter 53
Their Bonds to the Past

"So I had this idea for the venue…"

That was how it started, how they ended up here today. Sullivan Stables. This was the place his grandmother, Marianne Sullivan, his mother's mother, had built from the ground up. This was where she'd tended to horses young and old for many years. Even when her health had been on a decline, she could be seen being driven around the place in her wheelchair, so she might keep a look on the property, and on their most special guests, the horses. In the end, she had left the whole business to that very person who would be wheeling her chair about all the time.

The woman had been by her side since Marianne had hired her at age fourteen, a driven young girl looking for a job, anything she could do at first and then more and more as she grew. When the time had come, Juliet Stapleton had been like the heir apparent. Neither Melinda nor Michael were looking to take over their mother's business, though they maintained some stake in it and got involved where they could in the years since her passing. Juliet had carried on the spirit Marianne had put in this place. She had also brought to fruition one of the last ideas the former owner had been hoping to get off ground, which was to enable the ranch to host events… like weddings.

When Maya had put the idea to him, Lucas had just gotten this look on his face like for a moment he was right back there, as a boy, walking through the place with his grandmother. Granny Em had nurtured his love for animals, so much so that he'd told her one day that when he grew up he was going to be a veterinarian, and maybe he could come and help her with the horses. She had smiled at him and said the job was his. She had never gotten to see him grow up into the young man he had become, on his way to doing exactly what he'd told her he would do.

And now he was about to get married, and on his fiancée's finger was Marianne's ring, the one she'd left for him to give to… well, her, even if she'd never gotten to meet her. She might have done, if she'd been around three years more. But she'd been gone now for going on fourteen years, and while the rings were symbolic in their own right, to have the wedding itself at Sullivan Stables… Even after all these years, the place continued to just breathe Marianne's spirit, so if she couldn't be there in body…

So, he'd called Juliet and asked if he and Maya could drop by. She had invited them – and by the end of the conversation, Sam and Cecilia as well – to come and have dinner at the ranch house.

"Woah…" Cecilia was the first to react as they drove up.

"This was your grandmother's?" Sam asked, in equal amazement.

"Yeah," Lucas nodded with a smile. "It was her and my grandfather, in the beginning, but it was small. But he died, a year after they had my mom, and she really devoted herself to making it into something bigger. That's how she met her second husband, my uncle's father. They lived up there, all of them. By the end, when she was sick, and there was no one else left, Juliet moved in to look after her. Granny Em left her the house, so she still lives there. She couldn't even bear to change it all that much, so it still looks a lot the way it did when I was growing up."

"Does this mean I get to see that table you told me about?" Maya asked with a smirk that made him laugh.

"I think so, unless she's changed it since."

"What table?" Cecilia asked.

"Carved his name under it with a knife," Maya informed her. "He does that," she turned back to Lucas, who could only keep driving even as he chuckled to himself. "Your first vandalized table… What an honor," she teased him. "Can I add my name to this one, too?"

"Maya!" Sam gasped at his sister.

"Hey, it was romantic, you don't know," she pointed back at him. "On second thought, forget everything I just said, don't you two even think about it."

Maya had never actually been out here before, not in all the years she had known and then dated Lucas. It wasn't that he hadn't told her about it, he had, many times, but somehow the opportunity had never come up, especially once they'd moved out to Houston. But since she had known about it, and she'd been thinking about the wedding so much, she'd been looking at her ring, thinking about the woman it had belonged to and there had been the thought. I wonder if they do weddings.

She'd gone and looked at the website, and she'd discovered that they did. From there, the rest had just fallen into place.

The pictures did not do it justice, and they certainly couldn't contain the feeling that she got when they arrived and she climbed out of the car. This place… She was here, and it felt like home, it felt like… him. She looked over to Lucas, who was doing his share of looking around, too, and she could see it in his eyes, how happy he was to be here, all the memories it brought back to him… If they could book the place for July, it really would be perfect.

"You know, it used to be I'd have to hoist you up on to the horses, now look at you," a laughing voice called out and they turned around.

The woman coming toward them at an eased pace looked like, to Maya at least, what a younger, female version of Pappy Joe would be like, from back when she'd first known him anyway. It wasn't that they were the same, but they definitely that air to them where, if they were taken out of Texas, put anywhere like New York for example, they would still stand out enough that you'd know they weren't from around. Juliet Stapleton, with her thick, chestnut braid, and the hat, and the jacket, and the boots, and everything in between, looked right at home here.

"I think I can manage it on my own now," Lucas smiled, and Juliet laughed, jogging up until she could hug him.

"I'd ask how you got so tall, but that's genetics for you, isn't it? My goodness… Little Lucas, getting married…"

"And now she's going to call me that for a week," he cringed/laughed, turning to Maya, who was now looking back at him with a curious smile.

"I don't know, pretty attached to Huckleberry," she informed him.

"Oh, I like her," Juliet told Lucas before moving up to greet his fiancée, going right for the hug because, as she'd once said, she could always tell if someone was a hugger or not, and she'd never been wrong. "Welcome to Sullivan Stables," she tipped her head and her hat with it, and Maya had to muster all the self-control in her body not to turn to Lucas and laugh, knowing at the very least that he would know she wanted to do it, and that was as good as actually doing it.

Juliet had been introduced to Maya, officially, and then to Sam and Cecilia, too. She wanted to give the newcomers a tour of the property, and they could tell she'd looked to Cecilia and factored in her crutch and how it would all be taxing on her in the end, so rather than singling her out she'd gotten them all into the sort of open truck they had, coincidentally, to take prospective wedding parties around. In this case, Lucas was explaining and pointing things out along the way as much as Juliet did, recalling some memory or another.

"If Dylan were here, he'd tell you that he nearly broke his arm climbing that tree," Lucas told the others in the truck.

"Nearly gave your gran the fright of her life," Juliet called from the driver's seat. "A lot of history with that tree. Couples love getting their picture taken in front of it when they're out here for their weddings. One couple even got engaged in front of it, did the whole initials in the heart and everything, if you want to go see for yourselves."

Maya looked to Lucas, wondering if Juliet meant… He looked curious, too, he was curious. All he knew of his parents' engagement was how his mother would say that his father had taken her to a special place, and put into so many words the love he had for her and the dream he had of their future together, and he'd asked, and she'd said yes. To his recollection, neither had mentioned what this special place was, but if it was here, then it would make sense. He got out of the truck, and as soon as he'd gotten up the others had moved to follow. They'd walked on over to the very large tree, and they had walked around it, until Sam proclaimed that he'd 'found it!' And it was there. TF + MS. Thomas Friar and Melinda Sullivan…

"You just stand right there," Maya told Lucas, placing him next to the carving before stepping back. She snapped a picture with her phone and quickly sent it off to her future in-laws, knowing they'd get a kick out of it.

The more they'd seen of the whole property, the more they knew, even if it wasn't for their history with the people and this place, they would have loved to have the wedding here. When it came down to it, they never even had to ask. Juliet had just looked at them as they were driving off toward the house, Marianne's old house and now hers, and she'd said what they had been thinking themselves.

"It would have made your gran so proud to see you two wed here."

When they pulled up to the house, Maya had to smile. She'd seen pictures of it over the years, more than once, inside and outside. There had been only minimal changes along the way, not so much that it didn't feel – to Lucas especially – like stepping back in the past, every time he came here. He wasn't here nearly as often as he used to be, when his grandmother lived, but there had been a few occasions along the way. One of them, maybe one of her favorites, had an identical copy displayed in prominence over the fireplace. It showed a smiling Marianne with her grandson of four years, perched on her shoulders and beaming proudly as he held her hat over his head.

"That was the first time, I think," Lucas pointed at it, looking to Maya, and Sam and Cecilia, and Juliet. "The first time I told her I wanted to become a vet, and how I wanted to help her with the horses here. And she told me I had the job." Sam and Cecilia both laughed, as Maya turned a grin up to her fiancé.

"Woman of her word, your gran," Juliet nodded.

"What do you mean?" Lucas turned her head toward her.

"It was in the documents, when she transferred it all to me, the business, the property… Your parents didn't say anything? It was in her will. 'To my grandson, Lucas Thomas Friar, if he should grow to hold his end of the bargain, I will hold mine. The day he receives his degree as a veterinarian, he is to be hired at Sullivan Stables, if he so desires.' Her exact words. I can show you."

Maya looked over to Lucas. She may have been stunned, but he looked completely bowled over, like he was about to cry. Even years after she was gone, his Granny Em was still looking out for him.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners