Chapter 169
Into the World

"Heard it might snow today," Thomas Friar told his son as he walked into their shared office. Lucas had already been there, working away, for the past hour, and it took him a moment to realize he was no longer alone. He looked at the time… It was his father's usual time to arrive, he just hadn't been aware they'd reached it. Lucas rubbed at his eyes, sat back. "Everything alright?" his father casually asked.

"Oh, yeah," Lucas told him. Even saying it, he knew it wouldn't convince his father; he'd want to know more. "I was just…" he started, gesturing toward his computer. "I wanted to look into a few things on my own, so I came in early," he explained. His father said nothing, just kept looking at him. Go on.

How was he supposed to explain it? Oh, he had the words, he could say those, that wasn't the issue so much as what they could bring about. He needed to sort them out for himself, especially when it came to his father, right here. Ever since he'd made his decision to redirect his career plans, abandoning his goal to be a veterinarian, of perhaps working in that capacity at Sullivan Stables, his life had been left to adopt a new path, unforeseen, still developing. He'd decided to follow the business road, to take him right here, working with his father, and it wasn't to suggest that he was suddenly unsatisfied with this, not at all. He did truly enjoy what they accomplished here, and he wasn't looking to give it up, really, he wasn't, and that was why he needed to have a full response before he could explain all this to his father.

But… But since the accident, he'd been thinking about a few other things more and more. Since his running into Juliet had led to his reconnecting with the ranch, Lucas had been stuck in this sort of… limbo… where he knew that he wasn't going to be a vet like he'd set out to do, no, but he still felt it was very important for him to get involved in some other way at the ranch. And he had been doing his part, here and there, wherever and whenever he was needed. He'd started riding again, with Jet, and they had done a few competitions together already. He had plans to become a riding instructor…

Of course, since the accident, a lot of that had been forced to go on hold. He hadn't gotten back on Jet's back yet, though once he was sufficiently mobile he'd started going back there to visit him again. It was his being back at the ranch again, cut off from most if not all of his 'alternatives' that had made him realize the problem. All this time, he'd been looking for something, anything, to really make him feel as though he was honoring his grandmother's memory, his grandparents' legacy, and now he wasn't just reminded of the fact that he hadn't found that thing, he… He was starting to wonder if he would ever find it, if there could even be such a thing. What if the reason he couldn't find that mythical 'something' was because the only one that would ever satisfy him was the one thing he'd already set aside?

He never thought that would be it for him, but by now, when it had been working through his head for over a year… Maybe he just needed to let it go. Shouldn't he put his focus back where it was most needed, with Maya, with their sons, here with his father at the office, everyone else? Wouldn't it be better for him, too, to stop trying to make something happen that just couldn't? What if he kept pushing and instead ended up resenting the life he had because of the one he didn't?

Oh, but it wasn't so simple. He couldn't just throw in the towel and say 'no, I'm done,' not without really thinking it through. That's why he'd come here this morning, here where he'd have no interruptions, no sounds to distract him. He loved the chaos of raising three small boys, but there were just times where you needed silence, and he wasn't about to force that on them. He'd been sitting here, and he'd been doing research. It hadn't been easy, not when he wasn't sure at first what he was looking for. He looked at the ranch's website, at everything they did… He got distracted by the section that went over a bit of the history of the property, how it had started with his grandparents, Simon and Marianne Sullivan, and it had dawned on him how little he really knew about that time, and about his grandfather most of all.

Growing up, his grandfather had been Jax Murphy, his grandmother's second husband, his uncle Michael's father. At some point, because his grandmother had told him, he had come to be told about how his uncle and his mother had different fathers, that his mother's father had died when she was a year old. Melinda had never known him and Jax had been the one and only father she'd known, and he had been that to her. She'd mourned him after his passing as much as she'd done her mother. As to her biological father… Of course, she loved him, too, recognized him as her father, but all this could only go as far as it would, with how he'd died so long ago. And for that, Lucas had grown up as she did, knowing that there had been a Simon Sullivan but really very little beyond that.

He knew that a lot of that lack of awareness had come from his grandmother. She just wouldn't talk about it, not even to her daughter. She would talk about him, sometimes, but as Melinda had said it, and Michael, and even as Lucas had seen it for himself, it would always bring about this cloud over her eyes, this deep, overwhelming, traumatic grief, and so she'd struggle to delve deeper, and no one would dare force her to do so. Maybe it could have been helped at some point, but no one had done it, not in her lifetime. Melinda had come to a point where she didn't need to know, almost didn't want to know, and everyone else just sort of ran with it, just as they'd done with her mother.

But now…

It had not been his intention to go digging. He'd just sort of wanted to see if he could find anything about the early days of the ranch out there, and he'd done it. He'd found a few things that had really helped him get in touch with Sullivan Stables as he remembered it, or at least as he'd imagined it, from his grandmother's stories. Those had been wonderful. And then… then he'd found an article, about the memorial for Simon Sullivan. It didn't have all the details, but the way they talked about it, this had been a big thing. A lot of people had shown up for his funeral, and there was a picture of the great arch, surrounded by flowers that people had left.

He hadn't realized how much of an impact his grandfather had had, that his passing would be marked to this extent, but as he sat there, in the office, before his father arrived, Lucas was brought once again to the crossroads. What little research he had done in under an hour already served to show him he'd been right to give his situation the proper time and consideration. It didn't solve his issue, but it told him one thing at least, practically screamed it: Don't give up. He wouldn't, of course he wouldn't. It wasn't that simple. And he did need to talk to someone about it, but it wasn't going to be his father. It could have been his father, but with something like this, something that was maybe going to impact his future, the one he really wanted and needed to talk to was Maya.

X

She wasn't in the habit of leaving school during her break between Class Creatives and Mindscapes, not unless there was a valid reason, and she didn't have any other obligations. For the last couple of weeks, she'd had reason to go, for some or most of that break, nearly every day, and she would probably continue to have those reasons until they went on break for the holidays, at which point everything would be ramping up, all to ensure that everything went as planned, and Friar & Olsen's would open its doors at midnight on January 1st.

The property was theirs, deal made, papers signed, keys granted… They had their bakery, or they would, once the work inside and outside was completed, but they were all on schedule, comfortably so. It still felt surreal sometimes. Just a month ago, Charlie and her family had arrived, and the idea had been presented to Maya. She would have been lying if she said that she hadn't wanted it immediately as soon as it was suggested to her. All this time she'd been baking by herself in her kitchen, there had been those days – mostly nights, working against the clock – where somewhere in the back of her mind she would imagine herself with an actual store front, with a kitchen dedicated to her business, but she would never have ever dreamed of it actually happening. And then Charlie had come along, and everything had changed. After baking together from a distance all this time, now they'd get to do it in person, just as they'd done it over the summer. Those weeks had been a revelation, to both aunt and niece, and they had brought them here, to this point, about to expand into their bakery.

Maya had no doubt that Nando Garcia had been integral to their getting the place, winning out over other offers. It had been sought out by several people, some of them likely with more funds to start with, but Maya and Charlie had come out on top. Maya remembered when they had first revealed to Asher's uncle their intentions to buy the space next to his diner. Oh, he had been elated. It was like finding out family wanted to move into the house right next to yours. Possibly he had spoken with the former owners or to someone else, they didn't know. All they knew was that one morning they'd gotten the call: they had their bakery. Since then, Nando had been putting them in touch with people that could help with the actual set up, the work, equipment and supplies they might need. He was very like his nephew in that respect, or maybe Asher was like him: he had his connections.

And now, even before they had settled on their midnight, turn of the year opening party idea, Nando had been a one-man advertising machine, spreading word of the coming Friar & Olsen's, how skilled the two young women were… This had already translated in an increase of orders Maya and Charlie received while they were still working out of their kitchens. Charlie was getting to do plenty of it in the day, while Maya had her classes to teach, but she would do her part, too, just as she'd always done. It all gave them hope that their opening and subsequent activity would follow along this path and bring success.

Going out there on her breaks, Maya loved to see the progress, day to day. Everything was coming together, in every aspect of the bakery. Charlie and David really showed here how they had not just been handed the music store, back in their hometown. They had an eye for business together, and they brought that to this new enterprise they'd undertaken with her niece.

"Woah…" Maya blinked, in delighted awe, as she discovered that they'd received several items, like bags, and boxes, signs, and cards, all with the designs she'd put together. Out of everything so far, this was really the one that made it feel… real, like it was all actually happening. It was like the first time they'd walked in with the keys and, just like that day, it brought tears to her eyes. Who would have thought?

"They're pretty great, right?" Charlie asked as she appeared from out of the kitchen with that great smile that was so like her sister's.

"They're amazing…" Maya agreed. "I don't know why I feel like I have to ask, but I'm taking one of these, okay?" she picked up one of the business card boxes.

"Take the whole thing, you might need it," Charlie chuckled. "You have to get used to the fact that you're the boss now. None of this would have happened with you…"

"Or you," Maya made sure to point out, and Charlie smiled.

"You get to decide."

Maya looked at the box, held it close for a moment. Yes, she did, didn't she? Looking around, she could see it as it would be, and it looked remarkably like the vision she used to have. Actually, she'd mostly imagined catastrophe, especially since they'd been handed the keys, like anything and everything that could go wrong would go wrong, but… that wasn't happening. She might want to knock on wood, but when it came down to it, so far, everything was going off without a hitch. Oh, sure, there was the occasional mishap, or setback, but it was never anything that was impossible to rectify, never anything that made all hope drain out of them. The most remarkable thing in all this might have been that at no time had she gotten this feeling like she couldn't hope, or shouldn't, like the business would fail, very quickly and very horribly.

No, she saw the other way, the one where she and Lucas and Charlie and David together made something good, something to last. And maybe someday, the Friar and Olsen name would stand for others who bore it, like her boys, like Charlie's kids… Two branches, one family. They were going to make it work.

"How's it looking for today?" Maya asked her aunt.

"Great, better than," Charlie reported.

"Great. How would you feel about joining me for Baking Club?" There was that smile again, and Maya felt once again just how fortunate they all were to have found one another.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you next week! - mooners