February 12th 2023
Chapter 43
We Wonder With Hearts Full of Love
Lucas had worried very briefly that the kids wouldn't actually be excited about the inclusion of arts and crafts in their afternoons. They had actually responded very well, both to the new activity and to this new project: they were going to create art and decorations for the brand new spring festival, as hosted by Sullivan Stables. They were excellent with their events, as Donna Devereaux would ever humbly declare. Before the new festival ever got to happen though, they had another recent addition coming up. The Equestrian Ball was fast approaching, for the third time in as many years. The first had been a tale of discovery, the second was one of improvement. This one… This one felt the most like they knew what they were doing, like they were turning to a familiar part of their years.
They'd wanted to make it feel memorable, wanted people to come away from this night being able to look back on it and smile. Lucas certainly did, as much for getting to be there with Maya as witnessing what would happen with some of the other people there. Two years ago, it had been the night where Maya had learned the wonderful news of Phoebe Munroe and Khalil Russell expecting their first child, the now seventeen-month-old Myles Julius Russell. Today, that boy was very soon to be one of two Russell boys, with a baby brother on the way.
Thinking back on it, of course, it would always remind both Lucas and Maya of how their firstborn, their little sheriff, had her very first 'Valentine' at the tender age of six. They still had the card that friend and classmate Mosi Okafor had made for her somewhere, though it was any wonder whether either of the kids remembered it. They were still friends, great friends, but far from inclined toward more Valentine adventures. If they both found themselves at the ball – which was likely, as they'd both attended the first and second editions – they would run around with the rest of their friends, raid the food table, maybe dance around, but that'd be all… just as it had been two years ago. They hadn't known what the word Valentine really represented back then, at six. At eight years old, it was really, really silly.
Last year… Last year had still carried the echo of Aubrey's birth, of what had nearly happened to Maya, to their family. To them, that was all it could be, couldn't it?
Maybe that was still in his head this year, as they'd started to plan everything out. He wanted it to be memorable, needed it to be kind of spectacular, and they were off to a great start, all thanks to one young Frenchman in love: François Lejeune, aka The Young Frank, had come to him with the revelation that he planned to propose to his girlfriend, Stella Buckley, and he wanted to do it at the Equestrian Ball. As he told it, he'd been thinking about it for a while, looking for the perfect moment, had almost done it at Christmas, but then one of Stella's sisters had gotten into this great big fight with her husband. At New Year's, he'd been back in France, appearing on a television special, and she'd been unable to travel with him. He'd been out there for a few weeks afterward, still working, while she'd been back teaching, only returned to Texas not too long ago, and that was when he'd made up his mind for this new plan. He wanted it to be big and wonderful for her, as big as he would make it while minding that his girlfriend was very much a shy bird and would not want to be thrust too far into the spotlight. And if that didn't pan out then… then he would just find a way and ask her. No more putting it off.
It had been a challenge, but he'd managed to keep Maya out of the loop. He trusted that she could have kept it a secret, he did, but with something like this, he'd thought of two things. For one, it wasn't his secret, and he didn't want to take the chance that it could get out, and for another… Oh, it would be so good when she'd realize what was happening.
"Now, what are you up to?"
He jumped, just a little. He thought for sure, of all the people, that it would either be Maya or Marianne who'd see him and think 'hey, he's being kind of sneaky,' but it wasn't, no: it was one of the very first people in the world who had learned to identify the secret expressions of Lucas Friar.
"Me?" he asked his mother.
Melinda Friar had long been known as a sort of chaotic force in the world, with the kind of energy that was known to throw people off, keeping them from finding out how wonderful she was. She had calmed down some in recent years… not completely, no, not at all; she was one cool grandma if she did say so herself.
"Yes, you, my Luke," she smiled. It brought up memories of his grandmother, her mother, Marianne the first. The older she got, the more she reminded him of her, even as he saw how much some of his girls were growing up to share in her features. They could be written off as looking like him, which they did, but then where had he gotten it, right? He'd say the winner in this, even as she stood the shortest and youngest among them, was Aubrey. She'd be two years old only three months from now, but she looked so like the girl on the sign for Mel's B&B… and that was her granny.
"All I can say is that it's not my scheme, I'm just assisting, so if we can keep it to ourselves…" Lucas whispered, and at once his mother got her sneaky face on, falling in line with him, lowering her curiosity down in volume.
"Yes, yes, I understand. I'll leave you be then; I'll just find your father and get him back on that dance floor," she whispered, scanned the area. "Ah, there he is. You know, he took me dancing on our first date." Yes, he knew, how could he not? She'd told him the story many times over the years; it wasn't always the same, but with her he was sure it had more to do with parts being left out or recalled from one telling to the next. She said she remembered every detail of that night, even over forty years later, and he believed her. "Every time I dance with him again, it's like that first night all over again."
"Then you should get back out there, dance with him as much as you can," Lucas suggested, and her smile made him smile.
He watched his father making his way around to collect her and escort her out to dance, watched them together… He had long told himself how he wanted him and Maya to be just like them when they'd be their age. He'd thought the same of his grandparents, years ago, before his grandmother Susannah had passed on. Now his grandfather had a new wife in Patty Robinson, as he'd done for years now, and they may not have been one another's first big love carried on into their older years, but they had found one another after losing the ones that might have been by their sides to this day, and they were out there tonight, too, dancing and looking as though they could have spent all their lives together… in another life.
"Now where's my dance partner?" he asked himself.
"She took Aubrey inside to change her," someone answered at his side, and he startled, looking to find his young sister-in-law. He side-bumped Haley Hunter with a smirk and she grinned, doing the same to him. He found it hard to believe that she'd already be fourteen over the coming summer when he remembered the great roll hunt when she'd been no more than a toddler, remembered first holding her as a babe of only hours. Now she was in middle school and getting closer and closer to becoming her big sister's student as the twins and MJ had done before her. "I can dance with you," she offered.
"Funny, I heard someone mention you had your eye on someone already. A boy in one of your martial arts classes?"
"Who told you that?" Haley stood up straighter, eyes resisting the urge to dart, which was as good as confirmation. She seemed to realize this, and she tried to play it cool from there. "Everyone's taken, what am I going to do, dance with my brother? It'll be weird."
"Hey," Lucas mock complained, indicating himself as a reminder that, though by marriage, he was her brother, too.
"It's not the same thing. They don't know that half the time," Haley reasoned.
"And that makes it less weird?" He pointed across the dance floor to MJ. "Gay brother." He pointed back to himself. "Grown man brother. Take your pick." Haley huffed and walked away, eventually drafting Hunter Matthews to go and dance with her. He was her friend; it would be better than a brother of any kind, right?
"Hey, look, there's my Huckleberry Valentine," a drawling voice called, acting like a pull at the corners of his lips. It only got better as he turned and found that Maya had Aubrey in her arms as she approached, and the tiny blonde looked fully relieved and happy to see her father.
"How about a dance, just the three of us?" Lucas held out his hand.
He did pretty well, keeping his attention evenly balanced as he took his wife and their youngest daughter out on the dance floor, all the while keeping an eye out for The Young Frank's big moment. He spied his intended, Stella, also on the dance floor and sweetly dancing around with her heavily pregnant best friend. She'd convinced Phoebe to come even though Khalil was unfortunately out of town and would miss this year's Valentine's Day in person, and she'd taken her dancing like this especially whenever boyfriend François was taking the stage as one of the night's live performers. He was up there now, and Lucas could see how Stella would often smile up at him, linking with his own smile, as he sang what Lucas trusted to be Stella's favorite song of his.
It made it that much more reasonable why he would take his microphone and climb down from the stage, making his way out to her, the better for her not to suspect what he was about to do until Phoebe ever so casually separated herself from the scene and allowed François to take her place, singing even as he danced with Stella. It was only as he finished his song and the guests clapped before being led into dance again by another of the performers that he leaned and whispered at Stella's ear. Lucas discreetly nudged Maya and she looked over in time to see a surprised looking Stella standing there while, in the middle of the otherwise occupied dancers, François Lejeune pulled a small box from his pocket and held it between them. No one took much notice but Lucas, and Maya, and a very happy Phoebe as Stella tearfully nodded and was embraced by François. Lucas looked down to Maya, kissed the top of her head so not to laugh at the elated look on her face, like one of their very own daughters might have just been proposed to instead of one of her former students and current colleagues. A memorable night… That was what they'd wanted, and they had gotten it, wholly, entirely…
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
