Epilogue

Jared’s car wound through the narrow alleys separating the different lots in the cemetery. He pulled to a stop under a tree. This was as close as they could get to Julia’s grave. It had been a few years since Everett had been able to drive himself to visit his wife, but Tessa made sure to pick him up at his retirement home and give him a ride to the cemetery as often as she could. Jared got out of the car and opened the door to help Everett to his feet. The older man’s legs were shaky and he leaned on Jared for support as they walked the few feet to Julia’s grave. There was a bench right next to it and with Jared’s help, Everett lowered himself onto it. Tessa carried the bouquet of flowers from the car and laid them on Julia’s grave, removing the wilted bouquet from last week as she did so. She took a moment to gaze on Julia’s marble headstone, honoring the woman she had never met, but admired so much because she had inspired such devotion in her husband.

Jared came and put his arm around her. “How about we go for a short walk and let the two of them have some time?”

She nodded and followed him down a path, careful to keep one eye on Everett. Jared took her hand, his fingers lacing together with hers, brushing against the diamond solitaire engagement ring he had given her a few days earlier. A sudden wave of sadness rushed over her. He seemed to feel it even though she hadn’t said anything. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“I know we joke about our kids reading our diary after we’re dead. But this is the first time it’s really dawned on me that one of us will outlive the other. That we won’t always be together.”

He pulled her close and held her tight. “One of us will outlive the other, but that doesn’t mean we won’t always be together.”

“I don’t understand.”

Jared nodded toward Everett, who was leaning toward Julia’s grave, talking to her as if she were sitting right there. “He gets it. Just because you can’t see someone doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”

She smiled through the tears that were misting her eyes. “I should have learned that early on in our relationship.”

“Look at him,” Jared said, gesturing again toward the silver-haired man a few yards away. “If you and I have as many years together as he and Julia had, I’ll consider myself the luckiest man in the world.”

The End