Page 103 of Unless It's You
EPILOGUE
STELLA
February (six months later)
“How many kids are signed up?” Ethan drops next to me on the couch in our new flat, a glass of red wine for me in one hand. After his sabbatical ended in the fall, Ethan went back to work at his brand management job. We got a bigger place in St John’s Wood, sticking close to the Pepper Me Marketing office and Regent’s Park, where Ethan continues to coach the boys a few times a week. Even in the winter. It’s not like a New Jersey winter, but it’s wet and cold and dark in London.
“We’ve got ten, so we’re all full for the first trip.” I click through the website for Evelyn’s Magical Skye Tours, admiring Reese’s design. It looks amazing.
“Congratulations.”
“To us.” I take the wine glass from him, and he clinks it gently with his own drink.
The new charity has been a labor of love and determination over the past six months. I took some of Evelyn’s inheritance and started Evelyn’s Magical Skye Tours as a side project. We plan to take groups of kids from the newly established Sporting UKFoundation—and other charities that serve underprivileged teenagers—to Skye for an outdoor adventure trip. They’ll ride a bus up from London, stay one night in Edinburgh, then continue on to the adorable town of Portree, where Ethan and I visited after our hike up the Old Man of Storr. They will do some hiking of their own, go see the famous fairy pools, and absorb the magic of the island.
The same magic I felt when we were there in August.
I’ve been working on getting a few corporate sponsors to support the trips, which we’d like to do three times a year—June, July, and August—but will start with just one this summer. We’re partnering with tour operators that are already there to make it easy, and sending mentors to supervise the trip. Ethan and I will be going on the first one, right after Reese’s wedding this summer.
Ethan’s been amazing, using his brand management experience to help with messaging and communication with some of the sponsors. We’re a great team, and between the two of us, we can handle the charity plus our regular day jobs. He even got promoted just after the new year.
And the Sporting UK Foundation commercial brought in significant donations, helping to establish the merged charity and ensure it can continue to serve kids in London.
Nessie springs up from the floor and settles on Ethan’s lap. He’s definitely her favorite, and I still get somesomewhatgentle nips from her if she catches us kissing and wants his attention.
Ethan’s a man transformed. He went to see Ben’s parents in the fall, and talked to them about his childhood and what they meant to him. And as expected, they didn’t think he owed them one single thing. We’ve even gotten drinks with Ben and his girlfriend, Ulrike, a bunch of times. It was a bit weird at first, but now it’s almost normal.
I think Evelyn would be happy with what I’ve chosen to do with her money. Besides starting the charity, I finished paying off all my loans, and had a bit leftover to get a few things for the new flat. I saved some as well, because you never know what’ll come up.
I appreciate what she forced me to face last summer. Sure, the bucket list was a reflection of herself and her own regrets, not how she needed me to live my life. But I figured a lot of stuff out. Things that will ensure I don’t end up with a life full of regrets like her or my father. How I choose to live my life is all about me.
And now, me and Ethan.
I rub the butterfly tattoo on my wrist. When I got it before I moved to London almost eight years ago, I thought it was about freedom. But now? Now I think it’s really about transformation. That you can change your life completely, while also keeping who you are at the core.
“I have a surprise for you.” Ethan slides his beer bottle onto the coffee table and lays his hand on the back of the couch around me.
“A surprise?” I push my laptop on the cushion next to me and turn to Ethan, giving Nessie a gentle stroke on the head to show her I’m not trying to steal her man.
“I booked us a trip for next weekend. You’d said you wanted to get out of London for a few days, and since our hiking is on hold for the winter...”
I laugh. Yeah, it’s on hold. When I said I wanted us to climb the highest peaks in the UK, I didn’t really know what I was getting us into. This is probably going to be more like a five-year project, as some of these mountain peaks are only reasonably accessible in the summer months, unless you want to bring an ice ax and other hard core hiking tools, which I do not. We got through just one before it got too cold in the fall, and we have another planned for this summer. We’re thinking Ben Nevis up in Fort Williams, Scotland. It happens to be the highest of the peaks, so I’m wondering if we’re being too ambitious. Probably.
“So it’s not climbing a mountain?”
“Hey, that was allyouridea for my bucket list. I bet you didn’t do a lot of research on that one before you suggested it.”
“You’d be correct.” I picture that one Google search.
He grins. “But fortunately, no, this is a long weekend at a castle.”
“Ahhh, that sounds great. But Reese already picked the castle she wants to get married at.”
Ethan and I visited five different wedding venues from August through December, including three castles, but Reese went with the first one we sent her, Eilean Donan Castle in the Scottish Highlands. She got super lucky with a June wedding opening.
“So you’re done visiting castles?” Ethan quirks an eyebrow.
“God, no.” I fake a look of horror. “Where’s this one?”
