The Last Love Note: A Novel

Kate enjoys the writing festival, especially a session that tells her how she can write about her personal experiences using fiction, with the “[s]ame emotional punch but not [her] exact life” (283). She meets up with Andrew, and they have some prosecco and champagne at a bar; he tells Kate she reminds him of Genevieve. Kate dances and video-calls Grace, who is delighted to see her friend so happy and says she has missed the old Kate. Kate notes that Justin is with Grace. Kate wonders if deep grief can just be a temporary mode. Hugh arrives and leads Kate outside to speak with her.

Back at the beach house, Hugh makes tea and begins his story. As he talks, Kate experiences “an awful, sinking feeling of inferiority. [She] feel[s] like he’s slipping through [her] fingers before he’s even in [her] arms” (290). Hugh describes Genevieve as an amazing woman. He adored her, and they were engaged but then she got sick. Kate realizes why Hugh understood so well what she was feeling through every stage of her journey with Cam. The Ruby he met with was Genevieve’s daughter, whom she had while she and Hugh were apart. Kate remembers when Hugh went away while Cam was sick and wonders if Cam had asked Hugh to step in and take care of Kate. Hugh says that wasn’t what Cam asked him, and he promised Cam he would never tell Kate what the real request actually was.

Kate is outraged that the two men had a secret they intentionally kept from her. Kate feels this secret driving a wedge between them. Kate goes outside to get some air, though it is storming, and hears Hugh follow her. Agonized, she wonders what Cam’s request could have been. She thinks she sees a figure on the beach and calls Cam’s name, but then realizes that Hugh is alive and present. She realizes, “The longer I stay here, chasing the ghost of my former life, the shorter the next chapter will be” (300). Hugh brings her a cardigan, and Kate remembers how Cam told her to move on. She tells Hugh that she needs to rebuild her life, and that will include quitting her job, selling the house, and writing her book. She draws a line on the sand between her and Hugh. Then she puts her hand on his chest, grabs his shirt, and pulls him across it.

The narrative flashes back to two years prior. Kate visits Cam in the nursing home. He is a shell of a man, malnourished, and unable to perform the most basic functions. She gives him one last kiss, and Cam stops breathing. He is gone, and so, she thinks, “is the Kate that [she] knew. Innocent Kate, who believed in fairy tales and love stories and happy endings” (308). The nurse says Kate shouldn’t be driving and calls Hugh. Kate feels comfortable having him there as she sits with Cam. Then Hugh drives Kate home and takes care of her, giving her Tylenol for her broken heart. He tells Kate some things are too sad to cry about. Kate doesn’t want to be alone and wonders how she is going to tell Charlie.

Back in the present moment, Kate and Hugh stand in the rain, kissing. Kate thinks this feels brand new and also years old. She asks Hugh if this is too close, and he says being with her the day Cam was diagnosed was too close. She reaffirms that she wants to sell her house and move away. She thinks she is not Hugh’s medicine any more than he is hers. Hugh says she can trust him not to leave; the time for him to run away passed long ago.

The next morning, Kate calls her mother from the beach and shares that she kissed Hugh. Her mother admits that she and Grace arranged this intervention because, “There really is only so much unresolved sexual tension the rest of us can tiptoe around” (323). Meanwhile, Kate is worried she will lose her best friend: “To leap straight into another relationship, in a context as messy as ours, when I haven’t really thrown myself into life on my own wouldn’t be fair to either of us” (324). Kate tells Hugh she needs time apart. He hasn’t met the woman she wants to become. Hugh understands and hugs her. Kate realizes she has done what Cam asked and found her way to someone who loves her.

Kate cleans out the sticky notes that Cam left when he started losing words. She apologizes to Cam’s memory. Kate feels sad as she and Charlie say goodbye to the house and leave. She goes to a farewell party thrown by her co-workers and speaks with Hugh. She wants to kiss him, but Cam’s secret is still between them. Kate imagines the secret would eventually eat her up and devour everything. Hugh gives her a necklace of labradorite to remind her of her wish to see the aurora borealis. Charlie hugs Hugh goodbye.

As she and Charlie begin their world travels, Kate misses Cam. She despises Disneyland with its promise of wishes coming true. But while she is in New York City, Kate recalls that the city survived tragedy during 9/11, and the show has gone on. She begins a novel about a grieving widow who finds a new life. When she gets an alert about a solar flare, Kate books a ticket to Norway. Kate thinks that she is gradually turning on the lights in her own life: “This is not a fork in the road […] It’s just the road. There’s no Story A and Story B. There’s one, imperfect, meandering direction” (343).

On the flight, Kate reaches in the pocket of her winter coat and finds notes written by Cam. One is about Hugh and Genevieve, but Kate doesn’t know what it means. She decides to focus on the experience in front of her.

Kate sees the northern lights, and her heart “is fuller than it’s ever been” (345). She’s glad she realized her dream.

Back in her hotel room, she takes out Cam’s notes and studies them. One note implies that Cam planned for Hugh to help him die by suicide. Another note says Hugh loves Kate. Kate decides she needs to return to Australia immediately. She calls a former co-worker to help her arrange to meet Hugh at a conference in Launceston. She also calls Grace, who is involved with Justin. Kate has been working on her novel and feels “even in loss, there’s so much more to life” (351).

Kate’s coworker, Sophia, arranges for Kate to have a dress to wear when she meets Hugh. Grace takes Charlie. Kate oversleeps her date to meet Hugh and runs downstairs to the restaurant in her robe. She looks around for Hugh, who appears in the elevator. She asks to go to his room. She tells him a one-night stand with him is the new item at the top of her bucket list. Hugh says he won’t have a one-night stand, so Kate asks him to marry her. Hugh confirms that Cam’s request was for Hugh to assist in his death by suicide, but Hugh couldn’t do it, as he felt Kate would want as much time with Cam as she could. Hugh produces an engagement ring he is wearing around his neck and proposes to Kate.

Four years later, Hugh and Kate are married and living on the edge of the Tasmanian wilderness. Kate does photography and has published two novels. They have a daughter, Camryn Genevieve. Ruby turned out to be Hugh’s biological child, and Kate is excited that Ruby is about to have a baby. Grace and Justin have twins. Hugh works at the University of Tasmania. Their lives aren’t perfect, but they are a family. Charlie asks if Hugh will adopt him. As Kate photographs the aurora australis, she feels Cam’s presence and thinks, “love outlives death. It holds steady through despair. It won’t fade, even as time elapses and distance increases and your world shifts” (367). She is still on Kate & Cam’s Excellent Adventure.