The Fall in Love Checklist

by Sarah Ready

  Her eyes fill with tears. She reaches forward and sends her arms around me.

  “Yes,” she whispers. “Yes, yes, and a thousand times more, yes.”

  I kiss her again. I’m lost in her. I don’t want to take my mouth from hers. Too soon the balloon starts to set down at the beach. I see a wedding gazebo, chairs, a string quartet, a cake…

  “Wow,” I say.

  “Yeah,” she says.

  I start to laugh.

  “Sad to waste a good beach wedding. Could’ve finished my list.” She sighs, then starts to laugh.

  “How about we make our own list together?” I ask. “I’ve always wanted to see the Himalayas.”

  She cocks her head. Then her eyes widen.

  “Oh, holy mackerel. That’s it.”

  46

  Dany

  * * *

  Jack and I hold hands as we rush into the front entrance of the hospital. This is the first time I’ve come here with anticipation and excitement. It colors the whole place differently.

  On the way here, Karl drove like a speed demon. I texted my mom to let her know I was thirty minutes behind schedule, but to keep everything in place. Karl had already dropped the girls and Sissy at the wedding.

  I drag Jack to the windows where Dave usually sits.

  It’s empty.

  There’s no one here.

  I turn in a circle. Scan the lobby.

  A nurse bustles through. A young couple carrying flowers walks toward the elevators. I stare at the empty space in front of the windows.

  “He’s not here,” I say. All the hope that had been rising like a buoyant balloon pops. “He’s usually here in the afternoon.” I let go of Jack’s hand.

  I thought Dave would be here. He’d been in this exact spot every day I came in for the entirety of my treatment. And now…

  “Come on,” says Jack.

  He pulls me to the information desk. “Excuse me,” he says. The sharp-eyed woman behind the desk frowns at him.

  “May I help you?” she asks.

  Jack gives her a flash of his dimples and the corners of his eyes crinkle. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Her eyes narrow.

  He points at the windows. “We’re looking for the gentleman who sits by those windows.”

  The woman purses her lips.

  Jack continues, “his name is Dave—”

  “He’s in his late seventies. Looking for a kidney. He sits in a wheelchair and has—”

  “I can’t help you,” she interrupts.

  “We’d just like to know if he’s been in today,” I say.

  “I can’t help you.”

  “Or if he’s been in this week?” asks Jack.

  The woman shakes her head. “Sorry. Next,” she calls.

  A woman in a business suit steps forward.

  “No wait,” I say. “Please. If you’ve ever been in love, if you’ve ever loved someone so much that you’d search the world for them, then please tell us if he’s been here, if he’s still…” I trail off. If he’s still alive, is what I can’t say.

  “Ma’am,” says the hard-eyed woman.

  “Yes?” I ask.

  Her gaze softens. My hope rises again. I lean forward.

  She lowers her voice. “I started here this morning. I can’t help you.”

  “Oh,” I say. It comes out as a small puff of air.

  “Thanks,” says Jack.

  He takes my hand. We turn away from the desk.

  “So, this Dave guy. He had gray hair?”

  “Sure,” I say.

  “And did he wear three-piece suits and wingtips?”

  “Yes?” I say.

  “And did he wave at you whenever he saw you?”

  I turn to look where Jack is pointing.

  “Yes,” I say.

  I run over to Dave and surprise him with a hug.

  “You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” I say.

  Dave pats my back and returns my hug.

  “Nice to see you, too,” he says.

  He looks healthier than the last time I saw him. A lot healthier. There’s a twinkle in his eye.

  “Did you get your transplant?” I ask.

  “I sure did. All recovered, too.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I say.

  “It’s my final checkup. I’m heading to New Zealand at the end of the month.”

  I look at Jack. He raises his eyebrows.

  “This is Jack. My fiancé.” I step closer and Jack puts his arm around me.

  “Congratulations,” says Dave. “When’s the wedding?”

  Jack coughs to cover a snort.

  I clear my throat. “I have a question,” I say. I tense in anticipation of his answer. “Are you, by any chance, David Crestwood?”

  Dave tilts his head. “No.”

  “Oh,” I say. My shoulders sag.

  “Not anymore.”

  “What?” says Jack.

  “I changed my name to Dave Creston forty years ago,” Dave says. “It’s actually a funny story, I was in the Ural Mountains and —”

  “Hang on,” I say. “So you’re David Crestwood.”

  “Well, yes,” says Dave.

  “From Stoutsberg?”

  “As you see,” he says.

  “And did you once know a woman named Geraldine Bloom?”

  “Gerry?” he asks. He smiles and his face looks twenty years younger.

  “She went to Russia to find you. And China.”

  “Gerry did?” he asks.

  “I could take you to her if you’d like,” I say.

  He stands. “I’d like that very much.”

  “Wait a minute,” says Jack. “Did you say your name is Dave Creston? Did you by any chance own the Creston warehouses downtown?”

  We pull up in the Hummer. The string quartet starts to play.

  Cleo, Sylvie, Gerry, my mom and Sissy are gathered at the front of the gazebo. Somehow, my mom also managed to invite about fifty of our closest family friends.

  “This looks like a wedding,” says Dave.

  “Absolutely,” I say.

  Jack winks at me.

  The gathering of people notice our arrival. They stand and turn to watch our approach.

  Jack, Dave and I walk down the aisle toward the gazebo.

  When we are ten feet from the front, Gerry steps forward.

  “David?” she asks.

  “Gerry. My peach,” says Dave.

  “He’s real?” squawks Cleo. She falls back into her chair with a thud.

  “Oh my word,” says Sylvie.

  “Dude. You’re seriously getting married?” asks Sissy.

  “No,” I say.

  “Not today,” says Jack.

  “Yes,” says Dave.

  “Yes?” says Gerry as she steps toward Dave.

  He pulls a silk handkerchief from his pocket. When he opens it, there’s a lock of gleaming brown hair tied with a blue ribbon inside.

  “I kept this all these years. You remember giving it to me in the orchard?”

  “I do,” says Gerry.

  “Unbelievable,” says Cleo.

  “Shhh, no interruptions,” I whisper.

  Gerry reaches out and puts her hands in Dave’s, around the silk handkerchief.

  “Gerry. Marry me. I’ve waited nearly sixty years. I don’t want to wait a second more.”

  Gerry’s face breaks into the most radiant smile I’ve ever seen.

  “Yes, absolutely,” she says.

  “Check?” I whisper to Jack.

  He grins down at me, then laughs long and loud.

  It’s a wedding on the beach. Just not ours.

  Then he takes me in his arms. I gaze up at him. In his eyes I see our future. There’s adventure, and love, and building a family and a home. It’s a whole lifetime of lists and love. I’m not afraid. I’m not scared at all. I’m only happy to be here in this moment, in his arms.

  “If you don’t stop looking at me like that, I’m going to
kiss you in front of all these people,” says Jack.

  “Well, then do it already. Because I’m never going to stop.”

  So, he does.

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  * * *

  I climb out of the deep sleep of anesthesia. It’s a thick fog blanketing my awareness. I’m floating in a waking dream. I lift an arm and place my hand on my chest.

  It falls on a pair of new breasts.

  Hello, bonjour, hola. I say hi to the new girls. The reconstruction surgery is over.

  This is it then. The journey is done. I survived and I thrived. I did it. I did.

  I try to peel open my eyes. The fluorescent hospital light sends sparks over my eyes. They look like twinkle lights. The twinkle lights at a wedding.

  There are people around me. I can sense them in the room with me. Jack should be here. He said he would be here.

  “I love you,” I say. I float a bit more and the room spins. A sense of déjà vu overcomes me.

  Jack should be here. Why isn’t he answering?

  “She’s awake,” I hear someone say.

  “Bah,” someone else says.

  I open my eyes.

  Jack smiles down at me.

  “I love you, too.” He leans down and brushes his lips over mine.

  “You aren’t going to leave me, are you?” I ask. I hate coming out of anesthesia. It makes the world jumbled and confused. Jack grabs my hand and squeezes. I hold tight.

  “When I married you, I did it for life,” he says.

  A warmth flows over me.

  “Husband,” I say.

  “Wife,” he says.

  “Bah, off your rockers,” says Cleo.

  She’s been saying that ever since we said our vows while bungee jumping.

  “Dudes. Seriously. Enough with the lovey dovey. Does anybody have anything to eat?” asks Sissy.

  “I made an enchilada casserole,” says my mom.

  “Here, you look chilled. I finally finished your blanket.” Sylvie lays her love blanket over my lap.

  “Jack, I got a call. The Rose Tower development broke ground on schedule,” says Dave.

  Dave decided to back Jack’s community development company. They’re partners in the new venture. I’m officially the lead of their landscape architecture department.

  “No interruptions,” says Sylvie, channeling Matilda.

  “That’s right,” says Gerry. “Let them kiss. After the recovery time these two love birds are going to go at it like—”

  “Rude,” says Cleo.

  “Truth is rude,” says Gerry.

  Jack chuckles and then leans down to take my mouth again.

  “I love you,” he says against my lips. “Tell me you love me.”

  I smile against his mouth, “I love you.”

  He kisses me. And I’m filled with the warmth and the love of all my family, my friends, all the people that I love and that love me.

  My mom takes out a picnic basket.

  Cleo props her 1990s boombox at the end of the bed and pushes play.

  “Dude. This isn’t eighties music,” says Sissy.

  “That’s Dany’s jam. I’m rocking the nineties,” says Cleo.

  The room fills with the sound of music and laughter.

  Dave takes Gerry in his arms and they start to dance.

  Sissy covers her eyes.

  Sylvie laughs and pulls Cleo into a groove.

  Jack laughs and kisses me again.

  Déjà vu is no more. This is a whole lifetime away from the last time I woke in the hospital. This time, my life is filled with laughter, dancing, and love.

  Sure, the future may not be rosy, hard times will definitely come, but when they do, I know what to do.

  Jack, my mom, the girls, they helped me figure it out. When hard times come, surround yourself with love. Then laugh, and live, and dance.

  “Who wants an enchilada?” calls my mom.

  “I do,” says Sissy.

  I settle back into the bed. Jack climbs in next to me and I rest my head against his beating heart.

  “Looks like tonight you’re getting lucky,” says Gerry.

  “I already am,” says Jack.

  He kisses me.

  “Humph,” says Cleo.

  I laugh.

  Jack catches my laughter with his mouth. The warmth and the laughter enfold us. Jack and me, our friends, our family, we’re all together, and we have the whole world and all our lives in front of us.

  * * *

  THE END

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  She Needs a Hero. He Needs a Second Chance.

  Read the next book by Sarah Ready: Hero Ever After.

  * * *

  A feel good, heart-warming contemporary romance about the power of hope, family and love.

  Also by Sarah Ready

  Hero Ever After

  Chasing Romeo

  * * *

  Find more books by Sarah Ready at:

  www.sarahready.com/romance-books

  About the Author

  Sarah Ready is the author of The Fall in Love Checklist and Hero Ever After. She writes contemporary romance, romantic comedy and women’s fiction. You can find her online at www.sarahready.com.