The Fall in Love Checklist

Chapter 4

4

Jack

I pretend not to watch as the attendant rolls Daniella from the recovery suite. We don’t speak. No goodbyes. Why would there be? We’re two strangers who met in a hospital room and shared…nothing.

Lie.

“Jack’s in looove,” says Sissy. “L-U-V looove.”

I scrub my hand over the back of my neck.

She has that special kid sister knack. She can sense exactly what you’d like to hide, or bury, or never admit to anyone and wave it in the open.

It doesn’t matter that we only met six months ago and we’re both new at this sibling thing. She’s a natural.

“Oh ho ho,” says the man in the corner. “This show needs popcorn. I haven’t had this much fun in years. Rarely get out of the house, don’t ya know? I’m starving.”

I walk over to the man and hold out a wrapped breakfast bar. “I’ve got a granola bar. You allowed to eat?”

“No,” says the man. He grabs it and cradles it in his lap. “Thanks, son.”

“You’re welcome,” I say.

I walk back to the folding chair by Sissy’s bed.

“Looove,” she starts in again.

“Yeah right,” I say.

She smirks. “I could see the back of your neck all blotchy red. And that dopey look on your face. Dude, it’s love.”

I sigh. Unlike most guys, I believe in love at first sight. I believe in it, and I don’t want it. I thought I could avoid it, but it came and slammed me like a wrecking ball. I’m still reeling.

But I promised myself that I would never make someone suffer because of my love. That’s all that can come from it. Suffering.

“She sure was a pretty princess. Good thing she got dumped by the d**k. The field’s totally clear now,” says Sissy.

“Sissy,” I say. My go-to reprimand.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“The field’s not clear,” I say. She grins at me, like I admitted to her theory of looove.

But if, and I repeat, if, I gave in to my desires and pursued her, our relationship would never work out. One, her fiancé just broke their engagement. I’d be a rebound at best, or a way to make her ex jealous, or a confidence-boosting one-night stand. Two, her fiancé mentioned cancer, she might think I was pursuing her out of pity or some other misplaced emotion. She would never trust my motives—that a guy could fall in love with her at a time like this. Three, and most importantly, every time I love someone, they leave or die. End of story.

“Remember the day we met?” asks Sissy.

“Sure,” I say. “It was only six months ago.”

“You had a dopey look then, too. Not a lovey dopey look. But an I’m a big brother, must protect kind of look. I was freaked out until I saw it. Then I knew I’d be okay. You’re a good bro.”

I shake my head. “Your scheme’s not working. You’re still going to boarding school next fall.”

“Seriously. Come on,” she says.

I fold my arms over my chest. “It’s for your own good,” I say.

“Bull.”

She lies back on the hospital bed and turns on her side away from me.

“Got any water?” the man asks.

I get up and pour him a cup.

“Thanks, sonny,” he says.

“Anyone here with you?” I ask.

“Nah. Better on my own. You get it. I can tell, you’re a lone ranger at heart. Like me.”

I study him, a man nearing his eighties, all alone. He has no one to love and no one to lose.

“Yeah,” I say.

I go back to Sissy’s bedside and think about the day we first met. It was six months ago.

It took me about three seconds to realize I’d do anything for her. She stepped out of Dad’s rusted Bronco with a scuffed Jansport backpack. It was filled with all her possessions in the world. In her arms was a ratty stuffed elephant with one eye missing and its trunk half fallen off. I watched as she nervously tugged on its trunk.

She and Dad had been living in the back of his SUV. For years. Her nose was crooked and broken in three places. Her left eye was black and blue. “She’s been getting in fights on the road. I’ve got a new opportunity in Mexico. Can’t have her around. You gotta take her, son. She’s your half-sister, don’t you know?”

I hadn’t known. Fury swept through me. She was fifteen and I’d never heard of her existence. What had her life been like, travelling the country with my scheming drifter dad?

This was only the third time in my life that I’d seen him. I’d never come away with a good impression. His eyes were constantly shifting and he could never look me straight on.

“I told you, pops. I’ll be good on my own,” she’d said. Her chin tilted up and she looked at me with haughty pride. But there was uncertainty there, and a challenge. She was challenging me to care. I recognized the look because I’d given it to my dad, once, long ago. He’d not risen to the occasion.

I sighed and she unconsciously hugged her stuffed elephant against her chest.

Dang.

That was it. I was sunk. Hard and fast.

“Take your bag inside,” I’d said.

She did. Then I gave my dad the five thousand dollars he hinted at and requested that he not stay the night but leave for Mexico right away. And never come back.

That protectiveness I feel for Sissy, the sibling love, I’ll do anything for her.

Even send her away. Because if she gets hurt because of my bad luck, I’ll never forgive myself.

I let out a long, heavy sigh.

A nurse in thick-heeled white shoes hustles into the room. She stops at Sissy’s bedside. “Ready for discharge?”

Sissy looks up. “Seriously ready,” she says.

An hour later we’re in the driveway at home.

“I’ll be back after my meeting. You’ll be okay?”

“You worry too much,” says Sissy. She starts to smile, then stops. She reaches up and touches the bandages. “Hurts to smile.”

I frown.

“Take the painkillers they gave you. Have a nap.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says.

She looks out the truck window at the dusting of early spring snow. Then, she blows on the glass and traces a smiley face in the fog.

“Anyway, I can’t. I’ve got two papers due and an exam on Monday. Plus, I’m running for student body president. Big campaign to plan.”

“You’re taking over the world,” I say. She’s gone from a jumpy scrapper to a driven young woman intent on ruling the world. Sissy is as subtle as a bull and has the drive of a runaway train.

“Out with the old, in with the new me,” she says. It was her New Year’s resolution. She wanted to shed the last of her old life, and that included fixing the visible breaks and scars on her nose.

“Text me if you need anything,” I say. I chuck her on the arm.

She holds back a smile. “Good luck at your meeting. If they don’t approve your project I could dig up some dirt and blackmail them, or pull a con that involves—”

“Hey, I got this. Where’s the faith?” I hold up my hands. She probably would find a way to blackmail the committee. She learned quite a few questionable practices from our dad.

“Yeah, yeah,” she says again. “Still. Offer’s open.”

“Go on. Get out of here.”

“K. But don’t forget, I’m going to look up that cute girl from the hospital. The tragic pretty princess that got dumped by the d**k. She loooves you. Jack and Pretty Princess sitting in a tree.”

I pull at my collar.

“Get out of here, Sissy. You proved your point.”

She laughs and I level her with a long look. But I can’t help the edge of my mouth quirking up.

“Bye, bro.”

She walks across the driveway and lets herself in the house.

As I pull out, my thoughts return to the woman in the hospital.

Daniella.

I don’t know her last name. I don’t know anything about her. Except that I fell hard. After one look.

Dang.

I’m not completely sure why she was in the hospital recovery suite today, or why her creep of a fiancé dumped her, or why she lets her mother railroad her like that. I only know that my instincts are telling me I have to see her again. It’s the same feeling I get when I find a building that I know I have to have. I always get those buildings. And then the renovations are like a relationship. I choose my buildings when something in me recognizes them as a kindred spirit. It’s like that. But not. Maybe because the feeling is a thousand times stronger. I’ve never had that with another person.

I blow out a long breath as I pull into Stanton City Hall.

I clear my mind and prepare for my presentation. Winning this project is what’s most important. My entire future hinges on this meeting. Nothing can go wrong.