Forever Checking (Checked Series Book 3)

by Jennifer Jamelli

  Thank God. Now I don’t have to feel guilty about not getting him anything. Unless, of course, this piece of paper says that he’s bought me a car. Or a boat. Or—

  “Look at it, Callie.”

  Right. Okay. Please don’t be the title to a car. Or to a yacht. Or to an airplane.

  I pull the paper out of the box, glancing up at him as I unfold it. He’s still nodding.

  And…and smiling a little?

  What is he giving—

  Eyes on the paper. The unfolded paper.

  Wow.

  Wow.

  Wow.

  I’m holding a copy of a fax. A faxed piece of paper. My name and birth date at the top. Dr. Spencer’s name too.

  A…a prescription. For medication. A—

  My eyes move back to look at him.

  He’s still nodding. Still moving his hand on my back. Talking so quickly. “I talked to Dr. Spencer, and he just faxed this to me. Since he’s already seen you, he was fine with you trying another medicine, one with a different make up than the last one. He’ll want to see you for periodic checkups to make sure that the medication is a good fit for you.” He stops for a second to take a breath and—

  “We can fill this tomorrow morning if you don’t have time tonight, and after you take your first dose, I’ll stay with you and monitor you for any allergic—”

  He pauses. And stares at me. I stare back. Speechless.

  Quiet. “Say something, Callie.”

  I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what—

  I ask the only question I can think of. The only one I need the answer to. “Are you sure about this?”

  “Yes.” He says it firmly. Resolutely. He actually—

  “Aunt Callie?”

  Abby. Abby’s voice. Abby’s here.

  My head turns toward the open front door. The door we never even bothered to close.

  Abby, dressed in a big fancy Cinderella gown, stands in the door beside Melanie. They both stare at us. Abby’s face is smiling. Melanie, well, Melanie’s face looks much like what Mandy’s did a few minutes ago.

  After a moment of staring silence, everything begins to move around me.

  His arm slips away from my back, he grabs the box and paper from my hands, and he bends down to pick up the yellow bouquet of flowers on the floor. Abby runs up to me with a hug, spluttering out all kinds of words about candy and costumes and—

  And other stuff that I can’t even hear.

  Because everything is fuzzy. Blurry.

  But in a good way. A really good way. A really really really really really real—

  “And, Dr. Blake, you should come with us.”

  What?

  I plead with my eyes to focus. And they listen well enough for me to see Abby now looking at him. Talking to him. Inviting him to trick-or-treat with us.

  I turn to look at him. Standing a few feet away. Holding a bouquet of roses in one hand and a blue necklace box in the other. Surprised. Confused. Wordless.

  Awkward sil—

  Melanie, lawyer Melanie, who always seems to know what to say, comes over and stands by Abby. And me. And him.

  “Abby, Dr. Blake might have something that he needs to do tonight.”

  Abby’s face falls. A sad princess. A disappointed Cinderella stands in—

  “I’d love to come.”

  My eyes jump to his. And I smile. Because he’s making Abby happy on her favorite night of the year. Because he’s here. Because he’s back. Because I really don’t want him to leave right now. Or at all.

  Another blur of activity happens around me. He…he goes to the kitchen, saying that he is going to take care of the flowers. Mandy turns on our pole light and puts a bowl of candy on the porch. Melanie calls Doug to let him know that she and Abby have arrived safely. She also fusses a little with Abby’s hair, straightening her crown, moving some bobby pins around. Abby talks excitedly about her Cinderella dress and her shoes and her Halloween party at school and—

  And I do my best to listen to Abby as I watch all of the movement around me. As I stand right beside my open front door. {As I listen to Pink and Nate Ruess singing “Just Give Me a Reason.”}

  My body is still. My face is smiling. I can feel it. It won’t stop smi—

  “I’ll buy you more flowers later.” He comes up beside me, whispering. “I threw those ones out.” He smiles. A big smile. “And I washed my hands.”

  His hand finds mine. Warm fingers on warm fingers on warm fingers.

  We all start outside. Abby and Melanie and Mandy first. Us next. I slip on my shoe towel shoes on the way out.

  No leaving-the-house routine is necessary. We will only be going up and down our street. Probably only trick-or-treating for about a half hour before Abby gets tired and decides to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters instead of trick-or-treating anymore herself.

  So no leaving-the-house routine. But the door still has to be locked.

  Mandy does it. Then she walks down the driveway to catch up with Melanie and Abby, smiling at me teasingly as she leaves us alone by the front door.

  Still holding my hand, he pauses on the porch. He checks the door. Three handle twists.

  {Pink and Nate get louder. Faster.}

  And we walk together down to the others. Hands together. Our bodies brushing up against each other every few seconds. Legs brushing. Hips brushing.

  Bodies refusing to stay apart.

  My limbs prickle with feeling. Almost a painful feeling. Almost painful to not be embracing him. To not have him holding me against him.

  We make it down to the others. Melanie and Mandy stop talking as soon as we get close. Clearly talking about us. But I don’t car—

  “Let’s start across the street.” Abby. Holding her mother’s hand. Almost skipping with excitement.

  We start to cross to the house on the other side of the—

  “Dr. Blake, what did you dress up as when you used to trick-or-treat?” Abby. Excited Abby. Calling back to him.

  His body stiffens beside me.

  Abby doesn’t see it, doesn’t see him. She continues to walk toward the house in front of us.

  We continue to walk, but his body is rigid, almost—

  “I didn’t really get to trick-or-treat when I was little, but that—”

  Abby stops, stops at the edge of the sidewalk in front of her, turning to look at us, at him. A shocked, sad look on her face. “You didn’t get to trick-or-treat?”

  We both stop walking. He remains rather still beside me. I look up at him, and—

  And his face breaks out into a smile. A smile for Abby. “No, but that’s okay. You can show me how to do it tonight.”

  Abby’s face relaxes a little, and Melanie puts her arm around her, turning her back toward the sidewalk, back toward the house ahead, back to trick-or-treating.

  Mandy goes up to the house with Melanie and Abby. We stand back, just at the edge of the property, the edge of the grass.

  Still holding hands. His body losing some of its tension. But—

  “You didn’t ever go trick-or-treating?” I look up at him.

  His head shakes. Matter-of-factly. “Mom, of course, wouldn’t go. She always said that she didn’t want to walk around dirty, crowded neighborhood streets as I gathered contaminated, probably poisonous candy from strangers.”

  My head nods a little. Well, that makes sense. I don’t like—

  But wait.

  “But what about your dad?”

  His head shakes again. His eyes, his face, hard. Unmoving. “Dad was never around. He was always trying to stay away from Mom and her routines, I’m pretty sure. Instead of leaving her…us…he just stayed at work late every day.”

  “Where is he now?” The words just slip out.

  Face unmoving. Still. “He left altogether after she was…was gone. He’s in California. And he’s married again.” He shakes his head. “I don’t really hear from him.”

  His mother
was really all that he had. All that he had. So he lost all that he had. And—

  “Callie.”

  My eyes focus. I realize that I’m still staring at him. Still—

  “Callie, that was a long time ago. It was all a long time ago.” He squeezes my hand.

  “I know, but it’s so—”

  “Awful. Yes.” He smiles. “But things aren’t awful now. Let’s focus on—”

  “Let’s go to the next house.” Abby, princess Cinderella Abby, is coming back toward us, Mel and Mandy behind her. Abby, bouncing, leads the way to the next house. We follow. Hands together. Bodies close.

  As Abby walks up the next sidewalk, up to the next porch, he looks over at me again. Musing. Pensive. “I can’t quite understand how you are okay with Abby going to these different houses, accepting candy from—”

  I shake my head, cutting him off. “She doesn’t eat the candy. I have replacement candy back at my house.”

  He laughs. “Of course you do.” His eyes scrunch up a little. “And Abby is okay with that?”

  “Definitely. She doesn’t want to eat the candy from the neighbors. She won’t even touch it. She opens her trick-or-treat bag and lets them toss the candy inside, but she won’t touch it.”

  Melanie and Mandy and Abby start back toward us.

  I continue. “She won’t even touch the doorbells at these houses. Mandy pushes them for her.”

  He laughs again. “Why does she even do the whole trick-or-treating thing then?”

  I shrug. “She’s still a little girl. She loves dressing up. Loves the theatrics of Halloween, I guess.”

  “Did you trick-or-treat when you were little?”

  “Yeah. I worried about the candy from strangers too, though, but not as much as Abby does now. It was a different time, though, I guess.”

  Or is Abby worse than I was? If she is worse than I was as a kid, how bad is it going to become when she gets—

  “Dr. Blake, are you ready to learn how to trick-or-treat?” Abby’s back, holding out her hand for him.

  It’s adorable.

  He squeezes my hand and lets go so he can grab Abby’s little fingers. Going from one obsessive-compulsive mess to another.

  That’s sort of been the story of his life, though.

  Callie!

  At least I didn’t say it aloud…

  We all head to the next house. He escorts Abby up the sidewalk. Mandy and Melanie start to follow them—

  “Hey, Mel. Stay here a second.” I call out to her before she gets very far ahead of me. She comes back to me while the others go up to the door.

  “Did you make a therapy appointment for Abby yet?”

  She nods. “Yes—we have to wait a little, of course, to get in, but it’s scheduled.”

  “Good.”

  Melanie smiles at me, an over-the-top I have so many things that I want to ask you about Dr. Blake kind of—

  “How are you feeling with all of this walking?”

  She rolls her eyes. “I’m fine, Callie. Just fine. Walking doesn’t hurt unborn babies.”

  “Okay, but if you need to rest—”

  She shakes her head. “You sound like Doug. No—I don’t need to rest.”

  I drop the subject. There is no use in arguing with her. Besides, I know that she’ll rest if she really needs to, if the baby really needs her to.

  I turn to watch the activity on the doorstep ahead of me. The back of Mandy. Abby. And him.

  Mandy pushes the doorbell. A person comes out and deposits candy in Abby’s bag. Abby smiles up at Dr. Blake when the transaction is over, making sure that he now understands trick-or-treating, I guess. Then they all start walking back toward us.

  “He’s pretty adorable, Callie,” Melanie whispers.

  I nod. And smile. I know. I know. I know.

  Abby brings him back to me and lets go of his hand so she can rush off to the next house.

  His hand finds mine again. And we keep moving.

  To the next house. And the house after that. And the house after that.

  We walk and walk and walk. Everything around us, alive. Vibrant colors on the trees. Crunching leaves on the ground. A soft breeze. The smell of fall in the air. {Pink in my head.}

  Kids laughing. Kids running around. Little doctors. Little pirates. Little ballerinas.

  We walk. And walk. And walk. Hands together. Limbs grazing against each other.

  Stomach fluttering. Body wanting, needing to be closer to him. Closer and closer and closer. Needing to be alone with him.

  WE ARE BACK. GOING BACK into my house. After about thirty-five minutes of trick-or-treating.

  Mandy grabs the bowl of candy from the porch and unlocks the door. Mandy, Melanie, and Abby kick their shoes off. Mandy takes the bowl of candy into the kitchen. Melanie takes Abby’s trick-or-treat bag from her and also heads to the kitchen. Abby runs to the bathroom.

  I am left in the doorway. With him.

  Alone. Finally.

  He pulls me into his arms, against his chest. His heart beats like crazy.

  Warm. Everything warm. Hot.

  {Heart starts to wail the refrain to “Alone.” Alone. Alone with him. Alone with him. Finally alone with—}

  My neck lifts all by itself. My head moves up, up, up—up to his face. My lips on the stubble on his cheek. On his mouth.

  Lips together. Lips burning. Lips—

  A loud noise in the kitchen.

  Mouths painfully separating. Reluctantly pulling back.

  Our eyes meet. Gazes intersect. Aching eyes on aching eyes.

  He—

  “I have to go, Callie.”

  What? He has—

  He holds me, presses me to him. “I can’t be with you, this close to you, without touching you. Holding you. And I shouldn’t be doing all of that in front of your sisters.” His eyes burn now.

  Hungry. Craving. Yearning.

  His lips brush mine again hastily, and—

  And we both hear the bathroom door opening. Abby’s on her way.

  Our bodies part. Hesitantly. Sorrowfully. Difficultly.

  His eyes find mine. His hand finds mine. He whispers quickly. “I get you tomorrow.”

  He gets me. He gets me. He gets—

  “We will get your medicine early in the morning, before church. I’ll pick you up at eight forty-five. Dr. Spencer says that you can start right away—you can take this pill first thing in the morning as long as you eat a small snack with it. So we’ll start tomorrow. And I’ll stay with you tomorrow to make sure that you don’t have any sort of reaction to the medicine.”

  He’ll stay with me. He’ll stay with me. He’ll stay with me.

  “Then I’ll cook you dinner tomorrow night.” Eyes blazing. “And then—”

  And then. And then. And then.

  {“Alone.” Alone. Alon—}

  “Are you leaving, Dr. Blake?”

  His eyes leave mine. They move to Abby, who must be standing behind me.

  He smiles at her. “Yes, Abby, I have to head out.”

  “Oh, well, I hope you liked trick-or-treating.”

  I turn to look back at Abby now too. Still a princess. A princess with a serious face. A concerned face. Making sure that she did an acceptable job of showing him how to trick-or—

  “Oh, I did, Abby. I really did.”

  She beams. “Maybe next year you can do other Halloween stuff with us. We eat a lot of candy, and we watch Halloween shows, and we answer the doorbell when trick-or—”

  “Here you go, Abby.” Mandy. Mandy and Melanie both reappear from the kitchen. Both with twinkling eyes. They probably just finished gossiping in the kitchen.

  Mandy gives Abby a new, fresh bowl of candy, new candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters. She’ll give the other, now contaminated by various little hands, porch bowl of candy to her sorority sisters, I’m sure. Or she’ll secretly eat the porch candy herself.

  I hope she doesn’t eat it herself. I really think she should just throw
it—

  “Here, Abby. Here’s your candy from Callie.” Melanie hands Abby more candy, a bag of candy that I fixed for her earlier today. Abby’s new Halloween candy. Fresh candy. Untouched candy.

  “Thanks, Aunt Callie.” Abby smiles at me, puts the candy bowl on the table by the door, and starts to examine her new bag of Kit Kats and Skittles and Twix bars—all of her favorite types of candy.

  He squeezes my hand. I look back at him, and—

  “I hope you all have a good evening.” He says goodbye to Mel and Mandy and Abby.

  Then he turns to me. Smiling eyes. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Soon.” I mouth the word back to him. Wishing that soon could be now.

  His fingers gently slip away from mine as he walks back out through my front door, closing it behind him.

  {And Heart keeps singing “Alone.” Wanting us to be alone. Needing us to be—}

  “Ready to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween movie?” Abby.

  I turn around and smile. Melanie and Mandy are grinning too. Teasing grinning. Bursting with questions grinning.

  I just nod to Abby, kick my shoes off on my shoe towel, and head to the living room.

  WE START TO WATCH THE Charlie Brown movie, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. We hit pause on the DVD player every time the doorbell rings so that Abby can hand out candy (she has a system—she makes the trick-or-treaters hold open their bags so she can just toss in a couple pieces of candy. That way, she doesn’t have to touch anything but the new, clean, packaged candy in her bowl. Rather ingenious setup, I think.)

  We drink our margaritas. Well, not Mel. Of course. And I only start to drink mine. After the first sip, I realize just how hungry I am. So I eat some chips and a couple of little candy bars (I have many extra calories to use up right now) before having more of my drink.

  Mandy and Melanie make comments here and there about my unexpected evening guest. About him being back. About him looking hot. About the way he was looking at me (Yes—they saw that. I’m sure that they saw how I was looking at him, too.)

  After trick-or-treating time ends, we turn off the pole light and get dressed in pajamas. Abby falls asleep on the couch only minutes after putting on a princess nightgown, so we stop watching cartoons, and Mandy puts on a Friends Halloween episode. The one where Chandler is dressed like a bunny.