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“I wish I’d said yes more.” She looks at me. “To the fun things of life, you know? I always chose work over everything. It suited me. But it cost me too. Nothing comes without a cost, young lady, and only you can decide if you’re willing to pay it.”
“What are you suggesting?” “A Summer of Yes.”
I manage a pained smile at him, wishing he could find out on Ancestry.com what all of us already know—that somewhere in his lineage he’s related to the garden variety of slug.
Always observing. Never participating. And that’s my life in a nutshell. I’m an observer. Not an active participant.
I’m out my door in plenty of time to meet Georgina for a full day of touring the city. I’ve added lunch at the Stardust Diner, a Broadway staple, and if we’re lucky, we’ll have enough time for dessert at Serendipity 3.
If he were a character and I were to cast him, he’d definitely be the maître d’ dealing with Ferris posing as Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago.
It’s strange. Georgina does kind things in an unkind way.
I wonder if that’s why her family fell apart. I wonder about a lot of things that aren’t my business.
Whoever said words are powerful wasn’t kidding. Words had the power to change the course of my life. Six little words, in fact. “You don’t have what it takes.” Words like that, when you believe them, change everything.
It’s the Summer of Yes but the Halloween of No Thank You.
“It’s a wild and precious life, Kelsey. If you have something that sets your soul on fire, you have a responsibility to chase that thing.”
On the road again. Thanks, Willie Nelson, for that earworm.
“I wouldn’t have a problem saying yes to anything that man asked.”
they come together for an embrace with a swell of music (and for some reason it’s Taylor Swift singing on the soundtrack). In a slightly different version, he pushes right past her and plants one on me. Forget Taylor—in this version, a Marvin Gaye song plays on a boom box nearby.
Then we stand still for a moment, and he just . . . looks at me. And I look at him. And . . . there’s a moment.
“When do you head back to New York City?” Hayden asks from behind me. “Tomorrow,” I say. A pause, and then, “And what will you tell my mother?”
“It’s a full moon!” Hayden shouts from the end of the plank. “It’s perfect!” Perfect. For death. Sharks bite more humans when there’s a full moon. It’s a fact. It’s called the lunar effect. Thanks a lot, Shark Week.
Saying yes to simple pleasures might be even more important to me than saying yes to big things. After all, it’s the little moments that make a life.
“I was hoping maybe you’d had a change of heart.” “My heart doesn’t change,” she says.
I turn toward the cash register to find a freshly showered and very conflicted-looking Hayden Quinn. I say his name on a slow exhale. Georgina looks at me, then follows my gaze toward the door. Their eyes meet, and I hold my breath. He glances at me, and I give him the slightest smile. At that, he moves toward our table. They’re quiet for a moment, both of them frozen, and then Hayden draws in a deep breath. “Hey.” Georgina’s face softens. She smiles at him and her voice cracks slightly as she says, “Hey.”
“Kelsey,” I say. “Did you spend the night with my son last night?” “What? No!” Her eyes go wide, and she sits back down with a sigh. “Well . . . not on purpose.”
I’m starting to think she’s a lot like an onion, and if I can keep peeling back layers, maybe I’ll find there’s something wonderful waiting inside. Or maybe just something that will make me cry if I poke too deep.
“You can take Kelsey,” Georgina says. “She can’t stop staring at you, so you might as well give her a reason to do so.”
After all the “boring stuff,” according to a kid named Landon—who could do with a very long time-out—Hayden announces it’s time to put what we’ve learned into action.
He laughs. “So my mother was right. You’ve been drooling.” I shoot him a look. “I mean, come on. You own a mirror.”
It stoked my imagination because there’s just something about a lighthouse. A single light can cut straight through the darkness and guide a lost sailor home. How powerful.
The man slides the glass door open and steps inside, and that’s when I realize this isn’t an intruder at all. “Georgie?” “Dylan.”
Here, I can melt into a puddle and Dylan will be there to mop me up—even though I’ve done nothing to deserve it. He never asked me to be anything other than who I am. Why didn’t I recognize what a gift that was before it was too late?
“That’s my girl.” The words hang there between us. As true as the first time he spoke them, and yet completely false. Because I’ll always be his . . . and I never will be again.
At the sight of Dylan and me in his kitchen, Hayden stops moving and frowns. “Well, chalk this image up to one I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
“But yeah, he loves her,” he says quietly. “Love’s a funny thing. It doesn’t always let you choose.”
Words are meaningless. They can’t change anything.” “You’re wrong,” I say. “Words change everything.” She steels her jaw. “This from someone who hasn’t written a thing.”
“Stop running away from me,” he says. “It’s been long enough.” I close my eyes as he says, “Come home.”
Life can’t be lived in reverse. And now it’s too late. And I’m dying. I glance down and see the ring on his finger. I pick up his hand and turn it over in my own. “You’re wearing your ring.” He presses a sweet kiss to the inside of my palm. “You’re not wearing yours.” I reach under the neck of my blouse and pull out the long gold chain that never leaves my neck. There, dangling from the end, is my wedding ring.
“It’s not complicated to fight for the people you love.”
Time is undefeated, and mine is running out.
“Welcome home, Georgie.”
“I already booked two tickets, and I have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow.” “That was fast,” I say, surprised. “They were anxious to get me in,” he says. “It sounds like my mother’s situation is dire, and it probably doesn’t hurt that she’s one of the wealthiest women in the country.” “That’s a horrible commentary on the healthcare in this country . . . and you’re not wrong.”
Where you live determines how you live.
And I realize I don’t really care about what I’ve missed. What I’ve found seems so much more interesting.
“I know it may not be for long. But what if you spend whatever time you have left with me and Hayden?” Before, I thought it would be cruel to do that. Now, I think it would be crazy not to.
I can’t explain why my feelings for him are already this strong—maybe it’s the pre-midlife, postaccident second-chance crisis.
“I wish we had all the time in the world to get to know each other.” I bet I could love you. “But we don’t.”
Everything about us feels right. But we just happened at the wrong time.
“And I’m sorry if you disagree, and I’m sorry if you think it’s a bad idea, or whatever, but you don’t get a choice. We’ve been doing things your way my entire life. Now you’re going to do something someone else’s way.”
“Sorry I yelled at you!” Hayden shouts from the other room. “I just don’t want you to die!”
This man is my boss. He’s one of the best in the business.” “So what?” “So . . . he knows what he’s talking about.” “Kelsey, there are hundreds of men running companies who don’t know what they’re talking about.”
“Have you thought any more about what you’ll do after the surgery?” “Recover, I suppose.”
