The-Lucky-List-Rachael-Lippincott

She turns around to look at me, her eyes searching my face for a long moment. Finally, she nods,
clearly not buying it. “All right. Sure.”
We keep walking, but I can tell she’s upset. I reach for her arm as we step out of the woods, the
lodge coming into view. “Blake, I—”
“Why Matt?” she asks, cutting me o as she whips around to face me. “You told me that it didn’t
feel right that day we had the picnic. If it didn’t work out the first time… if it didn’t feel right the
second time or the third time or the fourth time… why do you still want to be with him?”
“I…” I hesitate, opening my mouth to reply, my mind scrambling for an answer. “Because he’s a great
guy, Blake. He’s nice and sweet and reliable and my mom always wanted me to be with him, especially
aer she got sick. And now, aer doing the list, I feel like this is what she would want me to do. I feel
like all of it has led me to this moment, where it’s actually going to work.”
Blake nods, holding my gaze as she processes what I’m saying. “So, you think that by doing the list
and by becoming more like the person you were, things are just going to suddenly work out between
the two of you?”
“Yeah,” I say, rising to the challenge. “I do.”
“Doesn’t that completely erase what you’ve been through, though? Who you’ve become because of
what happened? Who you are now?”
I don’t have an answer for that.
I cross my arms and look away, at the path leading back to the lake.
“Let me just ask you. Is this what you want, Emily?” she says.
She’s asking more than just that. I can see it in her eyes and in the way she says it.
“Yeah,” I say, drawing a line in the sand. “It is.”
“Okay,” she says, nodding. “Got it.” She turns on her heel and heads quickly up the steps of
Huckabee Lodge, leaving me standing there, watching her go.