“Read it.”
Audrey unfolds it and laughs when she sees her preteen handwriting staring back at her. She starts to read the list out loud.
“Noah Benson Bucket list
Find out what shampoo he uses and get mom to buy it for me
Find some way to get his phone number
Convince mom to let me get a phone
Start a rumor about Melissa because she likes him??
No, that’s mean … bake him cookies?
Play truth or dare with Noah and dare him to kiss me.”
The list goes on in a steady stream of ideas that seem to make Audrey rotate between laughing, cringing, snorting and wiping tears.
“Where did you find this?” she asks.
“Your mom asked me to bring the recycling out to the garage when I visited them a few years ago and I found this tucked under a stack of newspapers that had fallen behind the workbench.”
She shakes her head, baffled. “I threw it out before college, when I was getting rid of a few of my ‘Auddie loves Noah’ things.”
Sadness tugs at my heart, wondering what else she may have thrown out.
She looks down at the list and hesitates.
“What?”
“Was this in your bedside table at Connor’s house?”
A slow smile creeps across my face. “Were you creeping through my things?”
