Status Updates From The Mr. Right Checklist

From Acknowledgments

- Beth Noble, AKA author Sawyer Bennett,

- Melissa also writes sweet romance under the pen name Addison Cole.

“my real Mr. Right loves me so much, he can read my heart.”

“Always and forever, sunshine. Even after we’re up there in the sky partying with your parents.”

I fell in love with you the way night takes over day, without warning, wholly and completely.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being there to push me back up to the sky.”

It kills me knowing she felt like a falling star again, and I realize that’s how I felt without her, too. Lost and far too alone.

I love you, sunshine, and I will never stop trying to be everything you want and need.

Don’t you get it? You already are.

It’s stupid list.

It’s not stupid. I’ve poured my heart into list and lived by it for years. Not taking it seriously now is like going to ice cream shop wanting 3-scoop sundae w/hot fudge & butterscotch and all toppings, and guy behind counter hands you plain vanilla cone.”

~~~~~

I made a new list, and it wasn’t for a stupid ice cream sundae. It was for the whole damn ice cream shop.

“She loves both of us. I know she does. I don’t care what her stupid checklist says. She made it before she met us.”

Love is arguing and compromising and coming to decisions that are best for both of you.

when you hit those rocky roads, which you will, find the strength and patience to watch this video together. Hopefully it’ll be enough of a reminder to practice that same patience with each other.

love isn’t always loud. It can be, but more often than not, it’s smaller, quieter things that create unbreakable bond. Like doing things your partner loves, even if you think they’re silly, and being there for them when they need you, and even when they don’t. It’s always, without fail, having their back, which means supporting their dreams and telling them when they have spinach in their teeth.

marriage is hard, and there will be times when you try each other’s patience and have trouble remembering why you made your vows.

Each of our sons had very distinct personalities from the moment they were born. Chuck was demanding. Ryan was a quiet observer. Then came Jimmy, the happiest baby I’d ever seen. There we were, two young adults raising a ruler, a sentinel, and a jester.

The way you described your parents’ love as being all-consuming, I figured their stars would be inseparable, so I found two orbiting stars, which are gravitationally bound to, and in orbit around, each other, and I had them registered with the International Space Registry. Now you’ll always know where they are, and they’re your parents’ namesakes forever.

Your father was a smart man. I’m sure he knew nobody could replace your mom and was doing everything he could to lessen the pain, not replace her. A parent is a million different things to each of their children, and every one of those things is unique to that parent and child. You were an only child, so you got all the best parts of her, including all those secret mother-daughter parts.

“Don’t go up there. I puked in both beds.”

“It’s okay. I’ll clean them up.” I turn toward the living room.

“That’s not safe, either. There’s puke in the trash can next to the couch.”

“Thanks for the warning, Mount Vesuvius.”

sometimes the universe knows what’s right before you do.

He proposed to me on that dock two years later, and we were married there after he graduated from college.

And I’d do it all over again.

He leans in and kisses her. That’s what I want. Inescapable, unquestionable love.

That falling-in-love moment is so special. It’s one the other person can’t share at the time if they don’t know it’s happening. But if it’s re-created for them, then they get to share it, and it will forever be etched in both their hearts.

“You’re right about different flavors of romance, and we men have a way of only bringing it out for the most special people in our lives.”

I’ve got no makeup on, but my cheeks are pink from the sun.

“I look a mess in that one.”

“Sometimes I wonder if we’re looking at the same person. You look happy and beautiful in that picture.”

“I don’t believe I’ve heard of that town,” she says.

“That’s not surprising. It’s about as big as a flea’s butt.”