Quietly, Duke asked, “When was the last time you went out with your friends and danced, or had a date, Emma?”
“Grace has invited me to The Dancing Pony, but I don’t go places like that by myself. My girlfriends, if you could call them that, don’t generally do those sorts of things. They…”
Gage gently prodded. “What?”
Emma rested her cheeks in her palms, which distorted her response in a way he found very endearing. “They quilt. And they have cats.” She hid her face in her palms and through her fingers she said, “I’m no good at sewing and cats make me sneeze. I’m not sure where my life is going these days. I’m thirty-three years old. I should have an idea by now, right? I dread waking up at forty-three and saying, ‘What the hell?’”
Duke nodded. “Yeah. I do know exactly what you’re talking about.”
Emma said, “You know I can’t talk to you about patients and all that, but you’re both friends with the Warners and Ethan and Adam. You should see Rose Marie.” Emma held her hands before her as if she were holding the tiny little infant. “She’s perfect and so precious. I watched them become a family and it just hit me, how truly empty my life is. All my accomplishments are tied to my life as a doctor. Above and beyond that, with the hours I keep, who could put up with me?”
Duke closed his hand over hers on her knee. “I could.”
“I could, too,” Gage replied, nudging her shoulder and smiling at her, hoping she would smile back.
She grinned, removed her glasses, and wiped carefully with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be so depressing. The end of the movie just got me thinking. If I reach the end of my life and look back, knowing this is it, will I be satisfied that I took every chance that life gave me or did I squander them? My friend, Jane…”
“The quilter with cats?” Duke said with a chuckle.
Emma nodded and said, “Yes, that one. It seems like she’s resigned herself already to be a spinster. She acts as though she’s given up. And her friends…ugh.”
“More quilters?”
Emma nodded. “If all they did was get together and quilt, that would be great. But they like to gossip. It’s silly, what they do, and not what I want.”
Gage said, “I think I know what you need.” Emma and Duke looked at him expectantly as he continued, “You need a bucket list.”
Emma gasped and said, “Actually, I have one. I was at a seminar a couple of years ago and we had to brainstorm a list of fifty things we wanted to do before we died as one of the activities for the weekend. I still have it. Do you have a list?”
Gage laughed and said, “Yeah, I made one after The Bucket List came out. It’s in my bedroom. You, Duke?”
Duke nodded, “I made it one day while we were on a surveillance job. Do you know where your list is, Emma? I have an idea.”
“I think so.”
“Go get it.”
Emma smirked and said, “Uh-oh. What have I gotten myself into?”
Duke nudged her. “Some fun. That’s what. Go get it.”
Emma grabbed her keys and trotted out the door.
Gage turned to Duke and said, “What are you up to?”
Duke chuckled as he went down the hall to his bedroom, calling, “You’ll see. Get your list.”
Emma came back with a large brown envelope and dug through it as they rejoined her on the couch. Gage had found the list on his yellow legal tablet in his desk, and Duke had his in his planner. Duke’s looked more recently compiled.
“Here it is,” she said as a folded piece of paper fluttered onto the couch at her feet, which were once again in front of her on the cushion. She seemed to enjoy being bunched up in a little ball in the middle. Gage liked the grouping but hoped to see her a little more relaxed between them someday.
Duke said, “This is what I propose. Let’s compare our lists. Whatever items are duplicated on each other’s lists we will do together, if at all possible.”
Duke rose from the couch and beckoned them to come to the dinner table. Emma unfolded her list, and they lined them up together. Looking over Duke’s shoulder, Emma suddenly squealed and slapped her hands down on her list.
“Oh, my God! Don’t look! Let me have it!” She was hunched over Duke with one arm over each of his shoulders. Gage envied Duke the position he was in, with her full, round breasts pressed against his back.
Gage chuckled when Duke looked up at her with pure evil intent in his eyes. They’d both already seen one of the first items on her list.
Duke said, “Too late.”
Emma cringed. “Oh, no.” But she didn’t have any real fear in her eyes. “I wrote this list two years ago after Grace got married and Teresa…and Rosemary. Oh crap!”