Lisa Kleypas

“In all my longing for a family and a home, I'd never quite been able to decide what they should have looked like. But this house looks and feels so right, so perfect, it seems impossible any other place would suit me half so well.”

“The house is big and sturdy and charming. I know without being told that children have been born here and couples have married here, and families have argued and loved and laughed beneath the gabled roof. It's a place to feel safe in. A home.”

“Be happy, honey. Noone deserves it more. But don't forget... I'mkeeping one little piece of your heart for myself.And if you ever want it back.. .you knowwhere to find it.”

“He stared at me with bitter understanding.We both knew there was no room in this for friendship. Nothing left but childhood history.”

“Our gazes met. It seemed an entire conversation took place in that one glance. Each of us saw what we needed to know.”

“Beneath the conversations and silences and reconnecting intimacy, I tried to reconcile the adult Hardy had become with the boy I had known and longed for. It troubled me to realize they weren't the same...but of course I wasn't the same either.”

“As we talked, I had the sense of uncovering something precious and long-buried, fully formed. Our conversation was a process of removing layers, some of them easily dusted away. Other layers, requiring chisels or axes, were left alone for now. We revealed as much as we dared about what had happened during the years that separated us. But it wasn't what I had expected, being with Hardy again. There was something in me that remained stubbornly locked away, as if I were afraid to let out the emotion I had harbored for so long.”

“I never talked about you much." I said to Hardy. My voice sounded odd to my own ears.Hardy stared into my eyes and nodded, understanding that some things mean toomuch to be expressed easily.”

“It's just...Hardy was always the one I was supposed to end up with. He was everything I dreamed of and wanted. But damn it, why did he have to show up when I thought I'd finally gotten over him?”

“I'm scared of making the biggest mistake of my life. I'm just trying to figure out what the mistake is.”

“My feet ached in my Cinderella shoes. I shifted my weight and wiggled my toes beneath the cutting Lucite straps. My Prince Charming had finally showed up, I thought wretchedly, and he was too damn late.”

“I wondered how many times in my life I had done something just because I wanted to without weighing the consequences.”

“The next day I woke up in a sullen simmer, as if sleep had catalyzed my depression into a general state of pissed-offedness.”

“But we have to find ways of compromising when we disagree on something. You know what compromise is, right?""Uh-huh. It's when you don't get to have everything your way and I don't get to have everything my way, and no one's happy.”

“When you love a child, you forgive her before she can even ask. Basically you've already forgiven her for things she hasn't even done yet.”

“It would only lead to disappointment, even heartbreak, and her heart was too precious for me to let that happen.”

“All my relationships are short and sweet. Well...short, anyway.""Mine too."I sat in a leather chair near the sofa. It was stylish but uncomfortable, shaped like a cube and encased in a polished chrome frame. "I guess that's bad, isn't it?"He shook his head. "It shouldn't take a long time to figure out if someone is right for you. If it does, you're either dense or blind.""Or maybe you're dating an armadillo."Gage shot me a perplexed glance. "Pardon?""I mean someone who's hard to set to know. Shy and heavily armored.""And ugly?""Armadillos aren't ugly," I protested, laughing."They're bulletproof lizards.""I think you're an armadillo.""I'm not shy.""But you are heavily armored."Gage considered that. He conceded the point with a brief nod. "Having learned about projection in couples counseling, I'd venture to say you're an armadillo too.""What's projection?""It means you accuse me of the same things you're guilty of""Good Lord," I said, lifting the wineglass to my lips. "No wonder all your relationships are short.”

“I never get sick. Besides, I have this compulsion to take care of ailing Travises.""You would be the only one. We Travises are bad-tempered as hell when we're sick.""You're not all that nice when you're well either.”

“But I think if it's the right person, you wouldn't have to work so hard at intimacy.I think—hope—it would just happen naturally. Otherwise, opening up to the wrong person..." I made a face."Like putting ammo in their hands.”

“I have the feeling, Liberty, that you're hoping for someone to give you permission to do what you want to do.”

“Being Churchill, he couldn't have taken any other road. But now that he'd finally gotten to where he'd wanted to go he could look back and see the distant landmarks of what he'd missed.”

“The freedom of saying anything to him, telling all, relieved a burden I hadn't even realized I'd been carrying. In my relentless push to keep moving forward, there had been so many emotions I hadn't let myself inhabit fully, so many things I hadn't talked about. Now I couldn't quite catch up to myself.”

“Somehow I knew that no matter what I chose to tell or to keep secret, he would understand.”

“Why was love so easy for some people and so hard for others?”

“I didn't know how to stop wanting him. It wasn't that I had any hope—I knew I'd never see him again. But that didn't stop me from comparing every other man to Hardy and finding them all lacking. I had exhausted myself loving him.”

“There is no peace in poverty”

“I didn't expect it was going to be easy. But hard work is a lot easier to tolerate when it's something you want to do instead of something you have no choice about.”

“Girlfriend, if you're waiting for a fairy godmother to show up with a dress and a ride, you're not going to make it to the party.”

“When you're walking through the darkness, you can't depend on anything or anyone else to light your way. You have to rely on whatever sparks you've got inside you. Or you're going to get lost.”

“I knew I would replay the scene countless times in the years before me, each time thinking of different things I should have said and done.But all I did was walk away without looking back.”

“I want you to admit just once what you feelfor me. I want to know if you'll miss me evena little. If you'll remember me. If you're sorryfor anything.”

“I had to let go of him. But I knew that as long as I lived, I would feel the phantompain of his absence.”

“Why is life so difficult for some people and not for others?Why do some people have to struggle so much?”

“Bitterly I wondered if Hardy was going to overshadow every relationship for the rest of my life, haunting me like a ghost. I didn't know how to let him go. I'd never even had him.”

“I closed my eyes, thinking, Let me love you, Hardy, just let me.”

“A groundswell of silence moved between us.Trouble on the surface and even deeper currents beneath.”

“The feeling of relinquishing responsibility to someone else, letting him take control, was a relief beyond words.”

“I loved him so much, loved his fearlessness, his strength, even the ambition that would someday take him away from me.”

“Miss Marva's driving technique was at best creative, and at worst she was an accident waiting to happen.”

“As with so many other aspects of our lives, we were never prepared fortrouble.We just tried like hell to get out of the way when it came.”

“If I never have anything from him except this one moment I am going to take it. Take it now, or drown in regret later.”

“I crossed the invisible barrier between us.”

“And you're not the kind of girl I want."Surely he couldn't mean the fact that I was Mexican. From what I knew of Hardy, there wasn't a bit of prejudice in him. He never used racist words, never looked down on someone for things they couldn't help."What kind do you want?" I asked with difficulty."Someone I can leave without looking back.”

“Some questions change everything.”

“Mama said if I didn't stop reading helpful quotes, she was going to come after me with a switch. I said I'd have to help her up from the sofa first.”

“Am I supposed to praise you now?" I asked.He retrieved the ball and dribbled slowly around me. "Yeah, now would be a good time.""That was awesome.”

“As Hardy Cates stood there looking at me, really seeing me for the first time, it felt like the whole world had been snatched up in a great unseen hand, its motion arrested.”

“Pity goes hand in hand with contempt. Don't ever forget that, Liberty. You can't take handouts or help from anyone, because that gives people the right to look down on you.”

“It seemed to be a matter of general agreement that Hardy Cates was born for trouble, and sooner or later he would find it.”

“Being afraid's not always bad." he said gently. "It can keep you moving forward. It can help you get things done."The silence between us was different than any silence I'd known before, full and warm and waiting. "What are you afraid of?" I dared to ask.There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes, as if it were something he'd never been asked before. For a moment I thought he wouldn't answer. But he let out a slow breath, and his gaze left mine to sweep across the trailer park. "Staying here." he finally said. "Staying until I'm not fit to belong anywhere else.""Where do you want to belong?" I half whispered.His expression changed with quicksilver speed, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Anywhere they don't want me.”