Rachel Gibson

“You called him a big dumb dodo?" Caroline asked later that night as the two of them sat on Jane's couch watching the gas fireplace lick the fake logs. "Why didn't you go for broke and call him a poo-poo head too?”

“She took a deep breath and forgot to exhale. She wondered what it would be like if she licked him up one side and down the other."What are you thinking?"She suddenly felt kind of hot and dizzy and accidentally let Layla out."That I want to lick your tattoo," she whispered.”

“»Sjedite li cijeli dan i smišljate načine kako biti naporanili vam je to prirodni refleks? Kao disanje.«”

“Kako je razgovor skrenuo od onoga kada ga je željela poljubiti do ovogasada kada ga želi nečime zveknuti u glavu?I zašto nije bila ni najmanje iznenađena?”

“Ako i nije bila »mentalno zaostala« bila je luda stoposto. Ili još gore, jedna od onih vječito veselih žena.”

“Ne možeš kontrolirati to tko ce te privuci. A ne možeš nikontrolirati koga tvoje srce želi.«”

“Ova je vezaosuðena na to da završi slomljenim srcem, ali možda,bude li oprezna, možda joj nece ukrasti cijelo srce. Bude lipazila, možda uspije sacuvati barem komadic.”

“»Pratite me do sobe?« upitala je i ne pokušavajuciprikriti razdražljivost.»Da.« Ali ni on nije zvucao sretno zbog toga.»Zašto? Ne morate me pratiti do sobe.«»Ja sam drag momak.«Trpko se nasmijala i pogledala ga krajickom oka.»Ako to stvarno mislite, gadno se varate. Možda su vaspreviše puta udarili u glavu.«”

“»Možete nešto željeti, gospodo Duffy, ali to ne znacida cete to i dobiti. Nešto silno željeti nekada jednostavnonije dovoljno.«”

“Sam LeClaire was a good-looking son of a bitch.”

“She’d always assumed that falling in love would be like getting slammed into a brick wall. That you’d just be going along as usual and you’d get knocked on your ass and think, Gee, I guess I’m in love. But it hadn’t happened that way. It had just kind of snuck up on her before she’d realized it. It had happened one smile and one touch at a time. One look. One kiss. One pink cat collar. One pinch to the heart and one breathless anticipation after another until she was in so deep there was no denying it. No turning back before it was too late. No more lying about what she felt.”

“He was the kind of guy who made Sadie a lit­tle un­com­fort­able. The kind who wore leather and drank beer and crushed emp­ties on their fore­heads. The kind who made her stand a lit­tle straighter. The kind she avoided like a hot fudge brownie be­cause both were bad news for her thighs.”

“Sometimes a person needs to hear you forgive them so they can start to forgive themselves.”

“When you lock everything down tight so that the pain can't get out, you also keep good stuff from getting in.”

“Anyone can get a degree or a certificate in something. Big deal. A piece of paper from a university somewhere doesn't define a person. It won't tell you who I am.”

“Sometimes you have to wander around until you find where you really belong. And sometimes it's right where you started.”

“If you want to cry go ahead. Son, there are just some time in a man's life when he has to let it out.”

“I only know that you are the breath in my lungs, the beat of my heart, the ache in my soul, and without you, I am empty.”

“I'm thirty-six, and I'm in love for the first time. I don't know what that says about me. Maybe that I've waited for you all my life.”

“I don't ever want to be the reason you cry again.”

“Stay away from me so I don't feel anything for you anymore.”

“I want you," he whispered. "I've never wanted anything like I want you.”

“Hooyah.”

“Shut up, Nick." She yanked the boa free."You were only out to humiliate me." "Bullshit." "You used me to get back at Henry."He rocked back on his heels and his gaze narrowed. "I never used you. I told you not to worry and that I'd take care of you, but you looked at me like I was some kind of rapist and left with Henry.”

“No, you love to confuse me and drive me crazy. You don't really love me. You don't know what love is." "Yeah, I think I do." His brows lowered, and he took a step toward her. "I have loved you my whole life, Delaney. I can't remember a day when I didn't love you. I loved you the day I practically knocked you out with a snowball. I loved you when I flattened the tires on your bike so I could walk you home. I loved you when I saw you hiding behind the sunglasses at the Value Rite, and I loved you when you loved that loser son of a bitch Tommy Markham. I never forgot the smell of your hair or the texture of your skin the night I laid you on the hood of my car at Angel Beach. So don't tell me I don't love you. Don't tell me--" His voice shook and he pointed a finger at her. "Just don't tell me that.”

“Stay away from me, Nick." She held out a hand to hold him off. He grabbed her arm and pulled her against his chest. "I can't," he said softly.”

“Delaney." "What?" She stuck her key on the lock, then paused with her hand on the doorknob. "I lied to you yesterday." She looked over her shoulder, but she couldn't see him. "When?" "When I said you could have been anyone. I would know you with my eyes closed." His deep voice carried across the darkness more intimate than a whisper when he added, "I would know you, Delaney." Then the squeak of hinges followed by the click of a dead bolt and Delaney knew he was gone.”

“You're beautiful, Delaney, and you could have anyone you want. Why me?" She knew she wasn't beautiful, not like her mother. But the way he looked at her and touched her, and the tone of his voice when he said it made her almost believe him. He made her believe anything was possible. "Because you make me not want to say no.”

“I'm here because you're here. When a man loves a woman, he wants to spend time with her. Even if that means he has to put on a suit and tie. He wants to hold her tight and smell her hair.”

“I want to tell you something." He placed her palm against her cheek, rough with stubble. "In my life, I've been with women I didn't care about and women I cared a great deal about. But I've never been with a woman who makes me feel the way you do." He lowered his head and whispered against her lips, "Sometimes when I look at you, it's hard to breath. When you touch me, I don't care about breathing." He kissed her slow and sweet, and with each press of his lips and touch of his tongue, her heart swelled and ached. It was wonderful and awful and brand-new. Then he pulled back to say, "I don't know how this is all going to work out, but I want to be with you. You are important to me.”

“What can I give you? I get a handsome guy who does look good in the morning, and I get a great ring. What do you get?”“The only thing I’ve ever wanted.” He held her tight and smiled. “I get you, wild thing.”

“He’d been thinking about a lot of things lately, things that would never happen, things it was best not to think about. Things like waking up with Delaney every morning for the rest of his life and watching her hair turn gray.”

“Are you trying to tell me—in your own typically macho way—that you want to make love again?” He glanced at her. “I’m not trying to tell you anything. I want you. You want me. Someone is going to end up wearing nothing but a satisfied smile on her lips.” “I don’t know, Nick, I might talk afterward. Do you think you can handle it?” “I can handle anything you can think up, and a few things you’ve probably never even thought of.” “Do I have a choice?” “Sure, wild thing. I have four bedrooms. You can choose which one we use first.”

“You’re beautiful.” His words warmed her skin and tugged at her heart, and this time she believed he meant what he said. He rested his forehead against her, his dark hair in stark contrast to her white flesh. “I knew you would be. I’ve always known. Always.”

“I'm not ashamed of wanting you. And yes, I've missed touching you, and holding you, and I want that again. But that isn't all I've missed about you since you left town." He placed his palms on the sides of her face, bringing her gaze back to his. "I've missed the way you glance around when you think your karma is going to zap you. I miss watching you walk and the way you push your hair behind your ears. I miss the sound of your voice, and that you try to be a vegetarian and can't. I miss that you believe you're a pacifist even as you shock me on the arm. I've missed everything about you, Gabrielle.”

“He reached out and grasped her arm. "Please don't walk away from me again. I know I hurt you the night you told me you loved me and I walked away, but Gabrielle, you've walked away from me twice now.”

“Standing so close, he realized how much he missed her, but looking into her cold, indifferent gaze, he realized something else; it just might be too late.”

“You don't look at Ann the way you looked at her." "How's that?" "Like you could look at her for the rest of your life.”

“He looked into her face and tossed her sweater on the floor. "I thank God you walked out of my memory and into my life.”

“He lowered his face to hers and spoke against her mouth. "I don't want to imagine you not in my life.”

“I always regretted how much I hurt you.”

“He lifted his gaze to hers. "I have a lot of other things I should be doing, but I'm here." He stared into her eyes for several heartbeats before he returned his attention to the big box. "I've tried to stay away. After you threw me out of the house, I thought it was probably for the best. You're a distraction, and I don't need a distraction right now." He handed the screwdriver back to her and ripped the box open with his big hands. "I've got tapes I need to review, and plays I need to go over in my head before today's practice, yet here I am. Putting baby furniture together for you because I can't get you out of my head. I plug in a tape, and all I do is think about you." He peeled back the cardboard and reached for the instruction sheet that had fallen to the floor. "But the thing is, Adele, I'm not really sure whether you want me to be here or not." His polo shirt pulled out of the waistband of his Levi's and slid up the tan muscles of his back. He straightened and looked at her over the top of the instructions. "I don't know what you want.”

“He lifted his face and came up for air. "I couldn't stay away.”

“His hand fell to his side. "Honey, come here." She shook her head and took another step backward. "I don't trust you." "Baby, you don't trust yourself.”

“I'm beginning to think I need you like I need oxygen”

“So tell me honey," he said just above a whisper, "what's got your beautiful eyes so sad?”

“When I'm with you, I feel a kind of calm I've never felt in my life. I'm tangled up in you and you're tangled up in me and it feels right. Like it was meant to be. I love you, Maddie, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to say it to you again.”

“Since I moved back to Truly," he said, "I've felt as if I were standing in one place, unable to move. But I wasn't standing still. I was waiting. I think I was waiting for you.”

“I've thought about what I've done since I moved to Truly, and I'm sorry that I hurt you, Mick. But I'm not sorry that I met you and fell in love with you. Loving you has broken my heart and caused me pain, but it made me a better person. I love you, Mick, and I hope that someday you find someone you can love. You deserve more in life than a string of women you don't really care about and who don't care all that much for you. Loving you taught me that. It taught me how it feels to love a man, and I hope that someday I can find someone who will love me the way that you can't. Because I deserve more that a string of men who don't really care about me.”

“Why did I ever think I would get enough of you?”