“Maybe it was simply that falling in love wasn’t something Lori would ever be able to turn away from, regardless of just how much pain she knew would be coming down the pike. And maybe, just maybe, as long as she never actually confessed to him how she felt, that would make it okay to give in to what she felt for Grayson for one night, beneath the moon, with the smell of wild grass and the ocean all around them...”

“You never told me how the story ends, Gabe." She held her breath, waiting for his response.His expression held all the love and desire she knew he felt for her."It doesn't.”

“And it was why he loved her. One of the reasons, anyway. Because he also loved her brattycomebacks. He loved the way she put her entire self behind whatever she was doing, even if she had noidea what she was doing and was getting it all wrong. He loved the way she danced as if she wasconnected to the clouds and the sun and the rainbows.And he loved that she’d stormed into his life and turned everything upside down before he ever hada chance to stop her.”

“What if she let falling in love with him be as natural as gravity?”

“Nicola had to move closer to Marcus, had to take his hands in hers and hold them over her heart as though she could give hers up for his if it meant she could take away all of the pain he'd had to deal with at such a terribly young age.”

“Because he finally knew what it felt like to hold sunshine in his hands...and when Lori left, it was going to feel like winter all year round, even on the hottest days of summer.”

“Because if he wasn’t really, really careful, Lori Sullivan was just going to keep stealing his heartone sentence, one meal, one smile at time”