“You want to know my sweet?" I ask her.She nods.I kiss her on the forehead. "You. Always you.”

“I brush her hair out of her eyes and run my finger along the edge of her face. "I love you, Lake.""Say it again," she says.I kiss her forehead and repeat what I said. "I love you, Lake.""One more time.""I." I kiss her lips. "And love." I kiss them again. "And you.""I love you, too.”

“I press my forehead against hers. "I'm so glad you showed up," I whisper. "You changed my life forever that night.”

“Sky, I'm not kissing you tonight but believe me when I tell you, I've never wanted to kiss a girl more. So stop thinking I'm not attracted to you because you have no idea just how much I am. You can hold my hand, you can run your fingers through my hair, you can straddle me while I feed you spaghetti, but you are not getting kissed tonight. And probably not tomorrow, either. I need this. I need to know for sure that you're feeling every single thing that I'm feeling the moment my lips touch yours. Because I want your first kiss to be the best first kiss in the history of first kisses.”

“Aren't you in my Science class?" Shayna/Shayla asks."English," I correct her.She shoots me a condescending look. "I did speak English," she says defensively. "I said, 'aren't you in my Science class?'"Oh, holy hell. Maybe I don't want to be that blonde. "No," I say. "I meant English as in 'I'm not in your Science class, I'm in your English class'.”

“When I touch you, I’m touching you because I want to make you happy. When I kiss you, I’m kissing you because you have the most incredible mouth I’ve ever seen and you know I can’t not kiss it. And when I make love to you—I’m doing exactly that. I’m making love to you because I’m in love with you.”

“Thank you for giving me the courage to always ask the questions, even when I don't want the answers.”