“If you want to stay, I can meet you after the scrimmage. You could come to my house or I could come to yours or we could meet at the library or a coffee shop or..."Stop talking, asshole."Or we could go somewhere with Wi-Fi or somewhere outside or..."Oh my God, I hate myself right now.”

“I looked back just long enough to see Jeanie whisper something in Parker's ear and Parker turn to make a grotesque gesture with his pelvis and his fists. Then he gave me a thumbs-up and a salute.I gave him the finger.And I meant everything that gesture implies, but he only smiled like I'd waved good-bye. That's how these assholes communicated with each other, and I guess I was finally speaking their language.”

“It was one thing to be giving up on myself, but moms were supposed to believe in you to the very end.”

“If you just stop expecting perfection from everyone and everything, you might see the good stuff outweighs the bad. And then someday you'll look in the mirror and see the same thing. Because the person you're most disappointed in is yourself.”

“We could go back to your house. I can stay with you always. We can know each others bodies in every way, night after night. I could love you. I could work, you would not be poor. I would help you.”

“I let her go. She didn't step back. “I need to either get you out of my system so I can go back to my life, or fall in love with you so much it changes my life completely. Ever since I saw you, I wanted you.” My jaw clenched. Did she know how hard that was to admit? “You break all my rules and scare me half to death.”

“His thumb touched her lower lip, his eyes fixed on her. As if he couldn’t be stopped, the words flowed out of his mouth. “I want to take you in my arms, to kiss you long and hard, to touch you like you’ve never been touched, to give you the pleasure I feel running in your veins.”