“Each time I did something to push him away, I was terrified it would work.”

“Something in me, in my bruised heart, wakes up, and even though I'm terrified, I don't push the feeling away.”

“Any thoughts of being with Parker were long gone, and I knew it was because of my feelings for Travis. I thought about the different paths my life would take from that moment—trusting Travis with a leap of faith and risking the unknown, or pushing him away and knowing exactly where I would end up, which included a life without him—either decision terrified me.”

“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 to tell him that deep down each time Hannah looked at him she was grateful it was him because Jude did something that the others didn't. He came back for her.”

“Times like this it did seem real I was leaving, and even more that my family, and this life, would go on without me. And again I felt that emptiness rise up, but pushed it away. Still, I lingered there, in the doorway, memorizing the noise. The moment. Tucking it away out of sight, to be remembered when I needed it most.”