“I felt free this time, knowing I had a job and that I wasn't going to be graded. I could simply experiment and create. The thought occurred to me that if I always lived under the certainty of God's provision instead of the certainty of Lexi's worry, I might always feel this free.”

“My mom would never ride an ATV,' he said. 'But you did.''Is that a good thing?' I asked.He traced my lips with his fingertip. 'Yes.'My body melted like a candy bar on the dashboard.”

“If your arteries are good, eat more ice cream. If they are bad, drink more red wine. Proceed thusly.”

“Keeping his fingers locked around her arms, he stared her right in the eye, his chest rising and falling from the jagged force of his breaths. “I want you in a bed, Juliana. I want hours on top of you, under you, beside you. Hell, I want it all. And I want to be able to drift off, knowing that I can roll back over at any time and sink right back into you.” His voice dropped even lower. “So stop arguing and get back on the damn bed.”

“He gave her a quick devastating kiss, then drew back, the look in his eyes making her melt. "You know what I want? I want to enjoy you, Chloe. Everything about you, for the rest of my life. Learn all the miracles that make you who you are. Be your best friend, your lover, your everything. I'll worship you, protect you and love you til the day I die. And then I'll defy whatever higher powers are out there to try and keep me away from you, because I won't even let death come between us.""Wow," she whispered, completely dazzled."And you're going to marry me.""Her eyes went wide, "I am?""Oh, yeah," he breathed out.”

“i'm going to marry you. i thought you'd like to know in case you wanted to buy a dress or something.”

“[Parker] ”We know why I kissed you last night, Maris.”“To frighten me off.”He frowned. “That doesn’t even merit an argument. I kissed you because you braved Terry’s and showed up everybody in the place, including me. I kissed you because just looking at you made me ache. I kissed you because I’m a rotten son of a bitch and your mouth looked so goddamn kissable. Simply put, I kissed you because I wanted to. It’s something I admit and you damn well know. But there is one question that’s driving me fucking crazy.”His eyes focused harder on hers and, by doing so, penetrated. “Why did you kiss me back?”