More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Not my date. Of course not. Bryce is about as memorable as a crumpled-up gum wrapper shoved in the bottom of my purse.
Why are you settling for crumbs when you deserve the whole damn cake?”
“That’s a really lovely
thought, but sometimes crumbs are all...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
I want to unravel Caleb like one of my apron strings.
“He didn’t kiss her,” my grandmother offers from the stove. “When she wanted to be kissed.”
“Dude.” His eyes are like saucers. “You gotta kiss her when she wants to be kissed.”
You keep showing me pieces of yourself that I want to collect like seashells. I can’t stop thinking about kissing you, and I have no idea how you’d feel about blurring those lines. I don’t want to scare you. I don’t want to get myself in too deep.
“Y yo me voy’a dar un shot por ti, espero que estés bien,” he starts. “Yo he estao con
mile y tú sigue en el top ten.”
“No me lo niegue, baby, que yo también.”
“You deserve good things, sweetheart.” He swallows hard, eyes searching mine.
“Why can’t you see yourself? Why can’t you see how incredible you are?” “Because,” I say, my voice cracking at the edges. “Because no one else has bothered to.”
I see you, Layla Dupree.” He says it so firmly, so resolute, that I can’t help but believe him. “Clear as day. I always have.”
knew Caleb was too good to be true. Is he going to pull out a tiny voodoo doll from the center console of his Jeep? Is he going to tell me he only likes having sex while wearing a full-size mascot costume? Is he a secret furry?
“Please don’t say you’re a furry,” I mutter to myself. His eyebrows collapse in a heavy line. “What?”
“Never mind. Please continue.” “I’m kind of a pushover,” he finally tells me. “I tend to see only the good things and”—his mouth twitches with a small, self-deprecating smile that almost cracks my heart clean in two—“and I gloss over the rest.”
“The point of our arrangement is for us to practice, yeah? We could practice this too. You could tell me what you want.” I swallow. “We could work together to figure out what you need and how you need it.”
“Because I want to watch you come undone,” I tell her, my voice a rough scratch. I look up and make sure I’m holding her eyes. “Because I want to be the one to do it.”
Opening my eyes feels like a monumental effort. “Will you hold my hand?” My voice slurs around the edges. “Yeah, sweetheart. I’ll hold your hand.”
“If I’m going to fuck you, Layla,” the words grind out of him, rough and tight, “it won’t be because of any lessons or arrangements. It’ll be because you want me and I want you.”
“Well, I want you. Do you want me?”
My favorite half smile hitches at the corner of his mouth. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”
She knows who I am. She likes who I am, I repeat like a mantra. Our pieces belong together. This isn’t going to be like every other time.
“That’s the trouble with falling in love. It’s a messy, ungraceful stumble into a whirlwind of chaos. It doesn’t always feel good. It’s a fall.” She pulls out another shortbread cookie, a smile hooking at the side of her mouth. Her eyes are far away, glassy with remembering. I wonder who she’s thinking about with that look on her face. Who she fell with. Who she fell for. “You just have to trust that the person you’re falling with is smart enough to catch you before you hurt anything important.”
“This whole time—I think I’ve been falling in love with you,” she tells me. “I didn’t recognize it because I’ve never felt it before. And when I did, when I realized, I kind of freaked out. I’m still kind of freaking out about it. It turns out the thing I wanted most is pretty scary when it comes down to it. You’re going to have to be patient with me.” “I can do that,” I grit out, voice thick. “I think I’ve been falling in love with you for a while, Layla. One butter croissant at a time.”
