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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“When men stop assaulting women they meet on the internet, we’ll stop creeping on them to make sure they pass the vibe check. And anyway, if he wanted privacy, his account would be private.”
“I don’t see any red flags here, other than he’s got a J name. J-named men are the worst.
“A date? What happened to George?” “He’s gone, Justin. May God rest his soul.” I blinked at her. “Your boyfriend died?” “He’s dead to me.”
The moment Emma came into view, my entire world slipped into slow motion. My brain took a screenshot. I felt the moment freeze and save. She was beautiful.
I wasn’t standing by my car, waiting for my date. I was in the middle of a road, watching the headlights of a Mack truck coming right at me.
I gave Maddy a wave over Emma’s shoulder and the woman’s smile vanished. Then she dragged a finger across her neck in the universal sign for I’ll kill you. I blinked. Emma saw my face and turned back around to see what I was looking at, and Maddy beamed and waved enthusiastically at her best friend. Okay…
“Why not forgive? In a world where you can choose anger or empathy, always choose empathy, Justin.
Sometimes the best way to show love or be kind to someone is to meet them where they are.”
“You don’t want to do one that’s more fun though? Uno or something?” I arched an eyebrow. “You think we’re ready for Uno? That game has torn entire families apart.”
“Maybe one day. But so far I haven’t found a home I’d want to stay at forever.” “Maybe home isn’t a place. Maybe it’s a person.”
“I do love Trader Joe’s,” I said, smiling at the bag. “Nothing like a grocery store that makes you have to visit another grocery store right after.”
“How the hell do I do this?” I whispered. Brad answered. “You go through it. You can’t go around it, you have to go through it. And we’re here to help you do it.”
Not everything that comes out of crisis is bad. Sometimes your traumas are the reason you know how to help.
“Could be Taco Bell,” Jacob said, giving his wife a playful eyebrow. She gasped and gave him an amused look. “Well, now you have to take me there for dinner. See what you’ve done?”
Justin was on the island. Not the real one. The one in my soul.
“You didn’t leave,” I whispered. “I will never leave you,” he said tiredly. “I mean, unless you tell me to. I’m not a creep.”
“I didn’t want to beg you,” he said. “But I don’t give a shit about my pride anymore. Stay. Please. Just to see what happens. See where it goes. I’ll take anything—a couple of months, a couple of weeks, whatever you’ll give me. Meet me where I am because I can’t go to you. I would if I could. I’d follow you anywhere if I was able to, but I can’t. Please,” he said again. “Stay.”
“Justin, I like you more than I’ve ever liked anyone. And it scares me.” His eyes roamed my face. “I like you more than I’ve ever liked anyone too.” He paused. “I like you more than like.” We held each other’s gaze. “I like you more than like too,” I said quietly.
“Sometimes I feel like the seasons could come and go and come and go, a hundred years could pass, a thousand, the ground could collapse under us, this house could crumble and go back to the earth, and we would still be standing here frozen in time, because every second I’m with you is eternal. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Because when you’re in love, you do hard things.
“You’re not asking too much,” he said. “You were just asking the wrong person. Ask me instead.”
“You are not what happened to you. You are what you do next.”
The best kind of love doesn’t happen on moonlit walks and romantic vacations. It happens in between the folds of everyday life. It’s not grand gestures that show how you feel, it’s all the little secret things you do to make her life better that you never tell her about.
It isn’t glamorous, it isn’t all butterflies and stars in your eyes. It’s real. This is the kind of love that forever is made of. Because if it’s this good when life is draining and mundane and hard, think of how wonderful it will be when the love songs are playing and the moon is out.
I laughed, the tears starting to well again. “Not just for the summer?” “No. Forever this time.”
