More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I believe in a higher power. Divine intervention. The Universe. Whatever you want to call it.”
“Do I believe that some dude in a white robe is going to smite me because I’m not adhering to the guidelines of an old-ass book? No, not particularly.”
“I believe in those rules, too, Honeysuckle. I just don’t think I need to be God-fearing to follow them. I’m going to be a good person because I want to be, not because anyone else told me I should be.”
I’ve always loved the beauty of the boardwalk at night, but I quickly realize it holds no comparison to the golden girl standing in front of me now.
I’m just showing you a spot I like to come to when the world feels a little too loud. It seems like maybe you need a place like this too.”
I don’t have ghosts, but I have wolves, a commanding presence that controls every aspect of who I am.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Honeysuckle. Nobody loves me. I can only hurt myself.”
Never in her life will she feel the need to do something that makes her unhappy for the approval of me or anyone else.
“I want to bring you with me because you scare my ghosts away, Darby.”
I squeeze her hand four times. I’ll. Keep. You. Safe.
She’s always had the key to my heart. She always fucking will.
“No, Honeysuckle. I’ll do all that just because I like you.”
“I’m here to be whatever you need from me. You want to go home? I’ll take you home, Darby. I’ve got a car. I’ll find a plane. A submarine. I don’t fucking care. Just say the word.”
it’s impossible not to give a piece of yourself away to that other person, a piece of you they keep forever.”
“I haven’t found anyone I want to give a piece of my soul to yet…and I don’t want to take anything from someone else that I’m not willing to give back,”
“Like you’re wondering what a piece of my soul feels like.”
“Just remember, Honeysuckle: if another guy touches you, I’ll remove his arms.”
the feeling that you’ve been longing for something your whole life, and you didn’t know what it was until it was right in front of you. Like you’ve been missing a piece of yourself, but you had no idea what part until you suddenly find it.
My golden girl. God, she is starting to feel that way.
“Don’t ever hide your smiles from me, Honeysuckle. I need to see every single one, especially the ones I put there.”
I move my hand to cup her cheek. “Show me every smile, and I’ll do whatever you want, yeah?”
I’m wrecked. She clears her throat and nods, reaching toward the handle. “Goodnight.” I watch my golden girl step inside alone, shutting the door in my face. I’m obliterated.
He has a tendency to do that, the heathen—completely eclipse my life until nothing of it remains except for him.
Fun and dumb often go hand in hand, and down here is a much better place to be seventeen and stupid than Crestwell, Kansas.”
Fuck is my favorite word. It’s got like…endorphins or something. It’s physically therapeutic to say.”
“Tell me it’s not my fault.”
“It breaks my heart to hear you think that. You don’t want to break my heart, do you, Heathen?” “Never, Honeysuckle,” he whispers.
I missed having someone who could so effortlessly recognize my feelings and thoughts. Opening up to her is as simple as breathing.
“Don’t ever say that again.” “Excuse me?” “That you aren’t brave. Don’t ever say that again.”
“When the divine is trying to intervene, Honeysuckle, I’m going to fucking listen.”
If you want me to take you back to your fiancé and watch you walk down to aisle to him, I’ll hate every fucking second of it, but I’ll do that too.
I’m thankful my lower half is hidden right now.
“Like you’re wondering what a little piece of my soul feels like.”
“Because it’s crazy to me, Honeysuckle, that someone as beautiful and golden and good as you could want someone like me. I couldn’t kiss you until I let you see all of me, all of my past.
You’ve changed me more—made me better—in one month than anyone else in my whole life. You make me feel free. You make me feel beautiful and safe and smart, and that makes me want to kiss you.”
“And I’ve never done this before. So, do you know how hard it is to tell someone that? How good they make you feel and how much it makes you want them and have them turn you down? It’s pretty traumatizing for this being my first experience at…all of this. You tryna traumatize me, Leo? Are you trying to break my heart, Heathen?”
“Dare me again, Honeysuckle,” I whisper. “Dare ya, Heathen,”
She doesn’t just taste like honey. She’s sweeter. Her lips taste like the answer to every question I’ve ever asked. Her lips taste like finding faith, like realizing you believe in God for the very first time. Because how could I not? When she
presses her beautiful body against me and runs her warm, delicate hand down the length of my torso, exploring me—savoring me—how could I not believe that God created her just for me?
“No, baby. That’s something you only find once. Something you’ll only ever know with me.”
“I guess you were worth the wait, then.”
As if I’m not well aware that nothing—no one—has ever come close to her.
me—“I told you not to hide your smiles from me.”
“For what it’s worth, I really did love you,” I whisper. “My word is worthless…but I loved you too.”
pointer and pinky fingers in the air—though his thumb is sticking out too.
“You’re the best kind of bad boy because you’ve got a good soul.”
“I don’t think it matters what promises we do or don’t make on this beach. I’ll be stuck on you, regardless. So, you can go back, and I can stay here, but I’ll still be yours.”
“You’d wait a whole year just for me to come back?”
“I think I might wait my whole life for you to come back, Darby.
Something tells me there would be no point in trying to move on from this, because I’d end up searching for you in every place I go, in every person I meet, ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
