This Could Be Us (Skyland, #2)

by Kennedy Ryan

He can’t always wrap his emotions around things, so he leans more on facts.”

“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love—whether we call it friendship or family or romance—is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light.” —James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

“Instead of thinking so much about Cross riding you, think about how I’ll ride you when we get home.”

when you haven’t fucked your wife in nearly two months, she tends to bring it up every once in a while.”

This is so sad I want better for the homegirls!!!!!!

I have needs, and I’m not embarrassed by how I meet them when you won’t.”

“I love sex, Edward. I always have. You used to like it too.”

I grab my generous ass. A gift from my abuela, it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. It is time-tested and exercise-resistant, and I like it that way.

PERIOD

It’s not just sex Edward has been stingy with lately. It’s attention. Conversation. Interest. All the things I found unexpectedly in a few moments with a stranger, and it feels like the sun on my face after winter. So hard to turn away from that warmth when you’ve stood out in the cold.

everything I’ve heard about him from Edward has been an insult.

“Well, I’m not gonna complain, because of the way Cross was looking at you in that dress.” He chuckles and reaches for a glass of wine from the table. “And then to realize you’re my wife. Priceless.”

Edward, you gotta go. Now lol

He wasn’t my first, but he’s been my last, and I’ve been his. And now I have to beg him to fuck me? Would anyone else even want me? Maybe I’m… maybe I’m not…

😭😭😭😭 Soledad I’m so sorry

Being attracted to a married man when you are a married woman makes things awkward that way.

My spine straightens involuntarily. Amber’s name may always be triggering for me. A side effect of lying awake beside your husband while he says another woman’s name in his sleep.

TV. And, of course, installed his “priceless” collection of Boston Celtics paraphernalia.

the practical task of making a grocery list temporarily distracting me from the disaster of our life.

Real lol

At the time, I tried to imagine Edward writing something like that to me, or even me writing something like that about him. I couldn’t.

😭😭😭 this is so sad

Foot pulled up to rest on the stool, she absently bites her sandwich every few swipes of her screen.

“Not only is he a gringo,” she said, “but a Celtics fan? The fuck outta here. At least you coulda married a cool white guy.”

LMAO please

“For someone who needs to go,” I answer by not answering, “you sure have a lot to say this morning.” “Now that’s the evasive, emotionally avoidant man I know and love.”

I discovered she’s married to the man I was already in the process of bringing down.

She’s stronger than she looks. I bet many underestimate her. I won’t make that mistake.

Whatta man whatta man whatta man whatta night good man

“Your mother favors Lupe over Inez and Lottie because she looks white.”

😭😭

When I walked into the kitchen, she was clutching Bray like he was air and she was suffocating. His hands were everywhere. On her ass, in her hair, which had tumbled down her back, loosened from the neat knot she always kept rolled at her nape. Her glasses lay forgotten on the floor. They made desperate, starved, craving sounds, and I understood that this was not what she had with my father.

😩😩😩

That is one of the parts about being an adult that really sucks. You’re the one who has to be sure or has to figure it out.

Not blissful ignorance.

Shock rolls through me like thunder, and something else. Satisfaction? Pleasure? I’m pleased that she trusts me. I want to be worthy of it.

How the hell do you make a charcuterie this good when your life is falling apart?”

my life is falling apart, yes, but not ruined.”

We’re in a unique time right now.

Going through this is bad enough. Going through it alone? I can’t even imagine.

“It has crossed my mind a time or two hundred since our meeting, yeah.

Hot emotion gathers behind my eyes at his kindness, his care for the girls and me when my own husband hasn’t shown even a measure of it.

Delores insisted anyone who would tell her to her face that her pan sucked would not be in cahoots—her word. I’ve never used the word cahoots in my life—with her husband to steal millions of dollars.”

“Oh, I just bet you would, honey.” Hendrix steps closer

I can’t force myself to look away, and I don’t think he’s even trying. There’s a filament connecting us. It burns hot and bright and is impossible to ignore, but also impossible to pursue. We both know it.

🤤🥵

“Are you always so sure?” I ask, half laughing, half really wanting to know. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so certain.”

*cries in eldest sister*

“Since you don’t want him,” Hendrix says with a smirk, “tell him I like long walks on the beach and my safe word is Popeyes.” Who said I don’t want him?

Oooh honeyyy

A woman who hasn’t been touched with any real passion in months.

My whole life is now DIY… or rather DIM. Do it myself because there’s no one else who will.

Sounds like he’ll

“I am out with lanterns looking for myself.” —Emily Dickinson, personal correspondence

I flush the toilet a few times to camouflage my sniffles and hiccups.

Real

I make a note to connect with more of the Black families there.

I’ve never had it and don’t actually know what it is. But I do like Soledad.

I’d forgotten the hot rush of sensation being around Judah brings,

He’s the kind of man who, with just a

touch of his hand on yours, sends you into fantasies.

I really started feeling like I had bitten off more than I could chew.” “Friends help friends chew.” Yasmen smiles.

It absolutely did, and the thought of Soledad’s lips wrapped around my dick. I just want—

desire for a meaningful, passionate connection with someone doesn’t go away

He doesn’t simply look at me. He takes inventory, slowly considering every detail from