This Could Be Us (Skyland, #2)

by Kennedy Ryan

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” —Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“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

All loves aren’t created equal. Some spring from the earth and wrap around and twine through our souls like vines. Some are plants that start with tiny seeds in your heart and blossom over time, nurtured by years and commitment.

There aren’t enough sonnets for friendship. Not enough songs for the kind of love not born of blood or body but of time and care. They are the ones we choose to

laugh and cry and live with. When lovers come and go, friends are the ones who remain. We are each other’s constants.

“You accept a man shitting on you,” she used to say, “he’ll make himself at home. There’s no three strikes. You use me, take me for granted, you prove you don’t deserve to be in my life.”

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