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September 17 - September 21, 2025
God, she was beautiful. Standing there in the middle of the kitchen, singing the kind of off-key that made your ears bleed. But she was so free while doing it. I should’ve stayed in the doorway longer, really taken in all that was her.
“Thorn. Fits your prickly personality.”
“But we can’t let one bad experience sour the rest of our lives. We can’t let the bad win. Make us stop living. If we lock ourselves down, we don’t just keep out the bad. We keep out the good, too.”
“Why are you putting up with me?”
“Because everything about you screams that you’ve been fighting alone for too damn long, Thorn. You need someone to help carry the weight for a little while. I might not be able to fix everything, but I can help carry the load.”
“Alone isn’t a place. It’s a state of being. And no one can stay that way forever. Every person on this planet needs others. Needs to share their burdens with someone.”
“We all do what we have to do to make it through. I’m never going to judge you for what you need to feel safe.”
“I’m just saying that sometimes you aren’t clear enough because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. It’s better to cause pain in the present to prevent agony in the future.”
“I like you. Even when you were prickly as all hell, I admired it. There’s something real about you. An honesty you don’t see a lot these days. And there’s kindness. You might try to hide it beneath those thorns you love so much, but I’ve seen it. And, somehow, it’s more potent since you’re not using it for show. You’d rather have no one see you extending a hand to someone else. That’s why.”
“You’re worthy, Shepard Colson. You don’t have to fix anything to be that. You don’t have to dig a million trenches or replace feet of corroded piping. You’re worthy just for who you are.”
“I had a relationship turn. Someone who became a person I couldn’t even recognize. It’ll take a while before I’m ready to dip my toe back in that pool.”
“Don’t think I don’t want you there, Thorn. I want you wherever I can get you. Why do you think I’ve been coming to the bakery every day for months? I don’t even like sweets.”
“Doesn’t take a lifetime to see a change in someone. Sometimes, it just takes one honest moment to reach them.”
“If you think for one second I don’t want every part of you, you’re wrong. You think I don’t want to know what it feels like to sink inside you, to bury myself so deep I forget my own name? You’re wrong.”
“Tell me what those pretty little fingers are doing, Thorn.”
“What your fingers wouldn’t.”
“No, you’re fucking not. You own your body, your pleasure. You’re in charge,”
“I love you, too,”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I k...
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“That’s c...
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“Not cocky. You just show me every day.”
“You show me, too. I’ve never really known what it’s like to feel completely safe. Not until I met you. It’s more than the physical safety. It’s feeling safe to be who I truly am. No pretenses. No fear of judgment.”
“Sometimes, I don’t want to be strong. I’m tired, Shep.”
“Then let me take the load for a while.”
