Stepbrother Dearest

by Penelope Ward

“I know that despite my warning, you gave me a piece of your heart anyway last night. And even though I tried to stop it, I gave you a piece of mine. I know you could feel that happening this morning. I want you to keep it with you tucked away. And when you decide to give the rest of yours to another guy someday, please make sure it’s someone who deserves you.”

My other boyfriends were nice guys, but they were average Joes. And it was sad, but I preferred to be alone than to give myself to someone with whom there was no spark. I hoped that someday I would have real chemistry again with someone.

The “one that got away” was supposed to stay away, not come back and leave you all over again.

“The trick is to force yourself to open it even though it’s broken. A broken heart is still a beating one. And there are many men who I’m sure would like an opportunity to try to fix yours if you’d let them.”

The heartbeat is the purest form of honesty.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom where I promptly picked my kindle up again. Don’t judge.

was admitting that I couldn’t possibly fully love her if my heart beat faster for someone else.”

“My heart hasn’t shut up since it spotted you standing in that garden. I finally listened. It just took some time to clear my head enough to really understand what it wanted.”

It’s funny how you can spend your entire life wondering if there’s a God until suddenly in a time of crisis, you’re begging Him for help as if you’d never doubted He existed.

Looking down at his little face made me truly realize that everything I’d been through in life was supposed to happen exactly as it had. It couldn’t have transpired any other way if it meant that this little person never came to be.

My Ezekiel 🥺🩷🩷