More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The past isn't something you run from; it's something you walk slowly past, taking pictures, making memories. You learn from the bad times and treasure the good ones, but you leave that view firmly entrenched in the rearview mirror. All I want to see out the windshield is my future.
“Don't explain or apologize. The human experience belongs to all of us. As soon as those words left my mouth, they became yours. However you need to deal with it, do it. Draw it. Paint it. Put it in a gallery.”
Muse
I miss Chloe; I'm afraid of my parents; I have a fiancée; I'm in love with Lilith; I might be in love with Ransom. I'm a fucking mess.
Paxton
taking Lilith's hand. Her fingers curl through mine, her hand just the right size to fit inside of my own. It's like we were made to be together.
Paxton
“You'll get through this. It might be like walking through fire; it might fucking burn. But once you get to the other side, the ashes of your past will fall away and you'll be cleansed, ready to start fresh.”
It's no big wonder why this band has seen so much success; it's not just their music that attracts the crowds. It's the guys themselves. And they all belong to me.
“Just a man in love,” he says, making my heart stutter, stop, start up again. “I love you, Miss Lilith Tempest Goode.”
Pax
Slowly, slowly, slowly our little group is healing together, one scar, one wound, one bloody broken heart at a time.
Romance really is in the little things. It's the way he smiles at me, the way he says he'll watch movies that I know he's going to hate, the way he takes my purse from me and slings it over his own shoulder—even though he's a fucking rockstar and he looks ridiculous with a black sequined purse dangling off his tattooed arm.
“Lilith, I want this, too,” he promises. “Well, I mean, I won't lie and say there aren't moments that I wish I had you to myself, but fuck, I want you. I want Pax and Ran to … do whatever Pax and Ran want to do with each other. I want Cope and Muse to be happy. So if this is what it takes, this is what I'm signing up for. I just wanted to hear what you'd say if I asked.”
Michael
Ten seconds in, Michael joins me with his guitar, blending into the shadowed beauty of my Fender Precision like the two instruments were made to meet, fall in love, fuck each other's brains out in the quiet evening dark.
Ransom
Lilith smiles and leans toward Pax, keeping hold of my hand as he drags her in for a kiss that's about two steps above the erotic level of the one I just laid on her. Figures. We might be friends … or lovers or something, but that rivalry still has a ways to go before it's dead and buried.
Ransom about Pax
“Skin like starlight, floral lips,” I start as she locks her ankles behind my back and tears at the button on my jeans. “Hair like rubies, eyes like emeralds.”
Ran
“Do you have trouble with the truth?” I tease as she kisses me like I'm the only man in her life, the only one that matters. It doesn't bother me that I have to share her, but it does feel nice to know I'm fucking wanted by this woman, this old Hollywood goddess, all plump flesh and curves in my arms.
Ran
She knew how she felt about him; nothing could change that. But the world was cruel, and the world was awful, and all she wanted was to make things easier for him, better. No, it didn't matter what anyone else thought about them, not really, but if she could ease his torment just a little, why not play along?
This girl, she's the one who's going to help me get my feet—and stay on them.
Muse
Cope makes me feel like one simple touch from him can spirit all my worries away. Honestly, being wrapped in his arms is as close as I think I'll ever get to being worry-free in this lifetime.
I'm ready to see what real life is like with these guys, what trips to the grocery store or the movies or the bowling alley will feel like. I want them to help me plant flowers in my yard and stay over at my place, pick up Chinese food on their way over and talk absently about what our future might hold. I want to have five babies—one of each of theirs—and I want to raise them together in a place that's as bright and cheerful and welcoming as my childhood home was.
I knew it. I fucking knew it. Those eyes, they see so much more than what's on the surface, digging deep, tearing me apart with each blink of those long lashes. They're not just windows to the soul, but doors, open and asking me to step inside, to see inside of her soul the same way she's seen into mine. Without knowing it, I lift my hand and sign my own soul away, promising myself to a woman I've known less than a month.
“I am in love with you, Lily,” I say finally, and I wonder why the fuck I didn't just say it sooner.
Obviously, ours are a little different considering the nature of our relationship, but they're there. For example, it's just assumed by everyone (including me, unfortunately) that Muse will pick up the room if it gets dirty. Or how everyone just naturally makes sure that Ransom has a person on either side of him before he falls asleep, just in case he has one of his nightmares. These sorts of little habits develop between the six of us as easily as breathing, making me curious to see if they're any different in a real life scenario than they are in a posh hotel room in Tokyo, Japan.
“No, our love is like a fairytale. It has a beginning, a middle, and a happily ever after, but it doesn't have an end. You can always add new chapters.”
My happy ending is rending my heart; I don't want it to end. Take me back, back, back to the beginning again. Don't fret; turn the page. Because my smile and your heart, they'll be dancing there together until the happy end, so long that it becomes our beautiful beginning all over again.
