More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
I just sat there, hands on the steering wheel, eyes on my passenger seat, and heart somewhere down the road with a girl who didn’t even realize she had it.
Noah and I were friends. No lines had been crossed. Everything was fine.
There isn’t a man alive who could be loved by you and not kick himself every single day for fucking it up.”
“You are, without a doubt, the most caring, loving, passionate, intelligent, and classy woman I have ever met. You walk with a confidence unparalleled by anyone in this town, and you give without ever expecting anything in return, and you’re brave.” I shook my head. “You are so fucking brave.”
“That’s not what makes you the woman you are. You are more than your eyes, and your hair, and your strawberry smoothie lips and long, lean legs. You’re not meant to be a puppet in some man’s sideshow, Ruby Grace. You’re meant to be his entire world.”
“I love the way you see me,”
Kissing Ruby Grace wasn’t like kissing a normal girl. It was like kissing royalty, like kissing a goddess, like being hand-picked by the heavens to surrender your heart forever in exchange for just one, tender, earth-shattering moment.
The ring on her finger didn’t matter anymore. She was mine. And I was hers.
I didn’t realize how much a kiss could feel like a vacation. I didn’t realize how much a person could feel like home.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long,” he breathed against my lips, breaking contact just long enough to whisper the words before his mouth claimed mine again. “And
“God, Ruby Grace,” he whispered, shaking his head. “What are you doing to me? I feel like I’m under your spell.”
I’d never felt so cherished, so worshipped.
Nothing mattered. Nothing but this man and this moment.
I’d sleep, and maybe — just maybe — I’d wake on a day where I got to keep him forever.
She was dreaming. I hoped it was of me.
It was deeper than sex. Now that I’d had her, I knew I couldn’t live in a world where I didn’t. I wanted to let her in, let her see all of me, and I wanted to see all of her, in return.
“Whatcha thinking about, Noah Becker?” “Just you, Ruby Grace,”
“You aren’t the first girl to come into my life, Ruby Grace, but you are the first girl to come into my life and leave a mark.” I swallowed, searching her eyes with mine. “I’ve never experienced this kind of… feeling. It’s selfless. I can’t stop thinking about you, about all that you are, all that you will be. My thoughts are consumed with the way you make me feel, with the sound of your laugh, with the colors of your eyes, with the passion flowing from your heart for everyone you care about.”
“I thought it was impossible to ever make you mine… truly mine. And I would have settled on being your friend if I had to, but God, I’m so glad I don’t have to.”
Here he was, the man I’d always dreamed of, showing me the kind of love I’d wanted all my life — the kind of love my fiancé would never give me.
It didn’t matter why she’d run from me, or why she was still marrying Anthony. All that mattered was that she did. And she was.
That was a brother’s love. It was resilient, and always there — even when we didn’t deserve it.
I had to let Ruby Grace go. Now, I only had to figure out how.
isn’t that the best part of being young? The possibilities are endless, the paths limitless, and you have so many different directions you can walk.”
“You just have to decide if you want to walk the path of least resistance, the one where you are merely another traveler on the road. Or, if you want to forge a new path with those scissors, bit by bit, limb by limb, and discover something you never could have imagined.”
Should you give to the ones you love? Absolutely. But should you lose yourself in order to better their lives at the expense of your own? Never.”
“But you can’t steal something that’s already yours.”
“Bonnie and Clyde,” I whispered. “Except a way better ending,”
“Because you’re making one of my dreams come true,” she whispered.
When you hear the word Tennessee, what do you think of?
But after that summer, Tennessee only conjured up one thing in my mind. A girl. No, a woman.
“You’re ridiculous.” “And you’re amazing.”
I cried because I was thankful. I was thankful I could finally show her what I’d wanted to all along
