Rustic Hearts (Poplar Falls, #1)

by Amber Kelly

Real love survives time and distance. It doesn’t need to be constantly reassured. It just is.

Falling in love is the easy part, the fun part. It’s staying in love that’s hard.

Grace is forgiving someone even when they don’t ask for it or deserve it. It releases you from the burden of carrying a chain of anger around your neck because carrying that heavy load does more damage to you than it does the person your angry with. It affects you physically and emotionally. It lives in every relationship you have.”

Time is the most valuable thing any of us owns. We can’t hoard it or save it, can’t borrow it from another person, can’t buy it or even pray for more of it.

Yet time is the one thing we waste more of than anything else, and we never even notice. We always think we have more until we don’t. We are even so careless as to wish it away. Wishing for the weekend to hurry up and come or the workday to be over with or the winter months to pass. Never appreciating the moment we have right now and never stopping to truly live it.

Love is defined by choice. If there were only one option, then you are just that—the only option. Choosing to love another person in spite of all the other options available … that’s the part that makes it special. That’s the part that makes it all worth it. I chose her, but she didn’t choose me. That’s our love story in a nutshell.”