Crazy (The Gibson Boys, #4)

by Adriana Locke

“You don’t have to take the gas out of your tank to fill everyone else up. You’re allowed to keep some of your energy and spirit for yourself.”

“I think every firecracker needs someone to light their fuse for them to really glow.”

“If you love someone, you can’t live without them. That’s what they say, anyway. That’s what I told myself when Charlie left me. He loved her first, and that’s where his love was always rooted. I can’t fight that. True love always … finds a way.”

“Love should be based on mutual respect. A healthy love, anyway,” I say, thinking as I go. “I’m not sure you can be in love with someone who doesn’t open themselves up to you in the same way. Maybe you can love them, but not be in love with them. Those are two different things.”

My chest rises and falls as I think about her. She’s dangerous. I feel the fire every time I’m around her. It’s like I’ve drunk a fifth of whiskey. My insides are squeamish, my body heated, and all I want to do is enjoy myself. That’s what she feels like. A fifth of whiskey.

“I wish there wasn’t a Molly spell,” I admit. “If there wasn’t, I’d be all over that. He’s … like sunshine. He makes you feel good.”

The guy who’s just a goofball at the end of the day, so nothing really gets to him, right? Wrong. Shit does bother me. I just don’t go telling the world about it.

“You don’t have to earn someone’s love. Their respect? Yes. Their loyalty? Absolutely. But true love comes freely. You can’t stop it or start it. You have no control over it.”

“You can’t start or stop love, honey,” she says. “It’s just there, or it’s not, and it’s present between you and Peck. Everyone can see it. Maybe not you yet because it’s a scary thing to finally see. It took Walker forever.” She laughs. “But you will. You can’t deny it forever.”

“I want to be good enough to be the love of someone’s life. The kind of love you have with the first person you fall for—that unconditional, inexplicable kind of love.”

This is love. It’s the moment when I realize just how bumpy this ride might be. It’s when I accept that I’m all kinds of bruised up, and he has scars deeper than I can see … and I still want to take his hand and navigate the waters with him.