Rush (Rush, #1)

by Emma Scott

It’s amazing how you can feel so lonely without ever being alone.

“There are times in this life in which we must do what is best, and so often what is best is not what is easy.”

An ache clenched my heart so hard I nearly gasped. Companionship. Someone in my space, touching me, talking to me, just sitting next to me and sharing a meal, as if I were whole.

Because only when you’re about to lose it all, do you realize how much you have.”

My endless black was never going to go away. That was certainty. But kissing Charlotte had been a burst of light streaking across it, like a comet.

“Until you, I was lost. Sometimes, you’re the only thing that ever feels real to me.”

She made no distinction between scarred flesh and whole. It was just me that she wanted, as I was, and who is ever lucky enough to feel that in this world?

We’re all finding a way to move on, I thought after we’d hung up. And moving on, I realized, wasn’t the same as forgetting or even letting go. It was making a tentative peace with tragedy, and doing the best we could forever after.

“A last wish I’m afraid won’t ever fade. I’ve made peace with my blindness but if I could see just once more—just one thing in this world—it would be you. I would only need a second. One second, and I would hold the image of you in my heart forever.”

Love, real love, wasn’t empty, grasping hands, or lies that felt like truths. And it wasn’t perfect or neat or always easy. It was a rising sun on a new day. It was endless possibility.