More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
There was also something to be said for not looking at her phone as she walked. If she’d been responding to comments on her post, she might have missed the woman putting fresh fish into the window of her shop, two seagulls fighting over a French fry, a toddler trundling out of a candy shop stuffing saltwater taffy into his mouth. Maybe she should try to put her phone down more often. Or at least take in the real moments when she could.
No sense in fixing something that wasn’t broken,
Hannah laid her head on Piper’s shoulder as they continued to stare down at the man who’d fathered them, his face smiling back from another time.
he wanted to lay her on a silk pillow and do all the work for her, so she wouldn’t have to. He wanted to do the spoiling. Badly.
“Trying to figure out what to do when no one is watching. And wondering if maybe that’s the stuff that actually matters.”
She couldn’t afford to get caught up with the boat captain, even if she missed him. Even if she looked for him around every street corner in Westport, just in case he’d gotten home earlier.
Making her close her eyes, press her forehead to the tile wall, and ask God, very politely, to bring the stubborn man home safely.
“My hugs are your recharging station?”
He learned something about himself in that moment. If this woman tacked the word “please” onto any request, he would find a way to fulfill it. Build me a palace, please. How many floors, baby?
Piper went still on the dance floor, a frown marring her forehead, and, as if she’d finally sensed his presence, turned to look directly at him. And when her face transformed with pure joy and she waved enthusiastically, Brendan knew he loved her.
“You want to dance some more, or can I bring you home?” “Where is home?” “With me.”
“All I’m doing to you tonight is putting you in bed.” “Ooh, do I get to sleep in the recharging station?” His heart was living in his throat. “Yeah, honey. You can sleep in it every night.” She sighed contentedly.
He held her and swayed for a few beats in the darkness, in what he thought might be a silent, mutual apology for shouting at each other on the drive home. And he wanted to do this for the rest of his life. Collect her from a night out with the girls, have her soft and pliant against him, be her man.
“Isn’t that a Tuesday?” “So? What are you, forty?” God. This was her best friend?
If she made a pro/con list of LA versus Westport, Piper loves Brendan would be in the pro-Westport column and that outweighed any con.
But if Brendan had learned one thing as a captain, it was this: Just when it seemed like the storm was beginning to break and daylight spread across the calm waters? That’s when the biggest wave hit. And forgetting that lesson could very well cost him everything.
The last thing she wanted was to be dependent on him. If she stayed in Westport, she needed to make her own way. To be a person independent of their relationship, as well as a member of it.
They’d cooked it three nights in a row, and he didn’t have the heart to tell her he was sick of Italian, because she was so proud of herself for learning to make sauce. He’d eat it for a decade straight as long as she held her breath for the first bite and clapped when he gave her a thumbs-up.
She’d lost her Piper sparkle. It was girl language, and yet, he so thoroughly understood what Hannah meant, because Piper did have a singular sparkle.
who would have coffee with Opal tomorrow? Who would walk Abe to the museum? Those visits made her feel a million times better than the momentary bursts of internet stardom. Because it was just her, living in real moments, not fabricating them for the entertainment of others.
She was trying to get to the most wonderfully real human on earth, and this fake, hurtful man-child was blocking her path. Who did he think he was?
I’ll be your man for a thousand years. Longer if I’m allowed.”
