Beard Science (Winston Brothers, #3)

by Penny Reid

“What about my hair?” Unbidden, my attention moved to his hair. His crazy, long, clean but untamed hair. I love your hair. “What about your hair?” “My hair is ridiculous. It’s been misbehaving since birth.”

‘I was so poor, I couldn't even pay attention.’”

‘trash is just trash and should be left at the side of the road.’

‘Being quiet can be louder than shouting.’”

‘Old things have soul.’ Then to me she’d add on a whisper, ‘And young things have spirit.’”

I’d been ignoring myself. I’d been ignoring my own wishes and hopes. So instead, I decided to feel motivated, determined, ready, and . . . excited. I was excited, ready to find my spirit.

no matter what I did. I could never satisfy her and I was no longer satisfied with always doing as she liked.

“When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.” George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah

Lol I like how he noticed Jennifer likes Cletus and Cletus is being jealous of him (Billy). He knows this and is making fun of Cletus.

if you don't want someone to get your goat, don't let them know where it's tied.”

He said the cut would bring all the girls to my yard. This was doubtful. First of all, I didn’t want girls in my yard. I didn’t want anyone in my yard. My yard was fine just as it was: self-maintained.

Bullshit was the adult version of Santa Claus. For reasons I’ll never comprehend, the general population seemed to enjoy wallowing, spouting, and believing in bullshit.

If you’re after a life-long baking partner, avoid indiscriminate bakers. And if you take on a reformed, previously indiscriminate baker, make sure he’s had his kitchen thoroughly inspected by the health department.”

I had nothing against shy, blushing virgins. I just didn’t want to have sex with them. Because sex with an inexperienced woman was decidedly vanilla. I didn’t much like vanilla, or missionary, or doing it with the lights off. I didn’t want a woman who was reticent about her body, who tried to hide it with sheets and darkness. I liked flavor and well-lit rooms, where I could admire everything that made a woman’s form different from a man’s. I liked a variety of positions and a woman with stamina, who knew how to use my body to make hers come and approached sex with enthusiasm, not trepidation. I wanted a woman who knew she liked sex, not one who hadn’t made her mind up due to lack of experience.

“Let's clear one thing up: Introverts do not hate small talk because we dislike people. We hate small talk because we hate the barrier it creates between people.” Laurie Helgoe, Introvert Power

“What are you doing, Jennifer Sylvester?” I asked myself out loud as I pulled into the parking lot of the Winston Brothers Auto Shop. “You’ve obviously lost your mind.” I had definitely lost my mind. I was blackmailing him to help me find a husband. But recently, when I thought about him, when I thought back on our stolen moments together and my heart became too full for my chest, part of me—clearly the very wrong in the head part of me—wondered if I should just blackmail him into marrying me instead. See? I’d lost my mind. I’d lost it the moment I stepped forward, bent into his car, and placed that kiss on his cheek ten days ago.

Saying someone would make a great politician is like saying someone would make a great serial killer. It’s not a compliment.”

That’s what I want. I know it’s not progressive, or flashy, and I know people don’t place much importance on that stuff anymore, just like people don’t put much importance on humility and kindness, forgiveness and compassion. But those things are important to me.

Error, additional ‘this’ not erased.

I’m a firm believer that if a person needs a hug, you give that person a hug.

“The truth can be like people,” he repeated. “How so?” “Sometimes,” the side of his mouth tugged upward with a humorless smile, “it’s real ugly.”

“So you can torture him about it?” He pretended to be shocked by my accusation. “Certainly not. I don’t torture my siblings.” “Yeah, right.” I gave him my side-eye. “You forget, I’m a people watcher. I know you sell embarrassing pictures of them on stock photo sites. Jethro was griping about it after church over the summer. If it’s not torture, what do you call it then?” He lifted his chin proudly. “I offer invaluable character building opportunities. I help them reach their true potential through suffering.”

I didn’t want to kiss Cletus. Not if it didn’t mean something to him. Because it would mean something to me.

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?” Benjamin Franklin

Rainy days are my favorite because hot food tastes best on a cold rainy day.

Sooner or later a girl with a mind to marry has to figure things out. Ignorance didn’t feel much like bliss these days.

Desperation is a great motivator.”

Was I doomed to go through life developing an affection for every new person I spoke to for longer than an hour?

Even on stage, Cletus seemed determined to hide from the spotlight, to conceal his amazing. This comprehension left me agitated. He was remarkable, and yet he was determined people think of him as mediocre.

“I know ignorance is supposed to be bliss, but it’s feeling more and more like a cage these days.”

It’s the person, not the technique, that makes it worthwhile.”

“When you’re certain, when it’s the heart and mind you’re after, then you lay it all out. But if it’s empty, just physical, then there’s nothing to say.”

And when you’re being evasive, it means you don’t want to talk about something. And when you don’t want to talk about something, it usually means that something is really interesting.” I nodded somberly. “What a fascinating theory.”

Give a man a fish and you’ve fed him for a day, but—” “Give a woman a vibrator, and she’ll orgasm for life.

Forget whether or not Jennifer could handle the introduction of a vibrator. The real question was, could I?

I hated being early. It was like having to wait for the same thing twice.

“Love at the lips was touch As sweet as I could bear; And once that seemed too much; I lived on air” Robert Frost

I wasn’t going to be another person she trusted who took without asking, who made her decisions and perpetuated the vacuum of ignorance.

I’d like to try flying on my own before I look for a new cage.”

For the first time in a long time, I second-guessed myself.

Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Whoever said that was a damn fool. Absence makes the heart suicidal.

I wanted predictable, and she’d never ceased to surprise me. Together we would not be perfectly pragmatic. We would be impressively impractical.

‘Best to leave farts and the past behind you.’”

“Cletus—” “I know what you’re going to say.” “Then we can skip it and you can admit you’re wrong.” “I can’t admit I’m wrong about two things in the same day.” I brought my attention back to him, found him smirking at me. “It might bring about the apocalypse.” “Then admit it tomorrow.”

I missed Cletus and I didn’t know how to stop missing him.

“I’m not sorry I don’t like being the Banana Cake Queen. I feel like I’m a character in the theme park of my life, and it’s a lonely place to be. That’s the truth and you wanted to know.”

Maybe I cried because I wasn’t what my momma wanted, and I wasn’t what Cletus wanted. Maybe I cried because I didn’t know who I was or what I really wanted.

For Cletus, it had been tutoring. He’d been helping me practice. Poor, ignorant, inexperienced Jennifer Sylvester. I didn’t want his help. I wanted . . . Well, I wanted him. And I wanted him to want me. Me. Just as I was. I wanted us to be equals.

I wasn’t going to be helpless. Not anymore. I was taking control. I was going to figure things out, for myself, by myself. If I’d learned anything in the last few months, it was that I couldn’t live my life to make other people happy. So I was going to start there. I needed to be true to myself. By God, I was going to be true to myself!

she shouldn’t be hidden. You don’t hide something that remarkable away from the world,