Message in a Bottle

by Nicholas Sparks

Like all bottles, it was fragile and would break if dropped a few feet from the ground. But when sealed properly and sent to sea, as this one was, it became one of the most seaworthy objects known to man. It could float safely through hurricanes or tropical storms, it could bob atop the most dangerous of riptides.

The breach of trust was irreparable.

one look was all it took for her to know she wanted to be with him.

but most of all she missed the intimacy that came from holding and whispering to another behind closed doors.

She still dreamed about falling in love with someone, of having someone take her in his arms and make her feel she was the only one who mattered.

But it was hard, if not impossible, to meet someone decent these days.

She admitted that she also missed the physical intimacy that came from loving and trusting and holding someone else.

finding someone to sleep with was never difficult for an attractive woman—but that simply wasn’t her style.

Sex was too important, too special, to be shared with just anyone.

She didn’t want to add to the list simply for the sake of a few minutes of pleasure.

I am here to love you, to hold you in my arms, to protect you. I am here to learn from you and to receive your love in return. I am here because there is no other place to be.

know that somehow, every step I took since the moment I could walk was a step toward finding you. We were destined to be together.

But now, alone in my house, I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him,

I find myself wondering why—out of all the people in all the world I could ever have loved—I had to fall in love with s...

As a girl, she had come to believe in the ideal man— the prince or knight of her childhood stories. In the real world, however, men like that simply didn’t exist.

Real people had real agendas, real demands, real expectations about how other people should behave.

if you discovered something that made you tighten inside, you had better try to learn more about it. If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out you were wrong in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been.

My search for you is a never-ending quest that is doomed to fail.

don’t know whether I’ll ever get used to being without her.”

Theresa wasn’t just a stranger anymore, nor was she just a friend.

First, why was he so attracted to Theresa? And second, why did he suddenly feel as if he were betraying Catherine?

David hurt me pretty badly, and it took me a couple of years and more than a few sessions with a good therapist to get to this point.

the way he was looking at her now—she couldn’t imagine anything better than what was happening at this very moment.

Waves rolled up on the beach, wetting their feet. The warm summer breeze blew through her hair, heightening the sensation of his touch. The moonlight lent an ethereal sheen to the water, while the clouds cast shadows along the beach, making the landscape seem almost unreal.

She sank into him, feeling the warmth of his body, and he released her hand. Then, slowly wrapping both arms around her, he drew her against him and kissed her softly on the lips.

They stood with their arms around each other, kissing in the moonlight for a long time, neither of them caring if anyone could see them.

there are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore. You, my darling, are the wind that I did not anticipate, the wind that has gusted more strongly than I ever imagined possible. You are my destiny.

I was a fool to ignore my destiny, but even fools have feelings, and I’ve come to realize that you are the most important thing that I have in this world.

Like a man who gazes only backward on a trip across the country, I ignored what lay ahead. I missed the beauty of a coming sunrise, the wonder of anticipation that makes life worthwhile.

For the first few days after you left, I wanted to believe that I could go on as I always had. But I couldn’t. Every time I watched the sun go down, I thought of you. Every time I walked by the phone, I yearned to call. Even when I went sailing, I could only think of you and the wonderful times we had. I knew in my heart that my life would never be the same again.