The Echo of Old Books

by Barbara Davis

People use the word breathtaking—no doubt I’ve used it myself—but it dawns on me as I watch you from behind my watered-down gin and tonic that I’ve never truly grasped the meaning of the word. Until now, that is, when I suddenly find all the air has gone out of the room.

🥹🥹

There are a hundred reasons not to kiss you, a thousand, a million, but I can’t think of any of them as your eyes touch mine.

I was prepared to let you go when I left her this morning. As much for my sake as for yours. Now the idea seems unthinkable. You’re the answer to a prayer I never thought to pray—and a threat to all my plans—but I’m not strong enough to walk away. I want you. In whatever way it’s possible to have you, for however long it’s

And in that moment, there can be no going back. I’m yours forever. Irrevocably. Indelibly.

In the happiest times of my life, I have reached for my books. In the saddest times of my life, my books have reached back.

The number of lives we are capable of living is limited only by the number of books we choose to read.

“Time has a way of getting away from you. Things happen, and before you know it, you’ve missed your chance.”