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“She said sometimes when a man goes to war, he has to make himself forget the people he leaves behind. It’s the only way he can become the warrior he needs to be to survive.”
“Sometimes what we need is a place to fall apart. A place where we know our pieces will be safe while we work on putting them back together.” She patted my leg. “You’re safe here, Bear.”
“What do you need? Tacos? Ice cream? Or maybe something more direct. Give me an hour, and I can get my hands on a taser.” “No tasers.” “Are you sure? I don’t care how big and scary he is, he’ll drop like a rag doll.”
I wasn’t the Asher Bailey who’d kissed her outside the abandoned house. I wasn’t the man who’d given her that ring. I wasn’t even the guy who’d stood in a courtroom while a judge handed down a sentence of eight years for manslaughter. He was gone. I was the wreckage that was left.
We hadn’t said our vows—hadn’t declared in front of family and friends that we’d be true in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. But I’d kept those vows anyway, and I didn’t regret a single second of it. Because this was love. Messy, imperfect, painful love.
She was the moon to my ocean. I couldn’t escape her gravity. But I was sure as hell fighting it. I had to.
“Because I’m her best friend and if anyone tries to hurt her, I’ll murder them, dump the body, then lead the fucking search party.”
“I don’t know why you still love me. I haven’t done anything to deserve it.” “Maybe that’s not how love works. Nobody’s keeping score. I love you because I do. Because of who you were, and who you are now. Because something deep inside me is connected to something deep inside you. And whatever that is, I think it’s worth fighting for.”
The thing about pain, whether it’s physical or not, it demands our attention. A lot of the time that’s as it should be. We move our hand away from a flame to avoid being burned, or we treat an injury so our body can heal. But when that pain doesn’t go away, and it’s not something we can easily fix, it starts to dominate our life. Add in a hefty dose of anger, especially anger at things you can’t change, and it’s easy to forget how to feel anything else.”
“Grace, I’m fucked up and broken, and I can’t lie, I’m scared as hell. I’m scared I’ll ruin your life and someday you’re going to look back and wish I’d never come home. But I love you. I love you with every molecule in my body and every shred of my soul, and I will until the day I die. “I’m standing here before you, a man who was stripped of his freedom, his future, all his plans. This whole experience brought me to my knees. But there was one thing they could never take, and it’s all I have left to give you. My love. I don’t know if it’s enough—I don’t know if anything could ever be enough
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The roads we’d traveled had been unexpected and hard. But our struggles had made us who we were. We’d been tested and challenged. And ultimately, our love had prevailed. I’d always believed, deep down, that Asher and I were meant to be together. Our souls were inextricably intertwined and there was nothing that could tear us apart. Together, we were unbreakable.
