Magnolia Parks (Magnolia Parks Universe #1)

by Jessa Hastings

He’s the only man I’ve ever grieved the loss of, the only love I’ve ever loved.

That’s the point—not just because I love her and she’s her but because she’s my family. They’re all my family. Boarding school

does that to you—makes you make your own family—and whether I love her or not, she’s mine.

But I’m in love with her. And this is the only way she lets me have her, so fuck it, I’ll go down with the ship.

The lights go off and she stares at me through the darkness a few seconds longer, and I love her in the dark. I mean, fuck it—I down and out love her in all spectrums of light, even the absence of it.

How many people will look at me like he does, not just like I’m the sun but like I’m the whole god damn universe.

Because loving him is the same thing as tossing the keys to my heart to a valet without a driver’s license. He’ll drive me off a cliff.

a slow-motion walk towards something I didn’t

want to do but had to do,

“You sleep in your bed with your ex-boyfriend all the time but you’re not sleeping together?” he clarifies. “Correct.” I nod again. “That is fucked up.”

How will I ever get past her? I won’t. Can’t. Couldn’t.

“I’m not ruined, I’m just—” “A hypocrite,” I tell her.

I shake my head at myself. “Fuck it.”

Weather okay over there, Parks?

Very good.

The problem with me and Parks is, I think we love each other more than ourselves.

I’ll die in her arms or at her doorstep trying to get back into them, I don’t give a fuck.