More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“You’re so hot.” She looks at me through the mirror, smirking. “Are you talking to me or your chips?”
Laura Fusco liked this
I hope we last. I need us to last. Going from frenemies to lovers in three months wasn’t something I ever thought would happen. But despite my best efforts, I’m so freaking in love with this man.
Laura Fusco liked this
I could talk for hours about her beauty. Describe every freckle, every faint line, every inch of her body. Anastasia is like the sun, warm and blindingly beautiful. But to be honest, it’s not what makes her my person.
I’m in love with her determination and her commitment, her soft side, the way she manages to tell me exactly how she’s feeling and why, no matter how uncomfortable it might make her at first.
Laura Fusco liked this
She’s taught me communicating doesn’t mean everything is perfect, it doesn’t mean we don’t disagree. It means we work through the imperfect bit together, and if we don’t agree, we at least know why the other feels that way, even if it’s not going to change our minds. We’re still individuals, but ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Laura Fusco liked this
Don’t tell her you love her during a blow job, you fucking loser.
Shreya and 2 other people liked this
He’s attentive and affectionate, he makes me feel valued, and he strives to make me happy. Not in a materialistic or a frivolous way, but in a way where he actively works beside me, hand in hand, to try to make my life better. I don’t imagine there are many men, college men at that, that look at the ugliest parts of you and want you anyway. The irony is, if I were to say this to him, he’d tell me I didn’t have ugly bits.
“Of course I know you really well, Anastasia. You’re my favorite subject.”
“You’re just really fucking pretty, Nathan. It’s super hard to concentrate sometimes, do you know that? Do you understand how difficult it is sometimes to focus on literally anything when you’re around me looking effortlessly beautiful?”
Laura Fusco liked this
But he’s taught me everything not to do as a dad… so our kids will be fine. Wait no, wait, that didn’t come out right. Oh God.”
“I want to adopt.” He clings to me a bit tighter. “Sounds good to me.” “I always wanted to anyway but pushing out your big-ass baby would absolutely wreck my vagina. Like, totally destroy it.” “Noted.”
“And this isn’t some, I don’t know, trauma response. I’m in love with you, and that’s what I thought when I fell through that ice. How I’ve known for so long and I hadn’t even told you. How I was going to die and you weren’t going to know, and I was so mad at myself. I love you and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when I realized.”
“I love you, too,” I finally manage to stammer out. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Anastasia.”
Alexandra_ liked this
“I wish there wasn’t anyone before you, but I can’t change the past. I can promise you there will be no one after you.
There isn’t a version of me that is better without you by my side.”
I pinch the book from between her fingers, examining the turquoise cover, then flicking to a random page in the middle of the book. “You’re reading porn in public? You’re disgraceful!”
“It’s not porn. It’s a romance book that happens to have a little bit of sex in it.”
“Anything you read, I’ll do to you when we get home.”
“I love a woman who enjoys reading.”
I want to build a life with her—one that’ll exist when Maple Hills is a memory—so this feels like we’re about to go backward.
Every instinct is telling me to cling to her, interfere, protect her, but I know it isn’t right. I won’t be that guy; I won’t just cave to myself after Anastasia has worked so hard to work on herself. She deserves the best version of me, and that version trusts and supports his girlfriend. He also buys her flowers when he’s a dick.
“You ate twenty chicken nuggets in about four minutes. It was like you were in an eating competition, but you were the only contestant. I’ve never been more in love with you.”
recovery isn’t about winning. It’s about learning and forgiving yourself, about forgetting bad habits, and trusting the process. It isn’t linear,
“The clothes I stole from you don’t smell like you anymore.” “… Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” “A bad thing. A horrible, terrible, catastrophically bad thing. I miss you and it’s making me unsettled.”
I just need you, Nate. I need you to do that thing you do where you magically make everything better.”
He leans back against the pillows, letting me trail my fingers across the smooth, warm planes of his stomach, all the way down to his sweatpants. Gray, obviously, because Nathan Hawkins is a man who was most definitely written by a woman.
His lips press into my hair, and he chuckles. “You ready to play house every single day?” “As long as it’s with you.”
“You’re my favorite,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss her flushed cheek. “Even if I had crab hands?” “Even if you had crab hands, Anastasia.”
When he bought me my Range Rover, otherwise known as the sorry I accidentally knocked you up mom-wagon, he filled all available compartments with snacks.
“How are my favorite girls today?” Nate’s hands trail down my arms gently until they reach my stomach.
Alexandra_ liked this
“You want me to do the thing?” “God, yes. We’re good. We’re hungry.” He steps behind me, winding his arms around me until they link at the bottom of my bump, lifting to take the weight off me, and I instantly melt into him. “Oh God, yes.”
“Nothing fits, so I’ll just be wearing crop tops for a week.” Nate kisses my cheek from behind. “It works for Winnie-the-Pooh.”
Nate has made a Baby Hawkins–sized hole in the sand, the perfect size to fit my bump in, and for the first time in months, I’m able to sleep on my stomach. Bliss.
Falling in love with Nathan Hawkins was not something I could have planned. No planner, iPad, or freaking sticker chart could have prepared me for my future. My imagination isn’t capable of dreaming up this level of happiness.
“You’re staring at me with that goofy look you do when you’re thinking too hard,” Nate says playfully. Rolling my eyes, I chuckle at his rude interruption to my inner monologue. “I’m thinking about how much I love you.” “That’s funny. I was thinking about you, too.”
“Anastasia, you are the best thing to ever happen to me, and to call you the love of my life does not do justice to how much I love you. My existence doesn’t make sense without you by my side. For the rest of our lives, in the next life, in every alternate reality, I’ll be yours if you’ll have me. You are my best friend, my greatest gift, and Mila—and Bunny—are so blessed to have you as their mom.”
“Will you marry me?” Nodding frantically, I launch myself at him, nearly knocking him over into the sand. “Yes, yes, yes!”
“Anastasia Hawkins. Wow. And here I was thinking this was just a casual, no-commitment, no-jealousy thing.” He snorts, pressing his lips against mine one more time. “Shut up, Anastasia.”
