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To Dr. Spencer Reid, Criminal Minds did you dirty, Pretty Boy. You deserved a happy ending, so this one’s for you.
“Just keep writing,” I murmured to the beat of Dory’s “Just keep swimming.”
of. If my heart had given up on the story, there was a good chance it had called it quits on me, too.
we’ll navigate that plot twist just like we’ve done all the others, okay?”
“You know, you don’t get to meet a whole lot of new people at my age, and if you do, they’re new old people. And old people, well, they just… up and die… and it’s terribly inconvenient.”
“Did you know studies show more pathogens are exchanged by shaking hands than a ten-second kiss?”
It was logical to avoid things that caused uncontrollable and potentially hazardous reactions. I already had a list of those. Shellfish. Cocaine. Explosives. And now, Sydney Ward.
Smart people knew their weaknesses; brilliant people avoided them at all costs.
“Reading is good for the brain. It increases knowledge, expands vocabulary, strengthens cognitive skills—did you know that reading can reduce stress by up to sixty-eight percent? It works faster than listening to music or drinking a cup of hot tea.”
“You’re so tight. Just breathe through it.” My inhale hitched on its way down into my lungs. Did he just say that? My core clenched. Oh my god. What was wrong with me?
Research showed messiness and clutter were common characteristics among people with higher IQs.
Achilles had his heel. Samson had his hair. Superman had kryptonite. And I… I had Sydney.
Desire had been a smokeless, odorless chemical in the air, like methane as it displaced oxygen and logic from my brain until attraction asphyxiated my restraint. I kissed her like she was oxygen, and I should’ve known better because when methane is drowned in oxygen, it combusts. And I would have, too, if it hadn’t been for that car.
“There are no experts on loving, Ranger. Just people brave enough to try.”
The smartest thing I could do for our marriage was to keep my hands—and mouth—off my wife. But for the first time in thirty-two years, the smartest choice and the easiest choice weren’t the same.
“Because no one would ever protect you like I would.”
What are you willing to wager on your wife?” She arched an eyebrow. My throat clamped shut. His wife. Every time someone else said it, it made my stomach flutter. “Everything,” Ranger murmured, his voice catching as his eyes connected with mine. Intense. Unquestionable. “I’m willing to risk everything on her.”
“But I want to be complicated with you.”
What a genius I was to be able to recall perfectly all the moments that hurt me the most.
“I want to know why the hell you got married? Why you didn’t tell us—didn’t talk to us—” “Well, I think that’s obvious,” Kiera murmured. “Probably because he wasn’t marrying you, sweetheart,”
“According to Einstein, time is relative—a measurement affected by gravity. And in the eleven weeks, six days, nineteen hours and thirty-six minutes since I met you, I’ve never fallen so hard, yet my feet haven’t left the ground. The only conclusion is that gravity has changed because you’re around, and therefore time has, too.”
“Having a life I can’t forget isn’t the same as having a life worth remembering. And the only life worth remembering, Sydney, is the one that has you in it. You’re my snow angel, the part of all of this worth savoring… you’re my magic.” His warm breath fused to my lips. “Say you’ll stay tonight… and the rest of your life?”
I’d always perceived love as this amorphous emotion, something I wanted, but I was never sure how I’d be able to understand it enough to hold on to it. But it wasn’t. It was concrete. It was as strong as gravity. As swift as lightning. As warm as the sun and as enduring as time. It was an equation made of variables of touch and taste, conversation and connection, but it was one that wasn’t meant to be solved; it was meant to be lived.
“Well, I guess because I never planned on you.”
“Was this the ending you’d write for yourself?” he murmured, pulling my body close to his. “Not even close.” “No?” he asked, worried. I smiled. “This isn’t an ending, Ranger. Just another beginning.”
“Love finds you whether you’re ready for it or not.”
