Love in the Afternoon (The Hathaways, #5)

by Lisa Kleypas

“He’s a man, dear,” Amelia explained kindly. “Sustained thinking is very difficult for them.” “As opposed to women,” Leo retorted, “who have the remarkable ability to make decisions without doing any thinking at all.”

“My love … I would choose the small sum of hours I’ve spent with you over a lifetime spent with another woman. You never needed to write that note, asking me to find you. I’ve wanted to find you my entire life. I don’t think there’s a man alive who could be all the things you deserve in a husband … but I beg you to let me try. Will you marry me?”

“The trick was forgetting about what she had lost … and learning to go on with what she had left.”

Leo murmured, “When I give you away at the altar, Bea, I want you to remember something. I’m not really giving you away. I’m merely allowing him the chance to love you as much as the rest of us do.”

If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.