It Takes Two to Tumble Quotes

“He couldn't be serious and stern with a man who had ducklings in his hair, or who talked to baby birds like they were guests at a tea party, or who seemed to dearly want Phillip to smile.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“He tended to think that when the Bible condemned something practically everyone did, whether it be tossing oneself off or eating pork, there was likely some nuance that had been lost either to history or to translation. And then he didn’t think about it anymore.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Neat categories of valid relationships that everyone understood, phrases of belonging that could be etched concisely onto tombstones: beloved son, devoted wife. There were even rules for how to grieve people in each category, how many months to wear a black armband and whether one could dance. Captain Dacre didn’t have any of that, and Ben felt his heart twist in his chest at what that must cost him.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“This is all new to me. I’m in a new world without a map or a chart, but you’re my compass, Ben, and I know we’ll find a way.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Their lips met with more urgency than finesse, and Phillip didn’t care because he had gone too many years with too few kisses, and he had gone his whole life without Ben, and now he had kisses and Ben and he had never felt better.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“If we can all quietly agree that eating pork and shaving aren’t sinful, I don’t see why we can’t extend that same grace to men like us.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Pay me the compliment of trusting that I mean what I say.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“It struck him that if Phillip was in want of money or a house, Ben would give him whatever he could, and gladly. And there would be no shame in Phillip accepting it, because that was what it meant to have a life together. It meant holding hands and jumping together into an unknown future.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“He was handsome, Ben supposed, if you liked angry men, which Ben wouldn’t have thought he did.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“It felt somehow easier to touch and hold Ben than it was not to touch him, which made no sense, because Phillip had never in his life touched anyone like this. He had never run his hands soothingly down anyone's back; he had never kissed anyone's temple; he had never whispered nonsense into anyone's ear as he was doing now. But it all felt right, like he was finally in his native habitat.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Their shoulders touched, and the familiarity of the contact warmed Phillip in a way he hadn't thought possible. Touching Ben, even being near him, felt like being joined with a half he hadn't known was missing.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“He hadn't meant to admit that, but this was Sedgwick, this was Benedict, this was a man who played with ducklings and sang lewd songs to the elderly, and Phillip didn't need to worry about dignity, or whatever it was that usually hampered his desire. He knew in his heart he could tell him everything, anything, and it would be fine. He was safe. His heart was safe, or as safe as it ever would be.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“If there was a way to resist this man, he hadn’t found it.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“They kissed slowly in the shade of the oak tree, as if they had all the time in the world, because maybe they did. But the knowledge that there was a place where all of them belonged, a place where they could be safe and welcomed and together, made him feel like this was even more his rightful home than it ever had been.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“The important thing, Mr. Sedgwick says, is to remember that during brown studies our minds are not particularly honest. That if you want to know the truth, you need to wait.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Was everyone determined to be gracious and charming when all Phillip wanted to do was scowl?”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Oh, damn it. Damn Sedgwick and his easy charm and his general loveliness for ruining Phillip’s peace of mind.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Bugger deserve. To hell with it. Who are you to decide who deserves what? Some people are starving and others are eating peeled grapes and you can’t mean to tell me that either group deserve a damned thing. You don’t get to tell me what I deserve.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“This was some unholy combination of desire and friendship and something else, because apparently when you took workaday lust and combined it with affection and threw in garden-variety honesty, you got something new and totally different.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“He’d happily wave goodbye to duty, to order, to everything he had ever wanted, because this was more, and better, and true.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“This wanting felt like such a part of Ben’s soul that it had to mean something, had to carry with it its own kind of moral gravity.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“His father furrowed his brow, as if trying to recall who Percival and Francis were and why they mattered. Ben resisted the urge to draw a family tree.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“The vicar seemed to have his own personal ray of sunshine following him about, casting light in his path and drawing people to him, while Phillip was ever under a storm cloud.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“He tended to think that when the Bible condemned something practically everyone did, whether it be tossing oneself off or eating pork, there was likely some nuance that had been lost either to history or to translation.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Damn the man for trying to make him laugh and nearly succeeding. Phillip didn’t have defenses that could withstand this sort of assault.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Phillip could hardly stand it. He wanted to swat the birds away so he and the vicar could have some semblance of a normal conversation. He couldn’t be serious and stern with a man who had ducklings in his hair, or who talked to baby birds like they were guests at a tea party, or who seemed to dearly want Phillip to smile.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Does it matter what it’s called?” He genuinely didn’t know, had indeed deliberately avoided thinking about what it might mean to find love and companionship and desire all in the same person, because to form that thought would mean to acknowledge a future he would never have.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“A cloud must have drifted away from the setting sun, because suddenly Captain Dacre’s eyes were lit by a shaft of sunlight. “Oh!” Ben said. “Your eyes are blue. I hadn’t noticed earlier.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“Please.”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble

“I’m in a new world without a map or a chart, but you’re my compass,”
― Cat Sebastian, It Takes Two to Tumble