01UndatedIt's one thing to think you're worthless, and quite another for somebody else to tell you that you are.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
02UndatedI love you.”I stared stupidly at him. Was he joking again, reciting another line from my story? I didn’t remember writing this.He leaned in and kissed me. I didn’t respond for a few seconds. My mind lagged behind what my body was feeling.“Say it,” he whispered against my lips. “I know this is hard for you. Tell me.”“I love you.” Hearing my own words, I gasped at the rush of emotion.He put his hands on either side of my jaw and took my mouth with his.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
03UndatedWhy are you pretending to write, when I already know you're just doing that to intimidate me?Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
04UndatedDad" I pleaded, "this is so [cuss word you never, ever say in front of your mother] ridiculous.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
05UndatedYou’ve gone far away to a place with no horses and very little grass, and you’re studying how to write a story with a happy ending. If you can write that ending for yourself, maybe you can come back.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
07UndatedSeeing him jogging at the park had cracked the window so I could peek into his soul. Seeing him with his friends threw the window wideJennifer Echols / quote ↗
08UndatedI continued to move my fingers across his skin exactly as I had before, but I needed to make a decision. I had reached for him, but I could back out of it by trailing my fingers down his arm and settling my hand in his, like I wanted us to be friends.I didn't want us to be friends.Ever so slowly, I slid my hand up his sleeve, across his shoulder, and up his neck to cradle his jaw, prickly with stubble.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
09UndatedYou should never start something when you haven't finished the last thing. People feel used that way.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
10UndatedYes, I was good at reading people. I studied them so I could put them in my novels.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
11UndatedAnd you’re beautiful. You’d have to work pretty hard to mess that up.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
12UndatedYou're a beautiful girl If you show the slightest interest in Alec, he'll want to go out with you. I know I would.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
13UndatedDeana Carter sings about it. Lady Antebellum sings about it. Eric Church. Gosh, not just country artists. Katy Perry. Everybody has a song about it because everybody's been through it. You find that person at eighteen and you lose yourself. And the tragedy is, it's the person who's completely opposed to everything you've ever wanted. You bond with that person, and that person breaks your heart. I'm that tragedy for you, and you're mine.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
15UndatedOh, God," Lori said without looking at me, "what are they thinking, leaving the two of us alone out here on the dock together? We might TALK or something.""That would be awful," I said. "I might give you a hickey."She laughed, still watching for Cameron's start instead of looking at me. "Just by talking to me?""I can talk really dirty. You'd be surprised.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
16UndatedA smaller rocket cut across the sky, trailing smoke. It exploded in a red heart."Awwwww!" said the crowd."Upside down," said Sean.The heart was, indeed, upside down. It grew and grew, upside down, until it's lights trailed and faded.A bigger rocket exploded in bright golden sparks, and then came another red heart."Upside down," said all the boys.Three explosions layered on top of one another, gold, blue, pink. Then still another red heart exploded, growing and growing before it faded."Upside down," said everyone in the boat but me.My own heart expanded for Adam.I whispered, "I know what he meant.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
17UndatedYour confidence in me is heartwarming.Makes me want to return all the money I stole from the little old ladies and kick the heroin.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
18UndatedAdam ” Lori called loudly enough for me to hear her but not so loud that her voice would carry up to my mom in the marina office- or to her dad who might be listening from their screened porch facing the water. “I came over to get some tips from the boys about teaching Tammy and Rachel to board. Of course I did not come over here to see you. How could you think such a thing That would be disobedient.” I held up the wax. “For my own disobedience I have to buff the boat. Then I’m going for a jog.” She tilted her head. Probably her eyes widened but I couldn’t see them behind her sunglasses. I hated not being able to see her eyes. She asked “In this heat?” I didn’t mind jogging in the heat. The heat was a big friendly animal that liked to wrestle and only occasionally sat on me until I lost my breath. Anyway she was missing the point. I repeated carefully ”I am GOING for a JOG.” “I HEARD you the FIRST time ” she said. “It’s late afternoon in the middle of June. It’s ninety-five degrees out here.” “He means he’s GOING for a JOG” Rachel and Tammy said at the same time. “He’s GOING for a JOG.”Lori still didn’t get it. Normally her blondeness was one of the things I loved about her. At the moment not so much. Exasperated Cameron told her “Adam wants you to go for a jog too.” She said “Oh ” “If you two airheads have to hook up secretly for very long ” Sean said “you’re not going to make it.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
19UndatedLet's go," I said."Go where?""On Lori's date with Parker."Now he looked at me over the nerdy spectacles he wore for reading."I wasn't aware it was a double date. And you're not my type.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
21UndatedThink like a middle-aged man with OCD, a dead wife, and a teenage daughter.Think like a woman with three teenage sons who once ran a golf cart into the side of their granddad's house.""Cameron and Sean shouldn't have let me drive," Adam said in his own defense. "I was seven.""You shouldn't have ASKED to drive. You were seven.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
22UndatedStay away from her.""Okay.""Keep your hands off her.""I'll try."He scowled at me."I will," I said.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
24UndatedI need to explain all this to Adam in private. I can't get McGillicuddy to explain it to him. Something will be lost in translation.""Well, excuse me that I can't look at him all googly-eyed," my brother said."And he's liable to punch you," I said.Jennifer Echols / quote ↗
