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1 " For now, more swoon and less doom, babycakes "
― Emily Henry , Beach Read
2 " I wondered if he was simply tired, if life had beaten him into permanent slouch, folded him over himself so no one could get at that soft center- "
3 " I loved that vulnerable excitement when he first caught sight of something that made him feel before he could cover it up. "
4 " Yes, I thought. That is how it life feels too often. Like you're doing everything you can to survive only to be sabotaged by something beyond your control, maybe even some darker part of yourself. "
5 " Every single person on the planet had to take turns in hurting. Sometimes all you could do was hold on to each other tight until the dark spat you back out. "
6 " He was bad with me too, but it was a little more random. If the phone rang and woke him up, he'd hit me, or if he had plans to go out but had to cancel for snow, he'd knock me around to burn off his anger. I was always looking for the secret code, the rules I could follow so he wouldn't freak out. That's how you keep yourself safe, you know? You pay attention to how the world works. But there was no secret code for him. It was like our actions were entirely detached from his reaction to us. "
7 " A faint smile flickered across his lips, then fell as he thought. ' I don't think I've ever loved the world like you do. I remember being afraid of it. And then angry with it. And then just — deciding not to feel too strongly about it. "
8 " No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers. "
9 " We can never fully know the people we love. When we lose them, there will always be more we could have seen - "
10 " I can miss my dad and hate him at the same time. I can be worried about this book and torn up about my family and sick over the house I'm living in, and still look at lake Michigan and feel overwhelmed by how big it is. I spent all last summer thinking I'd never be happy again, and now, a year later, I still feel sick and worried and angry, but at moments, I'm so happy. Bad things don't dig down through your life until the pit's so deep that nothing good will ever be big enough to make you happy again. No matter how much shit, there will always be wildflowers. There will always be Pete's and Maggies and rainstorms in forests and sun on waves. "
11 " Happy for Now. I could live with that. I could learn to live with that. "
12 " Sometimes I worry the truth can’t be worth the pain it causes. "
13 " Then maybe we should enjoy our happy-for-now. "
14 " I've never met someone who is so perfectly my favorite person. When I think about being with you every day, no part of me feels claustrophobic. And when I think about having to have the kinds of fights with you that Naomi and I used to have, there's nothing scary about it. Because I trust you, more than I've ever trusted anyone - The world looks different than I ever thought it could be, and I don't want to look for what's broken or what could go wrong. I don't want to brace myself for the worst and miss out on being with you. I want to be the one who gives you what you deserve - and I don't think I ever could deserve any of that, and I know this things between us isn't a sure thing, but that's what I want to aim for with you. Because I know no matter how long I get to love you, it will be worth whatever comes after. "
15 " Everyone's got shit, January. Sometimes, the thing about someone else's is a relief. "
16 " His mother had stayed with his father, no matter the cost, and part of that had been her son learning to hate his own name. "
17 " He wasn't afraid for things to get ugly, to see someone at their weakest, and he didn't fall over himself trying to talk me out of my own feelings. He just witnessed them, and somehow, that let them finally get out of my body after years of imprisonment. "
18 " So falling’s the part that hurts?’ I asked with a humorless laugh. ‘And if you wind up in love without it hurting, then there’s no falling?’‘No,’ Shadi said seriously. ‘Falling’s the part that takes your breath away. It’s the part when you can’t believe the person standing in front of you both exists and happened to wander into your path. It’s supposed to make you feel lucky to be alive, exactly when and where you are. "
19 " I picked through buckets of cut flowers, longing for the days when I could afford a bundle of daisies for the kitchen, calla lilies for the nightstand in the bedroom. Of course, that had been back when Jacques and I were sharing an apartment. When you were renting in New York by yourself, there wasn’t much money for things that smelled good for a week, then died in front of you. "
20 " Hundreds of nights I'd chosen not to cry. Thousands of moments I worried about worrying. That if I did it, I'd make things worse for my parents. That I needed to be strong. That I needed to be happy so I wouldn't drag them down. "
