The Best Thing QUOTES

21 " Then again, it was one thing to do something risky that only caused physical pain. Physical pain you could manage with ice, rest, and anti-inflammatories. It was the other kind of pain, the one that snuck under your skin and settled up in quiet places you didn’t go visit that often, that wasn’t so easy to get over. That was the difference, wasn’t it? "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

23 " This was about the baby chewing away at a toy in a way that made my nipples have PTSD from when I had breastfed her before she’d decided she was done with my boobs. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

25 " It was my choice, and I would make the same one if I had to,” I told him honestly. It hadn’t been easy, but it had been right. That was fucking life sometimes, wasn’t it? "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

27 " I’d like for you to apologize to her,” Jonah said, still using that hard-ass voice that got me going. Then he added “Please,” and I swear my ovaries just about exploded. Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t know I had issues. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

29 " Fortunately—or unfortunately—Mo’s high chair was beside Sarah, who had already angled her stool toward her. There was an expression that I wouldn’t have believed she was capable of yesterday on her face as she watched Mo, like she was a fucking unicorn or something. Which she was.

Jonah, though, was on the side I’d planned to sit on next to Peter, with a free stool beside him. I slipped into it and looked around expectantly.

What the hell was everyone waiting for? Did they… did the Collins family pray before eating? Because it was a Sunday? Was that why Peter and Grandpa weren’t moving? Jonah had never prayed before a meal.

Uh….

“Baby Jesus, thank you for our food. Amen,” Grandpa Gus rushed out all of a sudden out of fucking nowhere, startling the fuck out of Peter and me, who both stared at him like we didn’t know who the hell he was anymore.

And….

Did he say baby Jesus?

The cough beside me had me glancing at Jonah, who had his lips pressed together and his gaze straight ahead at the wall behind his mom and Mo.

Glancing back at Grandpa, his cheeks were pink like he didn’t know why the hell he’d said that and was debating whether or not he regretted it.

“Ah, amen,” Sarah managed to get out, sounding pretty damn graceful and not like my gramps had just thanked baby Jesus of all people.

“That’s the last time I let you watch Talladega Nights,” I muttered under my breath just loud enough for my grandpa to hear.

And apparently Jonah too because he coughed, a lot.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grandpa replied before nudging the plate of pancakes closer to the middle of the island, avoiding eye contact. “Okay, let’s eat unless someone else wants to… pray or make another useless comment that I have no reference for.”

I laughed.

But it was Jonah beside me who cleared his throat, reached for the spatula, slid two pancakes onto it before transferring them over to my plate first, as he said, very quietly, very calmly, “I do have a question, were you praying to eight-pound, five-ounce baby Jesus or….”

I threw my head back and laughed a second before I slid off the stool and onto the floor.

It was a long, long time before I managed to start eating. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

31 " I didn't know. Not until I got here and you told me. I had no clue."

I watched his face. I watched his face so damn carefully...

"I would have been here in a wheelchair if I had know," he claimed, steadily, quietly. "On crutches. On my hands and knees, I would have been here. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

33 " Some people are lucky to find one person in the world to love. Some people are even luckier to find more than one person to love and be loved back. Some don’t find anyone. If you find someone, you don’t let them run away. We love them the way we need to love them. The way they need to be loved. And we don’t give up on that. We don’t throw that kind of thing away or push it to a better time, because there is no better time. If you love that kid the way you say you do, you don’t give that up. You fight for it, you stick with it, and you go for it. You keep it. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

35 " God, I couldn’t believe this fucker actually had the balls to be here. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

37 " I’m always here when you need a cuddle,” he said, totally serious, watching me as his right hand went to wrap around the back of my thigh. “Or more. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing

39 " She was sensitive, and if she’d sensed me even starting to get upset, whether it was sadness or anger, she’d immediately pick up on it and get fussy. "

― Mariana Zapata , The Best Thing