“I read once that sunflowers always orient themselves to face the sun. That’s what being near Charlie Lastra is like for me. There could be a raging wildfire racing toward me from the west and I’d still be straining eastward toward his warmth.””
“Until you got here,” he rasps, “all this place had ever been was a reminder of the ways I was a disappointment, and now you’re here, and”
“You’re a fighter,” he says. “When you care about something, you won’t let anything fucking touch it. I’ve never met anyone who cares as much as you do. Do you know what most people would give to have someone like that in their life?””
“I’ll take you home whenever you want,” he says. “But if you want to stay, and you wake up screaming, it’s okay. I’ll make sure you’re okay. And if you want to stay, and then change your mind, I don’t mind driving you back at four a.m.”I read once that not everyone thinks in words. I was shocked, imagining these other people who don’t use language to make sense of everyone and everything, who don’t automatically organize the world into chapters, pages, sentences.Looking into Charlie’s face, I understand it. The way a crush of feeling and feathery impressions can move through your body, bypassing your mind. How a person can know there’s something worth saying but have no concept of what exactly that is. I’m not thinking in words.””
“Nora Stephens,” he says, “I’ve racked my brain and this is the best I can come up with, so I really hope you like it.” His gaze lifts, everything about it, about his face, about his posture, about him made up of sharp edges and jagged bits and shadows, all of it familiar, all of it perfect. Not for someone else, maybe, but for me. “I move back to New York,” he says. “I get another editing job, or maybe take up agenting, or try writing again. You work your way up at Loggia, and we’re both busy all the time, and down in Sunshine Falls, Libby runs the local business she saved, and my parents spoil your nieces like the grandkids they so desperately want, and Brendan probably doesn’t get much better at fishing, but he gets to relax and even take paid vacations with your sister and their kids. And you and I”
Henry StephensHenry Stephens was a notable figure in the early 20th century, recognized for his contributions to travel literature and agricultural education. His most significant work, 'Journeys and Experiences in...
“Charlie threads his fingers through mine and lifts the back of my hand to his lips. “For what it’s worth,” he says, “I doubt I will ever like anyone else in the world as much as I like you.”I slip my arms around his neck and climb into his lap, kissing his temples, his jaw, his mouth. Love, I think, a tremor in my hands as they move into his hair, as he kisses me.The last-page ache.The deep breath in after you’ve set the book aside.When he walks me to the door sometime later, he takes my face in his hands and says, “You, Nora Stephens, will always be okay.””
“I love you, Nora,” he says when we pull apart a few inches to breathe. “I think I love everything about you.”“Even my Peloton?” I ask.“Great piece of equipment,” he says.“The fact that I check my email after work hours?”“Just makes it easier to share Bigfoot erotica without having to walk across the room,” he says.“Sometimes I wear very impractical shoes,” I add.“Nothing impractical about looking hot,” he says.“And what about my bloodlust?”His eyes go heavy as he smiles. “That,” he says, “might be my favorite thing. Be my shark, Stephens.”“Already was,” I say. “Always have been.”“I love you,” he says again.“I love you too.” I don’t have to force it past a knot or through the vise of a tight throat. It’s simply the truth, and it breathes out of me, a wisp of smoke, a sigh, another floating blossom on a current carrying billions of them.“I know,” he says. “I can read you like a book.””
“As he watches me, he murmurs, “I’ve just always wanted to see a shark attack up close. So much blood.””
“What's wrong with being in control anyway?" I demand, of the universe at large."Beats me.""And what, just because I don't want kids, I would supposedly punish a pregnant woman for making a different decision than me? My favorite person's a pregnant woman! And I'm obsessed with my nieces. Not every decision a woman makes is some grand indictment on other women's lives.""Nora," Charlie says. "It's a novel. Fiction.""You don't get it because you're... you." I wave a hand at him."Me?" he says."You can afford to be all surly and sharp and people will admire you for it. The rules are different for women. You have to strike that perfect balance to be taken seriously but not seen as bitchy. It's a constant effort. People don't want to work with sharky women -""I do," he says.””
“A man said to the universe,'Sir, I exist!''Excellent,' replied the universe,'I've been looking for someone to take care of my cats.””
“You know what I think?”Touching him feels so good, so strangely uncomplicated, like he’s the exception to every rule. “What?”“I think you love your job,” he says softly. “I think you work that hard because you care ten times more than the average person.”“About work,” I say.“About everything.” His arms tighten around me. “Your sister. Your clients. Their books. You don’t do anything you’re not going to do one hundred percent. You don’t start anything you can’t finish.“You’re not the person who buys the stationary bike as part of a New Year’s resolution, then uses it as a coatrack for three years. You’re not the kind of woman who only works hard when it feels good, or only shows up when it’s convenient. If someone insults one of your clients, those fancy kid gloves of yours come off, and you carry your own pen at all times, because if you’re going to have to write anything, it might as well look good. You read the last page of books first”
“His golden-brown eyes slowly rise. "If it isn't the woman who 'isn't stalking me'."I grind out, "If it isn't the man who 'didn't try to ravish me in the middle of a hurricane'.””
“When we finally do this, Nora,” he says, straightening away from me, his hands slipping my buttons back into buttonholes as easily as he undid them, “it’s not going to be on a library table, and it’s not going to be on a time crunch.” He smooths my hair, tucks my blouse back into my skirt, then takes my hips in his hands and guides me off the table, catching me against him. “We’re going to do this right. No shortcuts.””
“Stephens, if you're the villain in someone else's love story, then I'm the devil.””
“I’m just surprised how far you’re taking this small-town-transformation thing. And just so you know, those bangs do not make you more approachable. You just look like a hot assassin in an expensive wig.”“All I just heard,” I say, “is hot and expensive.””
“I just... I'm not stalking you."His eyebrows furrow. "Okay?""I'm not.""More convincing every time you say it.””
“I had no idea it was possible,” he says, “for you to want me as much as I want you.””