“I have never had a first kiss like this. Is it that he’s a stranger? So beautiful? If so, I am ruined for anything but beautiful strangers for the rest of my life. He is so hungry seeming, so explicit… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“This is, of course, the privilege of love, to bear witness to a strong man’s grief over the little sister he could never save,… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“You were the first thing I had asked for, just for me, in a long, long time.” — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“He moves to look in my eyes and everything below the belt swoops, then his big hands are around my face and he’s angled… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“That’s just it, Carrie. I’m not going to burden you. You would take it all, I can tell. God, it’s tempting. You’re tempting, and… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“No. I’m waiting because it’s not enough. What’s on the other side of the waiting is enough.” — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“The problem is that stepping away from Brian, leaving him standing under that pergola on Wednesday, is no longer enough to leave behind how he made me feel in that hour. I could leave him there, we could part as strangers, but God, I know that I would look for him. He would live in my peripheral vision, a ghost… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share
“The first book I ever read that made me cry. I was seven and hadn’t realized books could do that. Just finish you like that. I was sitting in a beanbag chair in the school library when the book ended, weeping, looking at all the books on the shelves all around me, and I decided then and there that I… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share
“I love you. I couldn’t be more of a mess right now, but I can’t believe I haven’t told you because I have, for so long now, and it’s like I don’t have anything else to give you, anyway. Not time. Not my full attention. Not the kind of boyfriend you deserve. But my heart, such as it is, you… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share
“And yet, every day, Brian gathers his sister’s long hair into a beautiful plait, and just the sound of his voice is enough to… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“Then he was quiet, and Nina didn't have anything to say. But he stayed on the phone, she could hear him breathing, and so… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“If I wanted, I could choose to make my life a place that Brian could step into. He didn’t have any room to move,… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
“Did you know that your mouth, your skin, is so soft? All week, every time I’ve thought about it, my hands feel like they’re… — Mary Ann Rivers Copy Share Image
