Her eyes were like the sea before a storm on the Carolina coast.

Her voice, unfolding like a tiny bright memory in the darkest, furthest corner of my mind.

I want you here. I don't care if it's a hundred degrees and every blade of grass dies. Without you, none of that matters to me.

But when you’re in love, you’re not in control of what you think or say or do. And there is nothing I love more than control, and nothing I love less than not having it. So you tell me —what is a person like me supposed to do with a feeling like that?

We both loved her. And you couldn't control who you loved, even if you wanted to.

She closed her eyes, and I closed mine, and even though we weren't holding hands, it felt like we were.Because what we had, we knew.

I couldn't look at her. I'd been jealous and hurt, and I had dragged Liv into the middle of my own broken mess of a life. All because I thought Lena didn't love me anymore. But I was stupid, and I was wrong. Lena loved me so much, she was willing to risk everything to save me. I had given up on Lena, after she had refused to give up on me. I owed her my life. It was as simple as that.

Life without Ethan was something worse than a nightmare.It was real.So real that I refused to believe it.

Ridley was like a beautiful snake - you couldn't let her get close without the risk of being bitten.