She snuck a guilty peek at Matt. She didn’t want to be selfish, she didn’t want to hurt him, but music was who she was. If she didn’t have that, she didn’t have anything. As long as she was going to let him have it back eventually, surely he could survive sharing part of his valley until she remembered how to sing?

He felt as if he were blooming outward, his heart one of their own roses unfurling in deepest winter, which scared him because... well, roses that bloomed in the winter got frozen in the cold.

In his view of what he wanted from the world, there were an infinity of moments that were beautiful, as this one was beautiful, with the light from the town hall gilding her jawline and shining off her hair in the cold northern night that made him want to pull her in and warm them both. “And.

Sylvain flung out his hands. “You think my father never screwed up with me? You think I never screwed up with him? You don’t get only one chance, for God’s sake. You get five million chances, second after second every day. You don’t have to get every single one of them perfect. Merde. It’s not chocolate.

Kids aren’t bonsai. Maybe instead of trying to make them beautiful to the rest of the world, you should just love them and let them grow.

Never choose half of anything just to be safe when you have a chance to have something whole and perfect.

With aggressive come-ons, at least you knew where you stood. Holding hands, you got – hopeful.

My feelings are my own responsibility. I don’t see what trust has to do with it. I can’t go around handing them off to other people.

A man's strength was supposed to be against the outside world: to fight it back from himself and those he took under his protection: his wife, his children, and for a man strong enough, more people still, people like his employees. To turn it inward, against the very people you had been given that strength to protect, because you couldn't deal with the outward fight, was the ultimate weakness.

If you were only crumbs on a plate, I would pick every last one up with my finger