“Hey, Jojo?” he yells.
“Yeah.” I yell back.
“I’m going to marry you someday.”
“I’m standing in front of you, Josie. You just have to turn around.”
“Her tear-streaked face is beautiful. I want to wipe away her tears. I want to take the last ten years and erase them. I want to start over.”
“When you love someone, you just know.”
“Josie Preston, I have loved you since I was sixteen. I know I've screwed up a whole lot, but I promise to make it up to you every day. Would you do me the immense honor of wearing my ring, taking my name and becoming not only my partner in life, but most importantly, my wife?”
“I only have eyes for one woman, period … When I saw you, I knew I had made a mistake. I should have never left or at least come back for you. My life is better with you in it, Josie. I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that.”
“I promise you, I’m done running. I’m still selfish, but only where you and Noah are concerned. I have years of spoiling to make up for and I plan to spend every day of my life making sure you both know how much I love you.”
“Never will I or have I told fans that I love them, even with something as innocent as this. I’ve only loved one person in my life and those words are saved for my girl and now my son.”
“There’s nothing worse than a woman who tries too hard.”
“I've missed so much. Like the day you opened your flower shop or how you came up with the name Whimsicality. I missed the day you brought Noah into this world and saw him for the first time. I missed your late-night cravings and his midnight feedings. I'll never forgive myself for not being there, Josie.”
“I want every part of you in my life, Jojo, when you’re ready.”
“Are you really speechless or has the vodka finally impaired your ability to function like a normal human?”
“The last thing Betty says to me that day is something I will never forget. “Follow only your dreams, Liam.”
“I thought for sure we'd spend forever together. I thought our love was one of a kind. I would almost be okay if he had met someone else and fallen in love, but he didn't. He just left. He said he was suffocating.”
“Bye, dad,” Noah says before running off to the truck. The look on Liam’s face must match mine. “Don’t worry, Jojo,” he whispers to me. He places a kiss on my cheek before walking way. “Take care of my family, Nick,” Liam says as he slips his helmet on muffling out Nick’s tirade. I watch Liam’s bike as it flies down the road. When my eyes meet Nick’s, he’s glaring at me. He shakes his head, punching his truck in the process. I think I just lost my fiancé.”
“I never thought I’d see the boy who stole my heart and failed to give it back. I’m not sure I want it back.”
“Purple Rain comes on. It’s the song we first danced to at homecoming.”
“Get off your high horse, Josephine, because if you fall it won’t be pretty.” I stuff my hands into my pocket and walk away. I didn’t want to blow up at her, but she egged me on.”
“Knock it off you two,” Mason says as he slaps me in the back of the head. “If you give him a stiffy during the game, some linebacker is going to break his pecker.”
“Her make-up is running down her face, black and heavy, leaving a path of pain ruining her beauty.”
“Your cat doesn’t like you? How come?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. He’s very mean though and I think about telling him to pack his kitty bags and move out.”
“People don't hate each other. They hate each other's ideas.”
“Gods are addicted to the pleasures and the demons are blindly worshipping power.”
“Jack, you're a switch in every sense of the word.”
“Ellington Feint was a line in my mind running right down the middle of my life, separating the formal training of my childhood and the territory of the rest of my days. She was an axis, and at that moment and for many moments afterward, my entire world revolved around her.”
“My Camille,” he said, his voice as soft and powerful as a blow from a bellows, “did you believe you’d sail with me forever?”
She wanted to say yes, just to be able to say yes. But she shook her head.
“This is all my fault,” her father mumbled.
Camille sat back in the chaise longue and curled her legs beneath her. “What is?”
“I shouldn’t have let you accompany me to sea all these years. I should have sent you to a proper finishing school, given you a chance to find your place here in San Francisco. Instead, I was selfish and wanted you with me every moment.”
Camille relaxed her shoulders. “I don’t mind your selfishness, Father.”
He sent her a grin, but it was the one he used when there was a caveat attached.
“It did have to end sometime, Camille. True ladies don’t belong on merchant ships, and it’s high time you were a lady instead of a child.”
He was right, though she wished he weren’t. “True ladies” didn’t sail on ships. Their palms weren’t blistered from hauling line, the bridges of their noses and apples of their cheeks weren’t bronzed from the sun, and they most certainly didn’t associate with sailors.
Camille sighed. “Being a true lady sounds achingly dull.”
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