Golden Trail

If you are nothing else in this life, be wise, be compassionate, and be strong because those three are everything

You comin’ or what?” Ryker returned. Layne glanced through Merry and Cal, nodded and followed Ryker. It would seem big, scary, badass, looking like a raving lunatic Ryker needed his BFF. Fuck.

His fingers curled around her neck and he put his forehead to hers before sharing, “I remember, Rocky. I remember everything. I remember every… fucking… thing.

It’s good she hooked up with me, she’s such a nut, she needs a badass to take her back.

Layne knew he was in love with her. Not only that, he’d never stopped loving her. Not once, not for a second, not for twenty-one years. Fuck him.

It’s not fake is it?” Jasper asked softly and Layne studied his son thinking he had vastly underestimated Jasper too. “It was, Jas, it isn’t anymore.” Jasper nodded. Layne continued. “She doesn’t know that yet, though.” Jasper stared at him then his mouth twitched before, very slowly, it spread into a smile.

Layne - “Do you have a gun or do you need me to get you one?” Colt – “My wife was kidnapped and nearly shot in the head, man. I got guns everywhere

You wanna beer?” Jasper’s brows shot up. “Seriously?” “Fuck no,” Layne replied.

Live this with me, just live it, whatever happens, however it happens, live it with me for two days. It doesn’t go the way you like, we’ll talk Monday night. It goes the way you like, we live it real and ride it out. Will you give me that, honey?

Layne walked up to him and put both hands to his son’s neck, giving it a firm squeeze, he looked him in the eyes and whispered, “Fucked up with you, know it, but you’re a fuckin’ good kid despite that and, even though I didn’t have much to do with it, I’m proud of you.” He gave his son’s neck a gentle jerk and finished. “Love you, Bud.

You taste injustice, even if it’s fictional, really taste it,it has a way of doing that. Sometimes, you can never put the shoe on the other foot. We can’t go back in time and know what it was like to be a black person then. Even today, when things are supposed to be so much better, not one of you can understand what it’s like to be black, to live with the knowledge of what happened to your ancestry and still face injustice. But that book makes us taste it and, reading it, we know how bitter that taste is and we know we don’t like it. But that bitter wakes you up, and when you wake up, you open your mind to things in this world, you make yourself think. Then you’ll decide you don’t like the taste of injustice, not for you and not for anyone, and you’ll understand that even though all the battles can’t be won, that doesn’t mean you won’t fight.

Until you two came along, she was the best thing that happened to me in my whole goddamned life.

The best part, however, was watching Rocky eat a pile of custard-filled, hot fudge-topped profiteroles. He could swear, after the third bite, she was going to have an orgasm and, watching her, he nearly had one.

And, like I said, proceed with caution, but fuck, man, whatever you do, for your sake and hers, just… fuckin’… proceed.

Giselle Speakmon’s parents are totally devout. When I get in there and we hook up, there won’t be any cribs for me either, Dad, because I reckon they’ll make me wear one of those chastity belts, knowin’ Jas is my brother and all.

Men like you aren’t made, though, Tanner. Men like you just are.

No one puts his hand on my boy. Not like that. Get me?

Because she’s my mother, he’s the finest man I know and I want them both to be happy but I still don’t know whether to slap him on the back, threaten him, punch him or vomit on his shoes.

Her heard turned so her lips were at his ear. “I think that’s about as real as it gets,” she whispered.

You strutted back and forth to the window at Fulsham’s Custard Stand five times while I was sitting there, eatin’ my cone the first time I saw you, ‘cause you wanted some of this and got it by swinging your ass in my face.

See, that's the beauty of books. We get to take what we want out of them and it can be different for everyone. You get a good one, you may even find what you need.

Even one voice in a wilderness of ignorance is a voice that is heard by someone.

Think God’s got bigger concerns in his house than me droppin’ the f-bomb, sweetcheeks.

I love you, man, you know it, sucked losin’ you when you two disintegrated and I’m fuckin’ thrilled to have you back, but I love her a fuckuva lot more than you and I find out she’s in her head because you can’t let go of something that happened eighteen years ago and still feel like getting’ your licks in, you got me to worry about. You get me?

Wounds to the flesh hurt but they heal fast. Wounds to the soul never go away. It’s how we cope with a pain that never dies that makes us the people we are. Daily, people demonstrate acts of courage just so they can get through to the night.

What’s going on” she asked. “You been in on it the whole time, Roc, you know what’s going on,” he answered.

Wounds to the flesh hurt but they heal fast. Wounds to the soul never go away. It’s how we cope with a pain that never dies that makes us the people we are.

Literature is art and art is about passion. It’s about drive. It’s about beauty. How can you slide through a semester of that and not be moved by it?

Atticus Finch is the most beautiful man I’ve ever met in print. He’s a good dad and he does what’s right, not what’s safe, not what’s popular. What’s right. He’s gentle. He’s smart. He’s strong. He’s decisive and he’s willing to follow through with his decisions, no matter what the odds. Even