Quotes from Lady Luck

“<…>When I was done speaking I felt his body had gone still again, stone still.
And silent.
Then he asked quietly, "Nightmare?"
"Nightmare," I replied firmly.
Ty didn't move.
By a miracle, I held it together.
Then he moved but it was to rest his chin on my shoulder and I closed my eyes because I needed him to go, go, go so I could fall apart again on my own.
Then he said, "Your nightmare, mama, was my dream."
My heart clenched.
He kept going. "Never had a home until you gave me one."
My breath started sticking.
"Never had anyone give to me the way you gave to me."
My breath stopped sticking and clogged.
"Never thought of findin' a woman who I wanted to have my baby."
Oh God.
"Never had light in my life, never, not once, I lived wild but I didn't burn bright until you shined your light on me."
Oh God.
"Whacked, fuckin' insane, but, at night, you curled in front of me, didn't mind I did that time that wasn't mine 'cause it meant I walked out to you."
He had to stop. He had to.
He didn't.
"Your nightmare," he whispered, turned his head and against my neck he finished, "my dream."<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Baby?” he called and he felt her eyes on him.
“Yeah?” she replied, her sweet voice soft, another tone he was getting used to and this was because the last couple of days it had started to come at him often.
“Do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“In a second, I’m gonna pull over, get out my gun and give it to you. When I do, shoot me with it.”
“What?” she whispered.
“I’m facin’ another hour and a half of your music. I’d rather be dead.”
Silence then, “Shut up.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>"You're part-goof all class. Never walked in a room, any room, with a woman on my arm, any woman, who's got your looks, your style, the kinda beauty you got and the light that shines from you. So I don't get it. I don't get how a woman leads a life full of shit and comes out of it bein' part-goof and all class. That shit's impossible but there you fuckin' are. Part-goof, all class."
I felt my breath coming fast but managed to whisper, "I'm not part-goof."
"You're right. I was bein' nice. You're a total goof."
"Am not"
"Babe, you call me 'hubby'," he pointed out but my breath came faster because he called me "babe" again.
"You are my hubby."
"No one says hubby," he told me.
"I do," I told him.
"All right, I'll rephrase. No one but a goof says hubby."….<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Right. Love you, Ty."
"Done to my bones, mama, right back at you.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>Tate fell silent.
Ty didn't.
"Since the day I was released, you knocked yourself out. You had my back, you took care of Lexie when we had our thing then you did what you could to help me sort that. It's important to me that you know I'm grateful. I've been tryin' to figure out how I can show how much but, keep thinkin' on it, nothin' comes to mind and I know why. I get it. You're a man who has everything so there is nothing I can hand you that you want or need. And I get that because I am now that same man. So the only thing I can give you are words and, my guess is, that'll be enough. If it isn't, you name it and it's yours."
"Friends do what I did for friends," Tate returned.
"No they don't, Tate. You did what you did for me because you're you. That's what I'm talkin' about."
Tate ws silent a moment then he said, "Well then, you guessed right. Words are enough."
Ty nodded.
Tate tipped his head to the side and asked jokingly, "We done with the near-midnight in the middle of fuckin' nowhere heart-to-heart?"
Ty didn't feel like joking and answered, "No."
"Then what -?"
"Love you, man," Ty interrupted quietly.
"Learned the hard way not to delay in expressing that sentiment so I'm not gonna delay. You call me brother and I got one who's blood who don't mean shit to me and today, all this shit done, rejoicing and reflecting, it hit me that I got two who aren't blood but who do mean something. And you're one of those two."
"Ty-" Tate murmured.
"I will never forget, until I die, what you did for me and my wife and until that day I will never stop bein' grateful."
"Fuck man," Tate whispered.
"Now, do those words work so you get what you did mean to me?"
Silence then, "Yeah, they work."
"Good, then now we're done with our near-midnight, middle of fuckin' nowhere heart-to-heart," Ty declared, turned, opened the door to the Viper and started folding in.
He stopped with his ass nearly to the seat and looked up over the door when Tate called his name.
"I don't have a blood brother," Tate said. "But you should know there's a reason I call you that."<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Hubby,
At the pool. If I don’t return by nightfall, it’s your marital duty to rescue me. If it goes that late, this means I’ve passed out on a lounge chair in Vegas in summer so my advice is to stock up on aloe vera before you launch the rescue effort.
Lexie
Walker stared at the note thinking that Alexa Berry… Strike that. Alexa Walker was fucking funny.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Lady Luck finally saw fit to shine her light on me but life taught me to share. Welcome to the light.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Well shit! If she’s dead, how can I have a bitch smackdown with her?”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“I need another dick in this house and soon before the whole fuckin' place is painted pink and I slip on a glitter pen and break my neck.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Then I asked, “Do you lose concentration when a woman you want is in the room?”
“I hope not or tonight we’re fucked.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Great, I’ll continue this junior high bullshit and tell her that Ty. You got anything else I should whisper to her at recess?” Take asked, pissed as all hell.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>….That's how he made his living. He gave me a pen and ink. This," he lifted his left arm then dropped it back to the bed. "After he died, I had it inked on me. Took what he gave me to a tattoo parlor right after the funeral and got it started."
Her voice held a tone of light dawning as she whispered, "So he was your Ella."
Her light dawned clear for her and for Walker because she was right.
"Yeah, he was my Ella."
"So it was Tuku who brought out my Ty."
My Ty.
My Ty.
Christ. Fuck.
Christ.
Two words. Just two words. Walker had no clue until that moment that two words could mean so fucking much. He'd never belonged to anyone. He'd never belonged anywhere. Never thought he wanted to.
Until he heard those two words.
He couldn't keep the thick out of his voice when he confirmed, "Yeah, it was him."<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>"No, Ty, you drew it when one second you had your tongue in my mouth, your hands on me and me on my back in your bed and swear to God, swear to God, that was all you had to do, I was this close," she lifted a hand and held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart, "to climax just with that and the next second you took it all away from me. All of it and you fucking know exactly what I'm talking about because the next second I was standing on my feet, you were two feet away but you might as well still have been in fucking California and then I watched you shut down."<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“What you need to give me is to know it is not about you, it’s about me, you gotta suck it up and stand by me, you gotta know, in the end, I’ll work my ass off to make it all worth it to you and you gotta always remember I love you and I have never, not once, said those words to any breathing soul so you also gotta know what that means.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>It was an arms crushing me to his body, heads slanting, mouths opened, tongues invading, toes curling, knees weakening, bones dissolving, deep, wet, hungry, carnal kiss. It seemed to last forever but that forever was not near long enough.<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“I don't give a fuck we're both still raw. I don't give a fuck, even without that, we're still new. I don't give a fuck we got shit out there pressing in; I wanna plant my baby in you.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>Therefore he asked quietly, "Remember I told you about Tuku?" Julius nodded. Ty went on, "Got good friends, a lot of them, feel deep for them all. Only three people in my life got more from me, one of 'em's in the ground, one of 'em's sitting' on the deck and the last is standin' right in front of me."
Julius said not a word but held his eyes.
Then Ty whispered, "Gratitude, brother."
Julius kept his eyes locked with Ty's and whispered back, "Debt paid."<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“He didn’t mind doin’ that time when doing it meant he would walk out to Lexie.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Ty Walker opened the backdoor to his house and walked in to a big, seriously pissed off black man with tree trunk legs planted apart and beefy arms crossed on his chest. He knew he’d get that when he got home. He also didn’t give a fuck. He closed the door and looked Julius in the eye.
“She gone?” he asked.
“You are one serious dumb fuck.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“<…>Days before, seconds after she told him she wanted to have breakfast with her husband and he liked hearing her say that, he liked it too fucking much, he fucked up. Then he kept fucking up. Then he kept fucking doing it. He knew it and he couldn't stop.
Then, the instant she pressed her mouth to his, her soft body in his lap, overwhelmed with emotion and sharing that with him he lost control and he knew he couldn't do that. And the only way he could manage to keep control was to stay the fuck away from her, her sweet smiles, her soft voice, her brightness, that fantastic fucking body. He couldn't hold up. So he stayed the fuck away from her and spent a lot of time thinking about how to encourage her to stay the fuck away from him.<…>”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“So, he made this report to me. Now, make no mistake, Ty, I take my work seriously but I gotta admit, he gave this report, I lost my pen. Swear to God, don’t know where I put that fucker.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Because if you don’t know how good something can be, you don’t know how bad you’ll miss it when it was gone.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“I didn't want that bouquet to die. Not yet. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. I wanted to keep it alive for as long as possible. And it wasn't because it cost a hundred and fifty dollars. I didn't know why it was. I just knew I did.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“When I was done speaking I felt his body had gone still again, stone still.
And silent.
Then he asked quietly, "Nightmare?"
"Nightmare," I replied firmly.
Ty didn't move.
By a miracle, I held it together.
Then he moved but it was to rest his chin on my shoulder and I closed my eyes because I needed him to go, go, go so I could fall apart again on my own.
Then he said, "Your nightmare, mama, was my dream."
My heart clenched.
He kept going. "Never had a home until you gave me one."
My breath started sticking.
"Never had anyone give to me the way you gave to me."
My breath stopped sticking and clogged.
"Never thought of findin' a woman who I wanted to have my baby."
Oh God.
"Never had light in my life, never, not once, I lived wild but I didn't burn bright until you shined your light on me."
Oh God.
"Whacked, fuckin' insane, but, at night, you curled in front of me, didn't mind I did that time that wasn't mine 'cause it meant I walked out to you."
He had to stop. He had to.
He didn't.
"Your nightmare," he whispered, turned his head and against my neck he finished, "my dream.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Colonel Mustard did it, however the motherfucker did it, his ass is in the hole.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“I bet you didn’t have to say a word. I bet those rings were all Ty. Which makes you the only female on the planet who didn’t have to give her man some instruction when it came to an engagement ring,” Krystal noted correctly and I looked down at her. “He may drink beer but that boy is pure champagne.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Lex, do you think, six weeks without you, I didn’t learn my fuckin’ lesson?” She blinked. He kept going. “I learned, baby. Lived raw for six fuckin’ weeks, wasting my own goddamned life and yours. Downloading on-line divorce papers…” He shook his head, not going back there. Not fucking there. Doing that shit cost him too much, he couldn’t go back there. So he finished, “Fuck yeah, I learned.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“My guess? Romance novels. My guess? She started reading them early. My guess? She started them at a time where they made a huge impression on her and changed her perceptions. She isn't cocooned, she pays attention and she knows there are no men out there like the men in those books she reads so she prefers being with them than trying to find someone like them which, she thinks, is a fruitless endeavor. That fantasy is far better than any reality and, you know what? She's right. Men are a pain in the ass and a lot of them are dicks who cause heartbreak. And her, a girl like Faye? Well, she knows she's the kind of girl men like that will chew up and spit out. So she's smart and she's not going to go there.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

“Cautious silence then, “She haul her ass from Florida?”

“We’re at the diner havin’ lunch.”

Total silence then, “Brother…” pause then, “fuck, it good?”

He smiled at his wife. Then he told Tate quietly, “Yeah, brother, all good.”
― Kristen Ashley, quote from Lady Luck

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A sad story, don’t you think?”
― Haruki Murakami, quote from The Elephant Vanishes

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