Elizabeth Chandler · 431 pages
Rating: (11.4K votes)
“I had discovered that there was something more painful than falling in love with someone who hasn't fallen for you; hurting that person-hurting him and not being able to do anything about it.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“Are you lost?"
I turned around. "Excuse me?"
Two guys were sprawled on a bench close to the sidewalk. The one who had spoken wore tattered shorts and a colonial three-cornered hat-nothing else. He had wide shoulders and long, muscular legs. He stretched dramatically, then lay his tanned arm along the back of the bench. "You look lost," he said. "Can I help you find something?"
"Uh, no, thanks. I was just looking."
He grinned. "Me too."
"Oh?" I glanced around, thinking I'd missed something. "At what?"
He and his friend burst out laughing.
Way to go, Lauren, I thought. He had been looking at me!”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“Do you know what it was like kissing Holly and looking up to see you?"
"What?"
"You said to begin anywhere."
But I hadn't expected that as a beginning, middle or end. I felt my cheeks getting warm. "I guess it was pretty embarrassing for both of us," I said, and walked ahead of him so he wouldn't see my face. "I know, I just kept staring at you."
"What were you thinking?"
"I don't remember."
"Don't you start using that line," he chided.
"Then don't ask me, Nick." Did he suspect how I felt.
He caught me and turned me around to face him. I focused on his shirt.
"Okay," he said quietly, "I'll tell you what I was thinking. I couldn't believe that I, who was never going to get hooked, had fallen in love with a girl who didn't want to date, and she was watching me kiss somebody else."
I glanced up.
"Your turn, brave girl. What were you thinking?"
"That Holly looked beautiful in your arms and that you didn't pull away from her the way you had pulled away from me when I kissed you."
He drew me to him. "I'm not pulling away again," he said holding me close.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“Good dog," Nick said. "That's one of the tricks I've taught him, shaking water on girls so they back into my arms."
"Really! How smart of Rocky - and you, of course."
"That's another thing I've been wanting to tell you," he said, turning me to face him. "I'm tired of getting jealous of my dog. I mean, he has nice eyes, but so do I."
I looked from Rocky's golden eyes to Nick's laughing green ones.
"I didn't enjoy the way Rocky got to stick close to you while I played Holly's boyfriend. He's going to have some competition from now on."
"Oh, yeah? Are you good at retrieving sticks?"
"I'm good at stealing kisses," Nick said, then proved it.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“Hey, does my stupidity give you the right to bruise a tender heart?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm bruising a heart made of Play-Doh.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“I stopped walking and wrapped my arms tightly around him. "You know I can hear your heart."
"Could you hear it breaking when I accused you of getting my cartoon pulled?" he asked.
I held my head back so I could look him directly in the eye. "I didn't pull it."
"You couldn't have," he replied, "because I did.”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“dreams are shadows cast by truth shining on our darkest secrets”
― Elizabeth Chandler, quote from Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell
“Gladstone .. spent his declining years trying to guess the answer to the Irish Question; unfortunately, whenever he was getting warm, the Irish secretly changed the Question, ...”
― quote from 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England
“During the Mardi Gras carnival in New Orleans, drunk and drugged and sleepless for sex-driven nights and days, I saw leering clowns on gaudy floats tossing cheap necklaces to grasping hands that clutched and grabbed and tore them, spilling beads; and revelers crawled on littered streets, wrestling for them, bleeding for them on sidewalks; and beads fell on spattered blood like dirty tears—and I saw costumed revelers turn into angels, angels into demons, demons into clowning angels; and in a flashing moment the night split open into a deeper, darker chasm out of which soared demonic clowning angels laughing.”
― John Rechy, quote from After the Blue Hour
“The definition of insanity is doing what you’ve always done and expecting different results.”
― Jane Green, quote from Saving Grace
“We’ve waited a long time for this. I want the real thing. Not the watered-down version. And the real thing is not only beautiful. It is also ugly. I want your truth.”
― L.J. Shen, quote from Vicious
“Our strength must be tested,” he whispered, “for us to know it’s still there. And I will always be your warrior, Mary mine. Always and forever.”
― J.R. Ward, quote from Blood Vow
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