Say You Swear

Fear not the fall, but the life that comes from having never leaped at all.” I smile through my tears. “I’ll always leap if the jump leads me to you, Noah Riley. Always.” “And forever.” “I swear.

I’ve known that girl was worth the world since the moment I met her.

If she isn’t mine in the end, I’ll still be hers.

Memories don’t die when the possibilities do. They morph into pain. Pain you have to decide to feed or fight.

So next time you ask, be sure because I won't deny you again." "Say you swear.

If I’m Romeo and she’s Juliet, maybe this is the fate I put on us that very first day. Love forbidden, but in our story, we’re forbidden by fate. Maybe I was the placeholder, as Mason wondered. Maybe I’m not the man of her dreams but the understudy who did the noble work. Who befriended a broken girl. Who showed her what it meant to matter to a man, how it felt to be loved. She knows now that she’s worth the world and deserves even more.

I’m a smart man, Juliet,” he whispers, his gaze dropping to my lips. “Only a fool would let you go once they had you where they wanted you.

Falling in love with me didn’t mean she fell out of love with him. It meant she loved us both. I want her to love me more.

I want someone’s all. I want someone’s all and absolutely nothing less.

I want my girl back. I want the future I dared to dream about. I want her.

Baby, you beat out every woman everywhere, even in your sleep.

I’m in love with her, and if I’m right, which I hope to hell I am, she’s on her way to loving me right back. If she could, I’d need nothing else. Just her.

I can feel you checking me out.” He doesn’t bother turning to confirm. “Yeah, well.” I grip the countertop and lean forward a little. “When the man above blessed us with wine, we indulged. It’s only fair his other masterpieces get the same treatment.

Sweet, Arianna, my Noah became your Noah, and honey, he was your everything, just as you are his. You fell for him right back, and you never got up.

I need you to know that as much as you’re hurting right now, as much as you’ve been, that there is a man out there who is hurting just as fucking much, with every breath he takes.” I suck in a choppy breath, and my brother’s eyes gloss over. “And not for himself, but for you.” His attention falls to my stomach. “For both of you.

It’s hard when you realize you simply aren’t enough for someone, and it’s even harder when everyone you’re connected to is connected to that person as well.

Marry me, Juliet. We can wait until you’re done with school, or we can drive to a chapel right now. I don’t care. Marry me.

This recipe book is for you, my sweet Noah, and inside, you will find me in memory. My heart is so full, as I hope that one day your wife and children’s bellies will be as you turn the page and create for them all the meals I created for you. And just like that, you’ll find I’m forever with you, alive in aromas that shall one day fill your home as they filled ours.

Look at her, Noah.” Mason’s whisper is desperate. “Just… fucking look at her. It’s written all over her, and she doesn’t even know it. She’s yours, man. Don’t let her lose what she always wanted and finally found.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, forces a man to face his feelings for a woman… than the interest of another man.

in his open palm. His eyes never leave mine. “I want you, Arianna Johnson, like no man has ever wanted a woman before. I’m sure of it. I want to give you the life you dreamed of, the one you shared with me. I want to give you a home on the ocean, one that will be ours, where the back deck faces the ocean, so we can sit outside at night while the sun sets, but only so we can watch the way the moon bounces off the water the way you love. I want to come home and cook for you while you sit back and watch our little one in your arms.

Noah isn’t all the things the boys are for me. He’s somehow… more.

I love you, baby. Every part of you. I love the way you link life to lyrics, how you smile at the moon and love like the ocean,

The path to the three-way junction is one I’d take ten times over, no matter where it leads because loving Arianna Johnson is worth the risk. Being loved by her is priceless. The time was worth the torment.

Today was horribly tragic and serves as yet another reminder that no matter the choices we make, anything can come in and stir up our lives at any moment. Chances are, we’d never see it coming, and that’s terrifying.

That was part of the beauty of us. Her pain was mine as mine was hers. We never needed words to know the other was hurting… but she doesn’t remember that.

I’m telling you, he’s a beast, and you’re the closest thing to Belle I’ve ever seen.” “You’re an idiot.

I’m angry and with good reason. But I wish I weren’t because rage always leads to ruin.