Quotes from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes

Denise Grover Swank ·  374 pages

Rating: (24.5K votes)


“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn’t going to work out.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I sighed, a deep and heavy sigh. If only sighs could carry all my troubles away.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I wondered if somehow, without my knowing it, I had been cast in a Lifetime channel movie.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“...with the company of just myself, my thoughts presented themselves like unwelcome houseguests.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“Why I waited until the last days of my life to feel pampered and beautiful. People tell themselves there’s plenty of time to do it all, but most of the time they never see death coming.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes



“Most of the time I paid it no mind. I kept to myself and everyone in my town of Henryetta liked it that way. While my grandma saw helpful information such as droughts and locust infestations, I was cursed with seeing useless and mundane things like Mrs. White’s toilet overflow or the ear infection in Jenny Baxter’s baby. None of that would be so bad if I kept what I saw to myself, but my visions didn't work that way. Without any volition of my own, whatever I saw just blurted right out of my mouth. Most of the people who knew me thought I was a snoop or a gossip, the only rational explanation to reason away my knowledge. But Momma had another opinion. She declared me demon-possessed.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I was paving the highway to hell in beet bottles and kisses.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“Trust was a tricky thing. Usually the perosn asking for the trust had to prove they were worthy to receive it.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I find myself thinking about her all the time. But I hurt her. I didn’t mean to hurt her. I’d do anything to take back the pain I caused, but I don’t think she’ll listen to me. So the only thing I know to do is start over, then maybe she’ll give me another chance.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“he wasn’t who I thought he was.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes



“It all started when I saw myself dead.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Are you talking about Agnes Gardner?" I had a sneaking suspicion she was at the wrong visitation.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“But misery is misery, no matter what its cause and we were both drowning in it. I”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn’t going to work out. I wondered why it decided to turn on me as I clung to the toilet, waiting to puke my guts out. Everything had been going so well the night before.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“The dam of tears broke again and I cried softly, grateful for the love I didn’t deserve because the gift of me didn’t seem to be enough.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes



“what’s wrong with being different? Sometimes it’s good to stand apart from everyone else.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“What that woman said, it wasn't right. Just remember that she doesn’t know you. You can’t change the opinions of small-minded people.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“I fell asleep, lying against his chest listening to the soft beat of his heart in my ear, my own full of joy.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“The next morning, beer and I mutually decided our relationship wasn´t going to work out.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“Gossip in Henryetta spread faster than a smallpox plague in an internment camp.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes



“I didn't know how many police cars the city of Henryetta owned, but I was willing to bet money all of them were currently parked in front of my house.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“My smile rivaled the width of the Grand Canyon.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“my computer screen. A scruffy man in his mid-thirties”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“the wall in the hallway, watching Violet and her family”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“As the evening went on, I discovered that visitations are all about lying. Momma never looked so good, both physically and in personality, as she did dead. We heard how wonderful, kind, clever, and generous she was, adjectives no one in their right mind would have used a week ago.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes



“huff. “I need to renew my plates,” he said. Irritation”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


“We walked to the car, side by side, but a million miles apart.”
― Denise Grover Swank, quote from Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes


About the author

Denise Grover Swank
Born place: in Kansas City, The United States
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Popular quotes

“What the f**k is this?”

Trevor didn’t rise to the bait, as he hadn’t for the last several days. Calmly, he asked,

“What?”

“This.” Edgard threw the pristine, custom-made saddle on the ground within Trevor’s peripheral view.

Shit. How had Edgard found it? And why in the hell had that bastard gone snooping around instead of figuring out what was wrong with Meridian like he’d promised?

“Trev? I asked you a question.”

“You know damn good and well what it is, Ed.”

“I figured you would’ve gotten rid of it by now.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

Edgard practically growled, “That don’t tell me why you still have it. That don’t tell me nothin’.”

Trevor turned his face toward the opposite fence to gaze across to the mountains. His reasons for keeping the saddle seemed sentimental, sloppy and stupid now, but he’d be damned if he’d share those reasons with anyone, least of all Edgard, the man responsible for those feelings.

Bootsteps made a sucking sound in the muck of the corral as Edgard closed the short distance between them. “I ain’t gonna drop it. Answer me.”

“Fine. You said I could do whatever I wanted with it. So I kept it.”

“You didn’t use it at all, did you?”

Trevor shook his head, keeping his eyes averted.

“Why not?”

“I have plenty of other saddles, saddles I like better.”

“That’s a piss-poor excuse. Try again.”

He stayed mum, wishing the damn mud would open up and swallow him like a sinkhole.

“Were you hoping if you kept it I’d come back?”

Trevor’s heart said yes but his mouth stayed tight as a rusty hinge.

“Answer the f**king question, Trevor.”

Edgard’s arrogant streak snapped Trevor’s forced patience. “What do you want me to say? It’s obvious I saved the goddamn saddle.”

“Why?”

“Because it reminded me of you, all right?” He kicked a chunk of mud and stalked away. “Fuck this and f**k you.”

Edgard rattled off something in Portuguese, something Trevor vaguely remembered as being a plea. Or was it a threat?

Dammit. His feet stopped. Trevor’s gaze zeroed in on Edgard, who’d circled him until they were standing less than a foot apart.

“Tell me why.”

Be cruel, that’ll nip this in the bud once and for all.

“I didn’t keep the f**kin’ thing because I had some girlish goddamn hope you’d come back lookin’ for it like Cinderella’s lost glass slipper, and we’d pick up where we left off after you left me.” He locked his eyes to the liquid heat in Edgard’s, not allowing the man to look away. “Especially after you made it crystal clear you weren’t ever comin’ back.”

Angry puffs of breath distorted the air between them.

Several beats passed before Edgard retorted, “But I am here now, aren’t I?”

“What? Am I supposed to be flippin’ cartwheels about that fact? I don’t know what you want from me, Ed. Take the saddle back if that’ll make you happy. I’ve got no use for it. I never did.” Angry, disgusted with himself, Edgard, and the whole uncomfortable situation, Trevor spun and walked toward the barn.

Edgard laughed—the taunting, soft laughter that was guaranteed to raise Trevor’s hackles and his ire. “It’s that easy for you? To get pissed off and walk away?”

“Yep. You’ve got no right to act so goddamned surprised since it’s a trick I learned from you, amigo.”

Not two seconds later, the air left Trevor’s lungs as Edgard tackled him to the ground. Trevor rolled to dislodge the man from his back; Edgard countered, took a swing and missed. Trevor bucked and twisted his shoulders, but Edgard anticipated the move and used the momentum against Trevor to try and shove Trevor’s face against the fence.

Before Edgard cornered him and held him down completely to land a punch, Trevor rolled again and pushed to his feet. A noise echoed behind him, but he ignored it as he fisted his hands in Edgard’s shearling coat, dragging him upright until they were nose to nose.”
― Lorelei James, quote from Rough, Raw, and Ready


“And closing one's eyes, no matter how fervently, does not make the truth go away.”
― Julie Lessman, quote from A Heart Revealed


“Und so sagte ich ihr, dass ich ihrem Daddy wehtun müsste, damit wir fliehen könnten, und da trat ein Ausdruck in ihre Augen, den ich gut kannte. Denn trotz ihrer Wohlanständigkeit mochte Quilla June ihren gottesfürchtigen Daddy nicht besonders gern.”
― Harlan Ellison, quote from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream


“Alston snorted. "Be realistic, Peri. You don't have the power to challenge us. Not unless you possessed all of the Fae stones."
Peri pulled both hands from the pockets in her robes and held them out, fist clenched and palms upward, to the Fae arrayed before he. She slowly unclenched her fists, revealing the five Fae stones, two in her left hand, and three in her right. The Fae stones, which only appeared in times of greatest need, lay ominously in her outstretched hands.
"How do you like me now bee-otch?" She grinned, wickedly.”
― Quinn Loftis, quote from Fate and Fury


“For feeling, not events, is to me the essence of history.”
― Christopher Pike, quote from The Last Vampire


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