He uttered a curse that startled her with its foulness, and gripped her head between his hands, forcing her to stare at him. His voice was savage. "For twelve years I have been in constant torment, wanting you in my arms and believing it would never be possible. I want you for a thousand reasons other than your legs, and...no, damn it, I want you for no reason at all, other than the fact that you're you. I want to shove myself deep inside you and stay for hours...days...weeks. I want morning and noon and nightfall with you. I want your tears, your smiles, your kisses...the smell of your hair, the taste of your skin, the touch of your breath on my face. I want to see you in the final hour of my life...to lie in your arms as I take my last breath.

Every long separation is a test: A test to see how powerful or how weak the will of reuniting is!

It wasn't fair to pull her into that vortex, because I couldn't be fixed. And Roxy was a fixer. She thought she could help me, I could see it in her eyes.

Maybe it was that brokenness inside of Bentley that I recognized and drew me to him, I didn't know. I just remember thinkin' how I wanted to know more about him. And I wanted to make him smile. Cause' that boy never smiled.

I just can’t do it anymore. It’s too painful. It doesn’t mean I’m over you, it means I’m not going to waste the rest of my life being haunted by your memory.

I just can’t do it anymore. It’s too painful. It doesn't mean I’m over you, it means I’m not going to waste the rest of my life being haunted by your memory.

I miss you Annabeth. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t stop thinkin’ about you. I think about you all the damn time.

When I think about you with him, it guts me. I feel like you ripped open my chest and tore out my damn heart. Do you even realize that? I know I should want you to be happy, but I can’t wish it for anyone else other than me. I belong to you, and that’s never going to change.

I couldn’t control my heart as it thumped out of control in my chest, insistent on remindin’ me that it was still in there. That it was still beating. For damn Archer Beaufait.

With a heavy heart, I pulled out my own pocket knife, and carved three little words beneath Archer’s. A plea and a wish, in a form I could never take back. Return to me.

Roxy was my breath of fresh air. My soft place to land. She was home to me.

The longer we spent together, the more she discovered about me. The things I didn't want her to know. The darkness and the anger and the pain.

She was trying to hide it, the pain I had caused her again. Because she knew how much those tears destroyed me.