"I'm a different person to the screwed-up, headstrong girl I was the last time I drove down this sandy road."
"Despite all my good intentions to leave the past in its dark, deep grave, I can't help it."
"Maybe love doesn't have to destroy you. Maybe it's not all unbearable passion, and kisses that make you want to die. Maybe love can be that gentle breeze my mom told me about: strong, and sure, and true."
"I had it all under control. You just don't know me anymore!"
"I don’t need anything from you! I never did!"
"All through the night, I lay awake... replaying the humiliating scene from the parking lot."
"He showed me how to develop my first roll of film here: exposing the print on special paper, then soaking it in the chemical baths, until slowly, the image became clear."
"It fits in my hand like it belongs there, yet another reminder of everything I left behind in this town that fateful summer."
"This is what I needed: away from everything, just me and the ocean."
"Color, and texture, and the twist of focus. And more than anything, the clarity, from looking at the world one step removed."
"I was done with reckless, I wanted safe and sure and true."
"You’ve probably got a lot to do. With the house."
"I picked myself up after his cruel rejection, and did what I could to mend my broken heart."
"I have to be true to myself. Can’t you understand that, even a little?"
"I can’t pretend like everything’s OK with Daniel when I feel this way about Emerson!"
"I can’t build a future on half-truths and denial."
"I just know, I have to see, if there’s anything there to make work. I have to be true to myself."
"I swore to myself, I’d never have to depend on anyone the way they do."
"Pretending like the past never happened is a recipe for disaster."
"I don’t want to think of what might have been."
"I can’t hide the parts of myself that scare me – or the bad things I’ve done."
"I’m sorry I can’t be the girl you love. I just.. I need to figure out who I am!"
"Maybe pretending is the best I can hope for anymore."
"I don’t want to pretend like everything’s OK with Daniel when I feel this way about Emerson!"
"I have to try. I have to sit down, and talk to him, and find out if these feelings overwhelming me are just temporary desire and old memories, or built of something more solid."
"Think clearly! You can’t just go hurtling in there without a plan."
"I’m on the edge of my future here, and I need to know where this is going."
"The miles slip by, and still, I don’t get any closer to the answers."
"Arguments and questions and all these thoughts rattling around in my mind—they fade away the nearer I get to him."
"I feel fucking incredible, every nerve and cell shimmering with golden triumph."
"Sometimes people make mistakes. But if they’re sorry, and they want to make things right, maybe they deserve that shot."
"I’ll give all of me just to possess him one more time."
"You broke his fucking heart, and I was the one left trying to clean up the mess."
"But he’s the one who broke up with me! He just did it, all over again!"
"You really don’t know, do you?" she whispers.
"I love my brother more." she says fiercely. "And for some reason, he chose you, no matter what he tries to tell himself."
"All that time wasted, that I’ll never get back."
"This is my favorite place in the world," Emerson’s voice is low, thick with desire. "Right here. In you."
"You’re my hurricane, Emerson Ray. I’ll always be yours."