Ship Wrecked Quotes
"Despite the steady hum of the hotel room’s AC unit, her forehead was damp, her disheveled blond hair darkened with sweat at the roots."
"His thoughts took even longer to gather, probably because she’d blown his damn mind."
"Soft as velvet beneath his fingertips, the salty skin at the crook of her neck throbbed with her pulse and smelled herbal and musky."
"Unfortunately, once her breathing slowed, she nudged him aside with a gentle push, and he reluctantly let her go."
"With all that softness and strength, all that confidence, Maria Unknown-Last-Name was the sexiest woman he’d ever met. Bar none."
"Playing the lovelorn or bumbling best friend, the comic relief, the unnamed murder victim, the character whose entire arc revolved around his weight, had grown old more than a decade ago."
"She sat gracefully, deposited her purse in her lap, and glanced around in bright-eyed curiosity, smiling."
"So when she sauntered back from the white-tiled bathroom and knelt on the edge of the mattress, her stare bold as it swept his sprawled body, he sat up, propped himself against the headboard."
"She’d left without a word, and fuck knew he remembered what that felt like."
"If he ever saw her again—and he wouldn’t—he’d thank her for reminding him of that."
"He was one of maybe two or three men still in contention to play Cyprian."
"This is your first time auditioning for a television show. Is that correct, Ms. Ivarsson?"
"Her tousled waves glowed like a nimbus in the golden light of the bedside lamp, and he had to catch his breath all over again."
"Her closest colleague would be the man she’d fucked and left without a word last night."
"It was all way too dramatic for a simple hookup. Foolishly overromantic, especially for the taciturn, plainspoken sort of man he was."
"He turned away to hide his frown before hurrying toward one of several horse-drawn carts waiting by the harbor—jaunties, the locals called them."
"But there was no one else in hearing distance."
"She’d almost reached the semicircle of crew surrounding the area where Cassia and Cyprian were hauling rocks from the shore and stacking them into an initial shelter."
"For the rest of that night, he avoided her again. Sat as far away from her as possible at dinner."
"If he got tired after a long day of travel, a couple of the local horses were out of luck, because he’d be hiring one of those jaunties to keep him moving."
"He’d admire the panoply of late-spring flowers growing in the grikes."
"Peter didn’t want to be watching Maria from across their plate-choked dinner table at the hotel, but he couldn’t help himself."
"Why couldn’t he do this? Why hadn’t he somehow managed to get past his social awkwardness after more than three and a half decades of suffering for it?"
"You’re right. Carlie’s going to college in Madison. Just like Dottie and I did"—she made a show of mumbling—"mmphmmm years ago."
"Peter, we may spend years together on this island. Years. We’re the only two actors on the set, and we both know you’re the center of everything here."
"That’s why you packed all those snacks," he said. "To defy them if they tried to fuck with our food supply."
"You realize this isn’t an actual deserted island, right? And that the production will make sure we get fed?"
"We can use my phone," he said brusquely and held the door for her without making eye contact.
"It’s a great place to go to college," Nava said. "Although I think Carlie’s diet is eighty percent cheese curds during the school year."
"The fried version was his favorite, personally. Melty and excellent with ranch dressing."
"Thank you for all the incredible food, Fi. I can’t wait for dessert."
"Setting his fork back on the table, he contemplated the PA’s unlined countenance and reconsidered his skepticism about sorcery."
"But Maria wasn’t Cassia, and he refused to hurt or frighten her, however inadvertently."
"Like oxygen to a man slowly, painfully suffocating."
"The knowledge had stung—of course it stung; it more than stung, it burned."
"He tried not to think about it. He’d been trying not to think about it for weeks now. Possibly months."
"Cassia and Cyprian’s lovemaking, the triumphant roar of the undead told them their gate had been breached."
"He helped her into the frail currach they’d painstakingly assembled."
"Cyprian had watched the woman he loved to the point of agony."
"Maria kind of jerked in her seat, blinking rapidly."
"Technically, I suppose all fish bought here are Swedish Fish."
"I’m not ready for bed yet, and I don’t need anything. But I want something."
"Peter’s fiancée preferred treadmills to running outside, and I never understood that."
"Who doesn’t want to eat a food product that, when chewed, sounds like distressed mice were set loose in your mouth?"
"We’d walk until I was tired, and whether I’d told her what was wrong or not, she’d hug me and take me for ice cream on the way home."
"She hated parties and public speaking. And she loved us, but she always needed a lot of alone time too."
"Talking about his mother felt like swallowing glass."
"She worked as a medical transcriptionist, and she was good at it, even though the job bored her."
"Looking back, she was probably depressed, but it wasn’t diagnosed at the time."
"Her voice turned rough. Fierce with anger. 'I hope you were happier without him. Both of you.'"
"Maria’s lips brushed his cheek, and suddenly the evening’s chill receded again."
"She smiled, and the sun might as well have reappeared on the horizon."
"He had to laugh. 'Are you sure you didn’t read a transcript of our conversation?'"
"She had more energy, and we spent more time together. She’d sketch, and I’d read."
"Her eyes twinkled with malicious glee. 'Just in case you thought I forgot about the Pippi reference from earlier...'"
"The good news—the best news—is that if she’d stayed with me, I wouldn’t have Maria."
"She wasn’t moving half a world away from her native country and her family for a man who couldn’t tell her he loved her."
"She felt light enough to drift, airborne, in the wake of Peter’s laughter."
"She now knew his past; she’d been at his side for much of his present; and she could take an informed guess as to what his future might hold."
"It was time to finish this story, so he could start another. This one, he hoped, had a happy ending."
"Her doubts were gone. It was time to celebrate."
"He wanted me orbiting him at a safe distance, where he could still check on me regularly and ensure I made the right choices."
"His throat ached from all this talking, and his fucking head ached from all the memories, all the effort of finding the right words."
"He took her hand and gave her some of his weight as he rose. Because he trusted her strength, trusted her enough to relinquish some of his independence and let her help."
"I love you so much more than I ever loved him. I need you more than I ever needed him."
"I may not have a mortgage, but we need retirement savings, because our careers won’t stay hot forever."
"Then we should sell the house. Because if you feel forced to take certain jobs just so you can keep it, those gates aren’t keeping you safe. They’re keeping you stuck."
"Sweetheart, please listen to me and stop crying. I can’t take it."
"I’ll never leave you. I’ll never set you aside. I’ll never betray your faith in me."
"Every moment I wavered, though, help inevitably appeared."
"My family did everything they could to support me as I wrote, even when all they could really do was keep loving and encouraging me."
"For the first time in his life, he—Peter Reedton—believed in happy endings."