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“In my country, we value achievement. People are free to decide what that means to them, and I’ve always considered helping others to be my way of accomplishing something important. I was hoping to serve others with my new job, but that’s history now, so I’m going to have to accomplish something big, or I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
― Steven Decker, Projector for Sale

“My people believe in balance,â€� he said. “We believe that all living things—plants, animals, people—have an intelligent spirit, and that they all make important contributions to the balance of the world.”
― Steven Decker, Projector for Sale

“If you hope for something, truly yearn for it from deep inside yourself, you have to try everything you can to make it come true. That’s the key to life, my young friend. You won’t always succeed, but knowing you’ve tried your best will carry you through. And sometimes, when you do succeed in making your hopes real, it allows all the beauty of being here on this earth to fill you up with joy.”
― Steven Decker, Projector for Sale

“Sometimes your world falls apart. And it’s okay for you to let people in and let them see you crumble”
― Jaci Burton, Changing the Game

“Fuck the usual. I don't want to be picture-perfect with you. I want to be a fucking mosaic, made up of broken pieces so damn colorful, you can't help finding them beautiful.”
― Lauren Asher, Wrecked

“He has the body of a professional athlete, chiseled to perfection in all the right places.”
― Collette West, Night Games

“I could handle it if they were just coming after me. I know what I signed up for," Asher said. "But you're getting caught up in this mess, and that's not fucking okay.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“The point is, your injuries don't define who you are. Maybe you're not the same dancer anymore, but who says you have to be? Growth isn't always linear, and I've seen you in the studio. I think you're still pretty damn incredible.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“Tomorrow would always be there.
Tonight, it was just us, and I was going to enjoy every second of it while it lasted.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“We all have ugly feelings sometimes. It's a part of human nature. But it's what's do with them that counts.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“If we think we're perfect and there's nothing we can improve on, we'll never grow. If there's no growth, we stagnate. And greatness doesn't come from stagnation; comes from progress.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“The flowers I had delivered are shades of light purple and pink, so I know she’s going to love them. It’s impractical, constantly spending money on flowers that will die shortly after bringing them home, but every cent is worth it when I get to watch that beaming smile bloom when she sees them.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“Ryan doesn’t like faking intimacy, but this, him brushing my hair and taking care of me while sick seems far more intimate than anything we’ve ever done.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“Are you just pretending?â€� He pulls away, laughing deep and full. “I stopped pretending a long time ago, Ind.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“Slipping my foot between hers, I nudge her feet apart to find a new addition to her shoes. Right there, inside of the left ankle is an embroidered basketball with my number and a heart stitched into the center of it.
“When did that get there?� I ask, loving the way my name and number look all over her. “This afternoon. I thought it was about time.� My stare breaks from her feet to find her smiling proudly, wearing my favorite emotion of hers—joy.
“It was about damn time.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“You know, Indy. Ryan doesn’t strike me as the type of man to be loud. He might not say it, might not scream it from the rooftops, but I could bet good money that he says it without words every single day.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“If you would’ve answered a single one of my calls this week, I could’ve told you exactly what I told Alex. My home, my heart, all of it, is with you. There was never a moment of doubt for me, Ryan. The only reason you heard me crying on the phone after that conversation is because I finally felt free, and more than that, I felt clarity. I don’t want you to change. I don’t need you to shout from rooftops or show me off. I just need your quiet love because those moments are the loudest declarations I’ve ever heard. I want you for exactly who you are. I’m in love with you, Ryan Shay, and I don’t need the entire world to know that for it to be true.”
― Liz Tomforde

“Why are you learning sign?â€� I’m fairly certain I know the reason, but I want to hear him say it. “Because they’re your family and you’re mine, and the fact you even have to ask is mind-blowing to me. Learning to communicate with your family is the bare minimum, Ind.â€�
I guess it is, but I didn’t know the bar was on the floor until Ryan Shay walked into my life and quietly raised it to the fucking moon. “And because I love you and when I tell your dad that, I’ll be the one to say it.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“I had Ryan Shay standing in my doorway telling me how his girlfriend likes her coffee and if you don’t think the look he gave me while he said it screamed ‘you better fucking make her coffee when she wakes upâ€� well then, babe, you’re wrong.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“Ryan.â€� He turns to face me.
“Why did you pay for my fertility treatments? I didn’t want anyone paying for that.�
“No, you didn’t want your parents paying for that. You said you felt uncomfortable for someone else paying for you to start a family. Well, it’s going to be my family too, so I don’t count.�
“But that was back in December. Even then?�
He knew even then?
“Even then.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“I’ve gained a new appreciation for the quiet since I met Ryan. The silence allows for a moment of introspection. Now, that silence screams with reminders that I’m worthy. That I’m deserving of the love I read about. I’m deserving of the family I desire, and I know this because I fell in love with a man while I was being completely and utterly myself and he fell right alongside me.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“I missed you. Thank you for understanding my fears and treating them with patience. You make me feel deserving of all the things I want in life. I don’t know where you came from or how I got so lucky to be loved by you, but Ryan, I adore you.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“This life, this home, this relationship is everything I never let myself want, and it’s more than I knew I was allowed to dream for.”
― Liz Tomforde, The Right Move

“There was no steady ground with Asher Donovan. It was a constant sea of change--frustrating, terrifying, and, as much as I hated to admit it, exhilerating.”
― Ana Huang, The Striker

“Don’t tell me if you love me, and fuck,â€� he exhales a painful laugh. “Please don’t tell me if you don’t. But especially don’t give me any hope because if you do, I have a feeling I’d chase you across the country until you were caught.”
― Liz Tomforde, Caught Up

“Nick leaned ever so slightly sideways, head down, looking for all the world as if he was innocently trying to secure his food on the end of his fork and said ‘I think you should be careful what you wish for. What am I supposed to do when you’re looking at me like I’m what you’d like to eat for dinner instead?”
― Cecelia Joyce, Pick Me Up

“Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting. It just means you’re ready to move forward.”
― Tember Sapphire, She's an Anchor

“To me, the mark of a truly great sporting venue has never been what it sounds like or how it feels when the stands are packed. That's easy. Even the most generic cookie-cutter stadium or arena feels electric when the game is big, the lights are on, and the crowd is amped. The real measure of a ballpark's character is how the place feels when it's empty. When the only noises to be heard are produced by the occasional breeze that slips through the concourse. It rattles the ropes on the empty center-field flagpoles. It pushes a stray plastic cup around beneath the feet of the box seats. And if you listen closely enough, that wind carries on it the whispers of the ghosts. The athletes who played between the lines, their toes in the dirt where only those who compete are allowed to roam.

During my career in sports media, I've heard their voices at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. I've heard them at Lambeau Field and the Rose Bowl. I've heard them at old Boston Garden and Augusta National. And the morning of Thursday, March 3, 1994, I heard them at McCormick Field. Cobb, Gehrig, Dizzy Dean, Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Willie Stargell. From the Hall of Famers to a thousand minor leaguers whose names no one remembers. I swear, they were all there that morning to welcome us into the little mountain ballpark that they'd helped build.”
― Ryan McGee, Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time

“Maybe when those three words were so unequivocally true, they couldn’t be kept inside if someone invoked them.”
― Tessa Bailey, Fangirl Down

“Love was the quiet hum of a lullaby slipping past sleeping ears on a late November evening.”
― J. Rose Black, Chasing Headlines