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Choices #4
Endure
This is Seth's story.
Love follows no rules.
He was the last person I expected to find. He was nothing I wanted but everything I needed. I just hadn’t known it.
When I met him, my heart was heavy, and my soul was starving. And there he was, devastatingly handsome with dark, depthless eyes rimmed by long, dark lashes that created a feathered shadow on his cheek.
I always have been a sucker for beautiful eyes.
But it wasn’t just his good looks that attracted me. It was the mischievous smile that graced his lips right before he said something silly. It was his laughter, with wild abandon, that made me want to smile again. It was the way he looked into my eyes when he spoke to me, making me feel as if my words really mattered. Like I was important to him as well. It was all of things and so much more.
It was like seeing the world through a different set of eyes, and his excitement was contagious. You couldn’t help smiling back.
There was something about him. When I was with him, wrapped in his arms or kissing his beautiful mouth, I forgot the rest of the world existed. In those precious, stolen moments in time, he was mine. And I belonged to him. All of the trivial things slipped away as he made me feel as if we could do anything together.
I believed him.
In the time I knew him, I began to see his soul. I watched him evolve and grow, and there was nothing more stunning than his smile as he talked about the things he loved best. That was the side of him I loved the most, those short moments when he saw himself as I did.
With each new achievement, it was a little bittersweet. While I saw him growing and learning, I wanted to clutch tighter and keep him for just a little longer. But a wild heart cannot be tamed. I knew I’d someday have to share him with the world, and I counted down the days we had together. Every time he left, every time I walked out the door, I never knew if it would be the last time I saw him. I’d memorize his kiss, the look in his eyes as we made love, everything… everything. God, how I loved that scar on his lip.
I loved all of him.
The world tried to tell us it would never work, but they were wrong.
I wasn’t quite prepared for the love and wonder, the amazement that I would experience every single day. While I thought I would be teaching him, he was the one teaching me. He taught me that a wounded heart can learn to love again. He taught me to cherish even the smallest things, that time really does fly by and each moment should be cherished. All of them. From disagreements to butterfly kisses and from fear to faith. All of this, he taught me. And more.
Most importantly, he taught me that I could do anything if only I tried. What seemed impossible suddenly became possible.
He believed in me.
He helped me believe in me.
We defied the odds more than once. I hope, I desperately hope, that we continue to do that every minute of every day –push one another to defy the odds.
Together or apart. We’ll always be joined in that way.
Love follows no rules.
He was the last person I expected to find. He was nothing I wanted but everything I needed. I just hadn’t known it.
When I met him, my heart was heavy, and my soul was starving. And there he was, devastatingly handsome with dark, depthless eyes rimmed by long, dark lashes that created a feathered shadow on his cheek.
I always have been a sucker for beautiful eyes.
But it wasn’t just his good looks that attracted me. It was the mischievous smile that graced his lips right before he said something silly. It was his laughter, with wild abandon, that made me want to smile again. It was the way he looked into my eyes when he spoke to me, making me feel as if my words really mattered. Like I was important to him as well. It was all of things and so much more.
It was like seeing the world through a different set of eyes, and his excitement was contagious. You couldn’t help smiling back.
There was something about him. When I was with him, wrapped in his arms or kissing his beautiful mouth, I forgot the rest of the world existed. In those precious, stolen moments in time, he was mine. And I belonged to him. All of the trivial things slipped away as he made me feel as if we could do anything together.
I believed him.
In the time I knew him, I began to see his soul. I watched him evolve and grow, and there was nothing more stunning than his smile as he talked about the things he loved best. That was the side of him I loved the most, those short moments when he saw himself as I did.
With each new achievement, it was a little bittersweet. While I saw him growing and learning, I wanted to clutch tighter and keep him for just a little longer. But a wild heart cannot be tamed. I knew I’d someday have to share him with the world, and I counted down the days we had together. Every time he left, every time I walked out the door, I never knew if it would be the last time I saw him. I’d memorize his kiss, the look in his eyes as we made love, everything… everything. God, how I loved that scar on his lip.
I loved all of him.
The world tried to tell us it would never work, but they were wrong.
I wasn’t quite prepared for the love and wonder, the amazement that I would experience every single day. While I thought I would be teaching him, he was the one teaching me. He taught me that a wounded heart can learn to love again. He taught me to cherish even the smallest things, that time really does fly by and each moment should be cherished. All of them. From disagreements to butterfly kisses and from fear to faith. All of this, he taught me. And more.
Most importantly, he taught me that I could do anything if only I tried. What seemed impossible suddenly became possible.
He believed in me.
He helped me believe in me.
We defied the odds more than once. I hope, I desperately hope, that we continue to do that every minute of every day –push one another to defy the odds.
Together or apart. We’ll always be joined in that way.
ebook
Published January 1, 2017
310 people want to read
About the author
Sydney Lane
8 books234 followersSydney Lane lives in Nashville, TN with her family. Growing up in Smalltown, USA, Sydney dreamed of being a writer. After spending an outrageous amount of money to go to college, Sydney finally decided to follow her heart. Her debut, Choices, was an Amazon Top 100 Coming of Age novel. Sydney is very active in charity work for anti-bullying and depression awareness groups.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 20, 2014
"If I have learned anything, it's that you can't make someone feel the way you do. It's meant to be or it isn't. Part of loving somebody is about making sure they're ready. Ready for what you want. Ready to receive your love. Ready to love you in turn. The other part of loving someone is that you are faithful. You will wait for them, give them time. You will give them everything, even when they can't offer anything. Something for nothing. ~Declan.
In the first two choices books we have watched Declan support his friends and frat brothers unconditionally. Even when that meant that he lost the girl that he thought that he loved. In Hope, we meet back up with this group of friends, and Declan is still trying to come to terms with the fact that Quincey is with Brody and she is trying to give him the space that is needed for him to copy with the things that have taken place. Declan is trying to figure out where and who he is and why the "good" guys always seem to finish last.
Eliza is the newby of the group, just starting her freshman year at UT. She is lucky enough to end up as a roommate with Corrine, which in turn places her and Delcan in each others paths quiet often. The feelings that seem to pass between the two are hard to figure out and they are both unsure as to how to react to the Choices before them.
If there is a series that allows you to go back and remember how you were during your early adult years, this has to be it. Sydney Lane does a fantastic job of writing about the Choices that can change your life in the blink of an eye. She does a wonderful job of approaching the topics of drinking, sex, drugs, suicide, heartbreak, love, and even abuse. She writes all these into her stories and shows us how her characters chose to deal with the issues that enter their paths. It reminds me of the poem the road not taken, where we often wonder what if we would have chosen a different path. This is the way that her stories will leave you thinking. Now, don't get the wrong idea, these are beautifully written stories that will leave you emotionally charged and even feeling good about life as well.
I think that HOPE, is the best title that she could have given this book, because you can see how Declan lives by this one single word. Again in a way it gives us that reflection on how we can look at our personal day to day lives and how with out HOPE, what do we really have to help get us through those tough and trying times, other than faith. I think that the insight that Sydney Lane gives us through her stories is great, and if you actually stop and think about what she is conveying through her stories you will not only finish the book, but you will finish it with a brighter outlook and that all true feeling of HOPE. My only sorrow is that I do not want to have to leave this group behind. I would love to see how Seth's story plays out and see how he handles the demons that seem to all but swallow him whole a points. Again though... when he is needed Declan seems to be there.
I hope that you as a reader will enjoy this book as much as I have.
"Because I can hope it gets better someday. Easier." " That's just the thing. It can only get better if you let go of your pain. It's your choice." ~ Eliza and Quincey.
In the first two choices books we have watched Declan support his friends and frat brothers unconditionally. Even when that meant that he lost the girl that he thought that he loved. In Hope, we meet back up with this group of friends, and Declan is still trying to come to terms with the fact that Quincey is with Brody and she is trying to give him the space that is needed for him to copy with the things that have taken place. Declan is trying to figure out where and who he is and why the "good" guys always seem to finish last.
Eliza is the newby of the group, just starting her freshman year at UT. She is lucky enough to end up as a roommate with Corrine, which in turn places her and Delcan in each others paths quiet often. The feelings that seem to pass between the two are hard to figure out and they are both unsure as to how to react to the Choices before them.
If there is a series that allows you to go back and remember how you were during your early adult years, this has to be it. Sydney Lane does a fantastic job of writing about the Choices that can change your life in the blink of an eye. She does a wonderful job of approaching the topics of drinking, sex, drugs, suicide, heartbreak, love, and even abuse. She writes all these into her stories and shows us how her characters chose to deal with the issues that enter their paths. It reminds me of the poem the road not taken, where we often wonder what if we would have chosen a different path. This is the way that her stories will leave you thinking. Now, don't get the wrong idea, these are beautifully written stories that will leave you emotionally charged and even feeling good about life as well.
I think that HOPE, is the best title that she could have given this book, because you can see how Declan lives by this one single word. Again in a way it gives us that reflection on how we can look at our personal day to day lives and how with out HOPE, what do we really have to help get us through those tough and trying times, other than faith. I think that the insight that Sydney Lane gives us through her stories is great, and if you actually stop and think about what she is conveying through her stories you will not only finish the book, but you will finish it with a brighter outlook and that all true feeling of HOPE. My only sorrow is that I do not want to have to leave this group behind. I would love to see how Seth's story plays out and see how he handles the demons that seem to all but swallow him whole a points. Again though... when he is needed Declan seems to be there.
I hope that you as a reader will enjoy this book as much as I have.
"Because I can hope it gets better someday. Easier." " That's just the thing. It can only get better if you let go of your pain. It's your choice." ~ Eliza and Quincey.
Displaying 1 of 1 review