Dylan And Winnie Quotes

“The crew headed to Tequila Jodi’s for a celebration. Raven and Vaughn arrived an hour after everyone. They made up for their tardiness by binge drinking a bottle of tequila. Well, Vaughn did. Raven binged on a pitcher of Diet Coke.
“I might be binging for two!” she announced then sat down to look over the pictures of her niece and nephew.
Harlow showed up with Toni. While her mom joined Jodi at a back table, Harlow made a beeline for Winnie.
“Are you okay?” she asked, studying Winnie’s face.
“Yes. Are you?”
Harlow rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Winnie glanced at me and I saw such peace in her eyes. When she looked back at Harlow, her smile brightened.
“Lark and the babies are okay. Today is a good day.”
Hugging her sister, Winnie couldn’t stop smiling.
“Are you drunk?” Harlow asked.
“I’m happy.”
Harlow studied her sister again and checked her hands for new bruises. “Do you plan to sleep at home tonight?”
“No, I’m staying with Dylan.”
“Any bad memories about the baby?”
“Only hopeful thoughts about the future.”
Harlow frowned at me then shrugged. “I can imagine you two making a decent looking kid. Your pretty eyes and hair and his… well shaped head. Yeah, it’ll work.”
Running a hand over my head, I laughed. “My head shape is helluva sexy.”
Winnie’s calm infected Harlow who laughed and ordered a soda. The sisters danced with Bailey and Sawyer to Amos Moses. I knew Winnie wasn’t comfortable showing off in front of people. Whenever she got nervous, she glanced at me and relaxed.
“Wedding bells,” Nick said from beside me. “You didn’t waste any time.”
“She calms the asshole in me and I calm the broken girl in her. What’s there to wait for?”
Giving me a grin, Nick shrugged. “When you know, you know.”
― Bijou Hunter, Damaged and the Bulldog

“Dylan lifted my chin so my lips could meet his. I kissed him hard, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion I’d held tight inside me.
“Good things happen,” I said, crying now. “Sometimes I forget that even when I have a blessing right in front of me.”
Dylan wrapped me tighter in his arms and smiled against my lips. “Me too, but I never lost faith in little Lark. If anyone could kick death in the ass, it would be her.”
I laughed at the thought of Lark versus the Grim Reaper. When my laughter drew the attention of the others, they laughed too, even without knowing why. All the tension faded as our fears turned to celebration.
“Shit, I’m gonna get teary-eyed,” Vaughn announced, looking at his phone.
We all received the same message from Raven with pictures of the babies.
“Which one’s the girl?” Judd asked, squinting at Tawny’s phone.
“The one with the pink hat,” his wife said.
Everyone laughed again.
“You can’t see if they have curly hair,” Cooper muttered. “Man, I hope at least one of them does. I’m never letting Aaron live that shit down.”
More laughter as everyone enjoyed the additional photos Raven sent.”
― Bijou Hunter, Damaged and the Bulldog

“Rolling my eyes, I took Dylan’s hand and followed Harlow inside. Jace sat in the front of the TV. I knew he was grumpy based on the way he didn’t look at me.
When I flopped next to him on the couch, he did smile.
“You smell like a strip club,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.
“How would you know?”
“I’m not telling you my secrets.”
Shaking my head, I sighed loudly. “Why do you make me do this to you? It’s like you want to suffer.”
Jace knew what was coming, but his escape came too late. I pinned him on the couch and tickled him. Despite his efforts to seem unfazed, he couldn’t withstand armpit tickling.
While I tormented my laughing brother, Dad and Mom walked out from the kitchen.
“He missed you,” Mom said as I finally let Jace up.
Catching his breath, my brother leaned next to me on the couch. “I miss beating you at videogames.”
“I miss you beating me too,” I said, kissing his head.
Harlow flopped on the couch next to us and I smiled at the familiar comfort of my family.
Dylan watched us with a slight grin. When he caught Tad and Toni’s gazes, his smile grew.
Suspicious now, I glanced at Harlow who was busy gluing herself to me. “Are they up to something?” I whispered. “Am I going to be embarrassed?”
“I don’t know. If you feel embarrassed, I’ll punch Dylan in the crotch and distract everyone.”
Rolling my eyes at her threat, I studied Dylan who grinned at me.
“What?” I asked, nervous now.
“She’s on to you,” Dad said. “Better ask now before she gets squirrely.”
“Squirrely,” Jace snorted. “She gets batty too.”
Harlow laughed. “Winnie can do so many animal impressions.”
Ignoring them, I stood up and walked to a still smiling Dylan.
“What?”
“What happened to patience?”
Without thinking, I reached to pinch my hand. Dylan took both hands then knelt on one knee.
“Don’t,” Harlow blurted, grabbing for me.
Everyone frowned at her. A moment passed where she stared at me in horror. Suddenly, she shrugged. “I meant don’t stop. Go ahead, Dylan.”
The mood in the room shifted back to anticipation. Our gaze focused on Dylan who smiled up at me.
“I know it’s been a few weeks. I don’t care. I love you and you love me, right?”
“I love you so much.”
“I’m not stupid. I know we’ll have problems. We run into issues. When we do, we’ll work them out. We’ll figure them out because we belong together. You believe that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I whispered, staring into his beautiful dark eyes.
“Winona Todds, you are perfection and I refuse to live without you. Will you marry me?”
My legs turning to jelly, I knelt down too. “Yes,” I whispered, afraid he was about to change his mind. Maybe it was a trick. All these awful things rushed through my mind. I wasn’t good enough for Dylan. He was going to leave me one day. I didn’t deserve to be happy when I was so weak.
“You love me,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against mine. “You want me to be happy.”
“Yes,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks.
“You’re what I need to survive.”
“I’m not really strong yet.”
“I love you now. I don’t want to wait. Do you want to wait for me?”
Shaking my head, I looked at my smiling parents then back at Dylan.
“We’re in love and planning to live together. We need to make our relationship official, so your daddy won’t kick my ass.”
Even laughing, I asked, “You want this?”
“I can give up everything else in my life, but never you. Married or not, you belong with me.”
I exhaled uneasily then smiled. “Yes, I will marry you.”
― Bijou Hunter, Damaged and the Bulldog

“We can’t have sex at my parents’ place,” I said, giving him a grin.
“You are so sex obsessed,” he said, sighing dramatically. “I blame myself for being that good.”
― Bijou Hunter, Damaged and the Bulldog

“Tall, narrow, and grand, the first house was a Victorian. Once loved by a family, it ended up a college rental. Dylan took it from rundown and abused to grand again.
“Could you see yourself living here?” he asked, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
“No,” I said softly.
“Good. Me either, but I’d have moved in tomorrow if you said yes.”
Squirming around to face him, I sighed. “You’re so whipped.”
“I know, but only when it comes to you.”
“It’s only fair since you own my heart and could destroy me if you wanted.”
“Could, but never will,” he said, taking my hand. “Let’s go look at the midcentury house.”
“What if I don’t like that one either?”
Dylan opened the car door and shrugged. “Plenty of houses in Ellsberg that need love. We’ll find one and make it ours.”
― Bijou Hunter, Damaged and the Bulldog