Tabatha

“I love you. I've loved you since the bar. I've loved you since you sat down without asking and talked about a horse named Spicy Regret and I thought, I'm in trouble. I love the paint in your hair and the way you name cacti and the fact that you see through every wall I've ever built. I love you, and I'm sorry it took a Game 7 of the Conference Finals for me to say it where people can hear.”
― Riley Keenan, Unexpectedly Expecting

“Please, baby." He turns to me, his eyes are red. "Don't marry him. I can deal with most things. I've dealt with the fake engagement. The business deal. The lying. Sleeping alone while you sleep under his roof. I've dealt with all of it." He steps closer. His hand reaches for my face and then drops, like he's not sure he's allowed to touch me anymore. "But marrying him? For real? Taking his name. Walking down an aisle. Standing in front of people and saying vows to a man you don't love. Him kissing you after you say I do." His voice breaks. "Well, I fucking don't, baby. I don't. I can't give you permission for that. I can't sit in this house and know that you belong to someone else, even on paper, even for a day. Because it won't feel like paper to me. It'll feel like losing you. Again. For real this time." Tears are streaming down my face. I can't stop them. I'm not even trying anymore. “I’m begging you, don’t do this. Don’t marry him. Please let me be the only man you walk down the aisle to.”  "I'm annulling it the second the company is his," I say. But my voice is small, a whisper in a hurricane. He visibly flinches at my words.  "I never thought I'd have to say this, Goldie." He stops and takes a breath so deep it fills the room. "But you just found my hard limit." The words land and nearly choke me.  "If you marry Hudson, we're over. There is no coming back to me after that." My mouth drops open. The floor disappears. The room tilts, and I'm falling through it, through every plan I made and every lie I told and every sacrifice I thought I was making to protect him. "Please, Ace. Don't do this." "It's not me doing this, Harper. It's you. You're choosing.”
― Luna Mason, Unleashed

“I know she's right." The admission cost something physical — I felt it leave, felt the space it opened. "I've known she's right since the bar. Since she sat down across from me and started talking about Spicy Regret and I thought, This person is going to ruin me, and she did, Gator. She ruined every system I had, and what's underneath is better than anything I built, and I'm so terrified of losing it that I'm destroying it myself.”
― Riley Keenan, Unexpectedly Expecting

“Your choice, Goldie." My voice comes out steadier than I feel. "It's me or him. You walk down that aisle, there is no turning back. If you do that, I won’t let you back into my heart.”
― Luna Mason, Unleashed