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Happy Place

Book by Emily Henry · 29 quotes · Love, Friendship, Summer

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Happy Place Quotes

“He smiles down at me, and it feels like a fist on my heart, a tight hug that verges on a heart attached. 'Because there's nowhere I wouldn't go for you. And if you get out to Montana and realize there's somewhere else you need to be, there's nothing I'm not willing to do to make it work. I'd rather have you five days a year than anyone else all the time. I'd rather argue with you than not talk, and whether we're together or we're not, I'm yours, so let's be together, Harriet. As much as we can. As long as we can. As soon as we can. Everything else, we'll figure out later.”

“The thought breaks my heart a little for my parents. For my dad, who worked nearly every Monday through nearly every Friday at a job he didn’t like enough to ever talk about, and I understand that something was stolen from him and he accepted it. Because we needed him to, or because he believed we did. And for my mom, who left behind one home to follow him and never quite found another. I duck into the shop and buy four bottles of campfire maple syrup. One for Parth and Sabrina, one for Cleo and Kimmy, and one for each of my parents. I want them both to have every drop. I want them to have everything they’ve ever wanted.”

“No part of me believes," I say, "that you struggle with first impressions." He brushes his thick hair up off his forehead, and it stays there, all except that one strand, of course, which is determined to fall sensually across his eyebrow. "Maybe you make me a little nervous." "Yeah, right," I say, spine tingling. "Just because you don't see me grabbing a mop every time you walk into a room doesn't mean I don't notice you're there." It feels like a bowling ball has landed in my stomach, a sudden drop. Then come the butterflies.”

“He could wait out any bad mood. The anger of an animal didn't make him angry. It helps you understand them better, he told me. You don't want that anger becoming fear. You want it turning into trust. And while there were a lot of things he'd hated about working at a ranch, he'd loved the feeling of coming to an agreement with another living thing, of understanding each other's needs, giving space when it was time for it, and pulling close when it was needed.”

“He’s become my best friend the way the others did: bit by bit, sand passing through an hourglass so slowly, it’s impossible to pin down the moment it happens. When suddenly more of my heart belongs to him than doesn’t, and I know I’ll never get a single grain back. He’s a golden boy. I’m a girl whose life has been drawn in shades of gray. I try not to love him. I really try.”

“Our new Save the Date stuck prominently to Gloria’s fridge. I memorize all the floorboards that creak or groan, so I can tiptoe downstairs in the morning without waking anyone, take the Jeep into town for a sugary latte for me and black coffee for them, orange cinnamon morning buns for all of us. Or at least Wyn will have a bite, and I’ll polish off the rest. I walk for a while, enjoy the bittersweet scent of whitebark and pine and quaking aspen. There’s an entire shop here for sauces, syrups, and oils. Last week, after sampling easily two dozen, Wyn and I bought a smoky maple syrup aged in charred bourbon barrels. For Gloria’s birthday, we made pancakes, and when she tasted the syrup, she said, “Tastes like camping.” Then she got choked up, because camping was something she and Hank used to do. “When we were first dating and had no money,” she explained. Then, after a teary laugh, she added, “And once we’d been married for decades and still had no money.”

“She means he's looking for something the New York Times has described as 'revelatory," Sabrina says. "Actually... " Parth walks up with a paper bag already in hand. “I picked this because the Wall Street Journal gave it such a cranky review I needed to read it myself. It's by this married couple who usually publish separately. One of them writes literary doorstop novels and the other writes romance.”

“It doesn't matter how busy life's been, how long the five of us have gone without seeing one another: meeting at the cottage is like pulling on a favourite sweatshirt, worn to perfection. Time doesn't move the same way when we're there. Things change, but we stretch and grow and make room for one another. Our love is a place we can always come back to, and it will be waiting, the same as it ever was. You belong here.”