kitap alıntısı #77, Christmas in Quincy - Devney Perry

        Her eyes softened. “I’ve never seen you eat the morning muffin.”

        “I have.”

        “When?”

        I shrugged. “Whenever you sent stuff with the guys on duty. But I don’t let myself eat much of anything you bake.”

        “Why?”

        “Because it would give too much away. I worried that if I showed how much I loved your food, everyone would see.”

        “See what?”

        “That I’m in love with you.”

        Her breath hitched. “Austin.”

        “I love you, Cleo.” Saying the words loosened something in my chest. Something that I’d been holding in for far too long. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I walked into the bakery and spotted you, covered in flour and blueberry stains on your fingers.”

        “But that was . . .” Her forehead furrowed. The beginning. I’d been in love with her from the beginning. “All this time?”

        I nodded, bringing a hand to cup her cheek. There was no use pretending. We were in this together now, vulnerabilities and all. “I need this job with your father. My team, my family, they depend on me. It was easier in a lot of ways to just stay away from you. Pretend it would go away. But it never did. And now there’s no pretending. I’m not giving you up.”

- Devney Perry, Christmas in Quincy  (The Edens, #0,5)