“You’re going to ask if you can marry my daughter,” Nan’s father said.
“Yes,” James answered.
“Why?”
James thought: Because she is jolly and pretty and bright, like a firefly, blinking in and out of hedges and trees. Because I imagine her in the kitchen, washing dishes, looking out the window and humming to herself, her brow knit in concentration. I imagine myself coming up behind her, putting my arms around her, resting my chin on her shoulder. I imagine her face turning up to me, bright and pale and astonishing, and I imagine her lips just before I kiss her, full and parted, almost singing the words of a song. Because I think beyond kissing her, because I think about her naked and warm under clean sheets and damp from the bath. I imagine her bare ankle rubbing against my own. I imagine her hair disheveled; I imagine myself smoothing it out of her eyes. I imagine making toast with her and eating it at a round table. When I do, I am just as crazed with passion for her as I would be in bed. There is no difference between imagining her naked and imagining her with a kerchief over her hair.
“Because I love her,” he said.
~ Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, August 13, 2019)
Notes:
- I’m 75% completed, Highly Recommended.
- NY Times Book Review: A Lifetime at a Church, Filled With Faith & Drama (Aug 13, 2019)
Live & Learn 
And who doesn’t want to be loved like that?
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Book was already in the queue…and to anticipate a lifetime of such sweet imaginings. And in some ways it can’t always measure up, and in other ways eclipses it.
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I’m 50% of the way through now, and Highly Recommended still stands.
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that – is love
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We should all experience such love at least once in our lives….
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The depths behind, “because I love her” so beautifully and sweetly expressed!
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It is…
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And here it’s going the other way:
She had not expected James, with his wry smile and messy hair. She had not expected to wake up in the morning and wish he were with her, to hurry through breakfast, leave class directly at the ring of the bell so she could be with him more quickly. She had not expected to feel panicked when he was late or relieved when she saw him, to relax when he put his arm around her. She had not expected her heart to race furiously when he kissed her, or to want to be with him more than anyone else. She had not expected to need him as surely as she needed shoes. She had not expected him to become so quickly, so irreversibly, essential. She wanted James to love her.
~ Cara Wall, The Dearly Beloved: A Novel (Simon & Schuster, August 13, 2019)
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Seems like reason enough (and then some).
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Couldn’t think of a better reason…. happy Sunday
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You too Kiki…
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I think of cherishing, delightful love as “finding home in anothers heart”…with the pure willingness of giving of one’s own life for those you love, so they to, can continue on with the gift of Life…
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it’s a good thing he kept those thoughts to himself, and didn’t say them out loud to her father! 🙂
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Truth!!!
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We all want to be loved
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We do….
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We all want to be loved
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Beautiful!
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