Older Quotes

“Life is living. If you’re not living exactly the way you want to live, then what’s the fucking point?”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“I guess that was why I loved too much. I had a lot of loveless holes to fill.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“do you like this song?” - “it’s my favorite.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Speaking of too happy, why are you smiling like a serial killer who just stumbled upon his next victim?”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“You’re here to save me,” I breathed out. Warm lips brushed against mine as he whispered, “Maybe you’re here to save me.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“I know from experience that sometimes the people we trust most are capable of things we never thought possible.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“when she was bright and happy, I was drawn to her laughter-lit smiles and the bounce in her step. when she was sullen and self-deprecating, I was desperate to scrub the soot off her skin and bring her back to life. it was a goddamn seesaw of destructive emotion, and she was tearing me in half.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“beautiful things don’t last.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“I know that forgiveness, growth and understanding can be found in even the darkest circumstances. I know the love has power. power to break and ruin, and power to rebuild. I know the what is meant to be, will be. you can’t rush it. you can’t fake it. you just need to wait for the storm to pass and pick up the pieces when the time is right.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“but easy love is overrated. hard love means you have to fight, and when you’re fighting, it means you have something worth fighting for. and that’s beautiful. that’s everything. […] I want you to fight. for me. for us. for our relationship that I miss so damn much.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“but in the game of forbidden love, someone always lost. I just never thought it would be all of us.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“you keep answering my questions with questions.” - “that’s how we find answers.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“he hummed the chorus of wanderwall, knowing there were no more walls standing between us. no more barricades. just the open expanse of our shared horizon, painted with the colors of hard-fought love.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“but as the man he promised me he’d be. The fighter. The warrior. “You deserve to have someone in your corner, fighting like hell for you. For your honor, your worth. I want to be that person. I’ll be that guy…even if that’s all I’ll ever be.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Once upon a time, I thought I missed her. But it was she who’d missed out on me. Not all mothers were meant to be caretakers. Not all monsters were meant to be rehabilitated. And not all love stories were meant to last. Finally, I dropped back to my seat and shook my head, turning to Scotty as I buckled my seatbelt. “I’m ready now.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Erasing the past doesn’t do us any favors. If everything had an easy way out, we’d be a brittle, complacent species.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Imperfections are what bind us together. Our common thread. We’re all capable of screwing up, but we’re all capable of forgiving, too. That’s what makes us stronger humans.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Are you here to save me?” Another kiss landed on my hairline, and he lingered there, squeezing me tighter, exhaling ragged breaths against my skin. “You never needed saving, Halley. You were never lost.” “I was,” I cried. “I was lost when you found me, and I’ll be lost when you leave me.” “No.” He kissed my forehead, my tear-tipped lashes, my quivering upper lip. “You were searching for something you already had.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“So, yes…I love you. I love you fiercely, wholly, selfishly and unselfishly, more than I ever fucking should. I love everything about you, from your smile, to your perfect heart, to the way your hair always slips from your ponytail when you’re running or sparring and hides those eyes I’ve been enamored with since the moment I first saw you. I love how you take every picture like it’s the only one you’ll ever take, how you love like it’s simply a way of life, and how you cook from your soul because it makes everyone around you so goddamn happy. I love the strength you pulled from nothing, from bare bones and rock bottom, and how you choose to dance through life with grace and courage, finding music in every soundless shadow, when anyone else would have laid down and died.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Damn. Who pissed you off?” Scotty materialized in the doorway, his shoulder propped against the frame, arms folded. I sent him a sidelong glance, hardly faltering as the bag pendulated in front of me. “Today?” I answered through a hard exhale. “Bob Ross.” “Impossible.” “It is possible. His trees are way too happy. It’s unrealistic and offensive to the sad trees.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“This was all I wanted tonight, Halley. Just this. Something we never got to experience.” His words were warm honey against my ear. “Everything between us was built upon respect and genuine connection, but it was only able to be harnessed in the physical sense. Behind closed doors. Kept in the shadows.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“It was fascinating the way human beings tended to living things; how we could nurture something so fiercely, all while knowing it was going to die. Just a little more water, we’d say. Better sunlight. A silent wish for a few more good days. But it didn’t matter. Every hearty, thriving thing carried with it the certainty of an expiration date.

Nothing lived forever.

Even love.

And still, we allowed it to bloom. We breathed life into it, while simultaneously whispering our last goodbye.

Some goodbyes just came far too soon.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“But easy love is overrated. Hard love means you have to fight, and when you’re fighting, it means you have something worth fighting for. And that’s beautiful. That’s everything.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Life’s fleeting blips. The ones that seem insignificant at the time, but later on, they mean everything.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“He sees me.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“had to figure out how to live through that fear and pain going forward. And that’s the key—living through it, not in it. You recognize it, you channel it, you don’t try to smother it. There is no weakness in fear. You just can’t let it dictate your next move.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Was he going to point a pistol at my chest and pull the trigger?”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Falling for you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” I confessed through the anguish. “Everything else? Painful. Torturous. Difficult beyond belief. But loving you…” The anger died”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Growing old with the one you love was an underrated treasure. Aging was frightening. Death was an ominous certainty that nipped at our ankles. But the journey to the other side of this life with someone who held your heart, who shared your dreams and fears, who knew you in the deepest corners of your soul, was a privilege beyond measure. It was a promise of companionship through every storm.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older

“Sometimes all it took was a helping hand to guide us in the right direction. To allow us to find ourselves again.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, Older