I’d never seen him bare-chested. For the first time, he seemed vulnerable to me. His smooth, tight skin wrapped around the long muscles he’d developed over a lifetime of hard work. He found a shallow spot and sat, settling me onto his lap, holding my back to his chest. I couldn’t stop shaking and it had nothing to do with the water or with being half dressed in a cave with a boy. “Nothing else matters,” Henry said in my ear. “I’m here. Start at the beginning.

— Laura Anderson Kurk

#glass-girl #henry-whitmire #laura-anderson-kurk #love #meg-kavanagh