Nicholas Sparks

I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic.

getting your hair done?”

As always, I have to thank my wife, Cathy. I was joyous when she accepted my proposal, I’m even more joyous that after ten years, I still feel the same about her.

I take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever I can.

fornicators were destined to clean the urinals in hell,

Imagine—translucent with freckles?

there were two new bumps on her chest that the sweater couldn’t hide that I swore hadn’t been there just three months earlier. She’d never worn makeup and she still didn’t, but she had a tan, probably from Bible school, and for the first time she looked—well, almost pretty

had to do something. I didn’t play football or basketball, I didn’t play an instrument, I wasn’t in the chess club or the bowling club or anything else. I didn’t excel in the classroom—hell, I didn’t excel at much of anything. Growing despondent, I started listing the things I actually could do, but to be honest, there really wasn’t that much. I could tie eight different types of sailing knots, I could walk barefoot across hot asphalt farther than anyone I knew, I could balance a pencil vertically on my finger for thirty seconds… but I didn’t think that any of those things would really stand out on a college application. So there I was, lying in bed all night long, slowly coming to the sinking realization that I was a loser. Thanks, Dad.

The only real strike against her was the fact that she wasn’t very attractive, and she’d put on twenty pounds that summer. I knew that not a single guy would vote for her.