Chloe Liese

Ryder: Ever since she sat next to me in class and gave me death eyes, Willa Sutter's been on my shit list. Why she hates me, I don't know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don't need in my tidy life. She's the next generation of women's soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly. She's a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who's turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I'll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top...And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word. Willa: Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I've had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence.I've battled men before, but with Ryder, it's war. I'll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it's the last thing I do, then I'll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet.

Only When It's Us

It’s interesting to me that the author wouldn’t have consulted someone in the first publishing? Writing about someone else’s experience must be hard but I appreciate authors who want to respect and portray experiences authentically. I also think it’s slightly confusing to have a song accompany each chapter in a book with a deaf mc. 

Megan BV

This story also includes a main character who is late-deafened. As of this book’s revision, expansion, and republication on August 21, 2021, its portrayal has been informed by the consulted experience and critique of a late-deafened authenticity reader.

Silence is a relief, a break from the constant torture of straining and trying to catch any scrap of discernible noise that I can.

The irony is not lost on me, that he’s the first man who’s ever truly made me feel heard in my life and he can’t hear a word I’m saying.

Sophia

Is my fuse a little short? Sure. Are my responses occasionally disproportional? Sometimes. I could learn to simmer down here and there, but I refuse to subdue the storm inside myself.

Why? Why did Willa have to sit on my good side, why did she have to have a voice that falls in that tiny window of wavelengths that I can still pick up?

Spending my thoughts on Willa, our interactions and verbal sparring, paying her attention and backhanded compliments, is playing with fire. But maybe just this once it would be worth it to get burned.

Then I remember I don’t have good and bad ears anymore. I have new ears. Both of them hear her equally well.

He swallows and blinks, snapping himself out of it. “Sorry. Caveman moment.”

A smile tugs at my mouth. “Caveman moment?”

“You’re beautiful. I have four brothers about to see you. I’m feeling a little possessive.”

I think that's my favorite interaction between the two haha

“The hell, it is.” She turns and climbs me like I’m a tree until she’s wrapped around my waist. “Kill it.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not killing it. Spiders play an important role in the ecosystem—”

“Ryder. Stellan. Bergman.” Willa grabs my jaw and looks me dead in the eye. “If you want to get laid tonight, you will kill that fucking spider.”

“That’s not fair. We agreed sexual threats weren’t fair play.”

She sighs and drops her forehead to the crook of my neck. “Fine. Please, just pretty please, kill it. If it’s alive, I won’t be able to sleep. Or eat. Or think about anything else.”

“Willa.” I press a kiss to her temple as I walk toward the spider and feel her cling tighter to me. “I’m not killing a harmless—” I stop, staring closely at it.

Willa lifts her head enough to glance at the floor, too, and shudders.

“Okay, never mind.” I hike her higher up. “That’s a black widow.”

Willa shrieks right as my boot lands on it.

Only When It's Us quotes

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