Top 250 Tessa Bailey Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “I had it bad for you. If the convention didn’t make it obvious, I thought for sure the Fleetwood Mac album would do it. I’ve got it so bad for you, Hannah. Really, really bad. I tried to keep you out of here. But you won’t go. You’re never going to go. You just won’t.”

— Tessa Bailey

102. “Don’t go sniffing around the older one. Piper,” Brendan muttered. “And don’t ask me to explain why, either.”

— Tessa Bailey

103. “Everyone has a deck of cards for each person they love. You’ve got your regret cards, your good memory cards, bad memory cards. When one of your people dies, the deck of cards gets thrown up into the air and the cards scatter everywhere. Wakes and funerals are about putting them into a new order. You have to.”

— Tessa Bailey

104. “I tried to tell myself wanting you, keeping you, was selfish. Maybe it is.” His lips brushed her forehead. “But I’m lost here, Lucy. I’m lost without everything you’ve got.”

— Tessa Bailey

105. “God must have been busy answering someone else’s prayers.”

— Tessa Bailey

106. “Who do you think you are?” His gaze dropped to her lips. “I’m the guy who’s going to kiss you tonight.”

— Tessa Bailey

107. “The first time they’d met, in this very pub, he’d hit on her using so little finesse, she’d been forced to ask if he was kidding. Granted, they’d both had a few too many drinks that night, but nothing excused the line, “I’m not drunk, I’m just intoxicated by you.” Nothing.”

— Tessa Bailey

108. “Why do women believe they need an occasion to dress up? Dress up for life, goddammit!”

— Tessa Bailey

109. “I’m starting to think animal attraction, paired with actual love and respect, only exists in scripted movies and romance novels.”

— Tessa Bailey

110. “And that’s when I realize the red panties are gone. Myles’s business card sits in their place.”

— Tessa Bailey

111. “There is relaxation and acceptance in laughter. It’s the anti-resentment drug.”

— Tessa Bailey

112. “Travis let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.”

— Tessa Bailey

113. “I want to feel you forgive me. I want to taste it in your mouth.”

— Tessa Bailey

114. “You’re incredible with or without me,” he rasped beside her ear. “I can do my best to learn to live with both if it means I get to keep your heart.”

— Tessa Bailey

115. “And when her face transformed with pure joy and she waved enthusiastically, Brendan knew he loved her.”

— Tessa Bailey

116. “When I saw you on the side of the road, Rita, I saw my wife, I knew.”

— Tessa Bailey

117. “I’m going to feed you before I introduce you to God.”

— Tessa Bailey

118. “We build resentments toward our loved ones. Sometimes we’re not even aware of them. But they grow so strong, they prevent us from remembering what we loved about our partners in the first place.”

— Tessa Bailey

119. “The man took a tragedy and used it to give himself purpose. The man is magnificent.”

— Tessa Bailey

120. “Piper, the man looks at you like... he’s full of cracks and you’re the glue.”

— Tessa Bailey

121. “And when she was happy, like she was in that moment, she threw her arms open and ran right toward the main source, letting him sweep her away.”

— Tessa Bailey

122. “People shine at different times.”

— Tessa Bailey

123. “I could love you easily, too. God help me, Taylor. I’m not sure how it happened and I don’t know what’s the right thing to do.”

— Tessa Bailey

124. “The world would be a pretty cold place without the criers.”

— Tessa Bailey

125. “The quiet got too loud once you’d come and gone.”

— Tessa Bailey

126. “I think I said, ‘If you loved me, you’d understand what I’m going through.’” “And I said, ‘I do love you, Rosie. That’s why I want to go through it with you.”

— Tessa Bailey

127. “It’s only been one day since I was deep inside here, but it’s been too long.” Unexpectedly, he gave her a rough squeeze through her panties. “I know ways to get it deeper.”

— Tessa Bailey

128. “She’d wanted to be free, thought it was the only way to be happy, when happiness was belonging to Jonah.”

— Tessa Bailey

129. “It was the beginning of her own classic love story. And now the credits were rolling.”

— Tessa Bailey

130. “Hannah was the total opposite. When she decided to commit herself to someone or something, she went in one thousand percent. Loyalty to the people she cared about hummed in her blood. Loyalty made her Hannah.”

— Tessa Bailey

131. “She’d come to the hospital. In his clothes. Did she realize tears were spilling down her cheeks and she was shaking, head to toe? No, she didn’t. Based on her flirty shoulder shrugs and attempts to wink, she thought she was playing it cool, and it made his chest burn. This girl. He’d be keeping her. There was no way around it.”

— Tessa Bailey

132. “I’ve never even had you, and your body haunts mine.”

— Tessa Bailey

133. “Russell had a theory that every girl owned one perfect dress that could make men do anything they wanted.”

— Tessa Bailey

134. “In a hardware store, a man only had to drop the barest hint about his project and dudes started pouring out of the aisles touting their best advice. This was a ritual that saved men from having to actually ask for help while also making other men feel useful.”

— Tessa Bailey

135. “Maybe it was the way she only reached his shoulder that sent protectiveness surging up to his jugular, while somehow – at the very same time – he wanted to seek refuge in her.”

— Tessa Bailey

136. “You were all given a choice,” Derek boomed. “Prison time or my time. One or the other. If you thought I was the lesser of two evils, you were wrong. You each have a skill that landed you in this room and I intend to use those skills to make Chicago safer.”

— Tessa Bailey

137. “His words made her feel like she was floating. They were pure Brendan in their honesty and depth and gruffness and humility. And they were for her.”

— Tessa Bailey

138. “Don’t argue with me about this.” She scoffed. “Oh, this isn’t an argument. That implies you might win.”

— Tessa Bailey

139. “I’ve only been here a couple minutes, but it was long enough to recognize first class eye-fuckery.”

— Tessa Bailey

140. “The cops still have a hard-on for the father.” “I’ve seen that porn.”

— Tessa Bailey

141. “Expecting perfect can only lead to disappointment. Besides, it’s the flaws that give a person character. That’s where the beauty hides.”

— Tessa Bailey

142. “You like that, beautiful girl?” When she whimpered, he leaned over and spoke directly into her ear. “Good. That was for the hard-on I’ll be walking around with tonight. And you’ll goddamn wear the imprint of my hand on your ass for it.”

— Tessa Bailey

143. “I’m a storm of feelings over her. So many that I can barely pick them out of the blurring whirlwind and try to define them. I’m protective of her, proud of her, lustful to the point of pain, adoring and confused.”

— Tessa Bailey

144. “That’s it? You’ve been standing there thinking for twenty minutes and your big epiphany is roses?”

— Tessa Bailey

145. “Finished with his perusal, he asks, “Are you always this difficult?” “Actually, I’m usually much worse.”

— Tessa Bailey

146. “Are you looking for something illegal so you’ll have an excuse to handcuff me, Derek?”

— Tessa Bailey

147. “But as Derek watched himself holding Ginger in the mirror over the sink, her smaller, trembling body engulfed by his naked arms and chest, he felt the furthest thing from unaffected. Every sob or shudder that moved through her robbed him of breath. Derek wanted to decimate her sadness and anything causing it. Feeling powerless, he rubbed circles on her back with one hand.”

— Tessa Bailey

148. “What happens to impatient girls who try to tell their man what to do in bed?” She stifled a sob of pleasure. “They have to wait longer.”

— Tessa Bailey

149. “He pointed at Abby’s electric-blue pumps. “Women wear these evil creations around to confuse us. Sure, they make a girl’s legs look good, but that’s the black magic, my friends. They want us to feel their pain and not understand why.”

— Tessa Bailey

150. “How do people live their lives feeling like this, day in and day out? Like your next breath depends on another person’s happiness? She’s torture and heaven all wrapped up in one forbidden package.”

— Tessa Bailey