Jodi Thomas

“Triumph comes through perserverance.”

“Ronelle knew Dallas would not stay to eat. She often reminded Ronelle never to eat anything at potluck dinners or bake sales. One person hating the town could wipe out the entire population with poison. Looking around, she saw everyone eating and had a horrible thought. If they all died, that would leave only her mother and her in town. While her mother stopped to talk to Willie Davis, Ronelle slipped a piece of corn bread into her pocket. It would be all in crumbs by the time she got home, but she planned to eat it. Just in case.”

“While the women talked, he did what he often did in the presence of people he didn’t particularly like; he began planning Martha Q’s funeral.”

“Reagan Truman’s cell phone clamored in the darkness. It took several rings to find it.“Hello,” she mumbled, hoping she didn’t wake her uncle in the next room. “Rea, this is Noah.”“It’s late, Noah.” She pulled she string on an old Tiffany-style lamp that was probably five times her age. Something was wrong; not even Noah called this late.“I know, Rea. But I need to talk to you.”She shoved her hair out of her face and tried to force sleep away. “All right, what’s up?”“I’m in the hospital, Rea. I was hurt tonight in Memphis.”“How bad?” she laughed nervously. She’d almost asked if he was still alive. There was a long pause on the line. “I don’t know. Bad. Broken arm, two ribs, but it’s my back that has me worried.” He didn’t speak for a moment. When he began again, he sounded more like a frightened boy than a man of twenty. “I’m hurt bad enough to maybe kick me off the circuit. When I hit the dirt, I was out cold. They said I kept yelling your name in the ambulance, but I don’t remember. All I remember is the pain.”“Noah, what can I do? Do you want me to go over to your folk’s house? I think they’re in town. I could call your sister, Alex.”“No, I don’t want them to worry. I know mom. She’ll freak out and dad will start lecturing me like I’m still a kid. I don’t want them to know anything until I know how serious it is. They’re still not telling me much yet.” He paused, and she knew he was fighting to keep his voice calm. “Rea, I got to face this before I ask them to. If it’s nothing, they don’t even need to know. If it’s crippling, I got to have a plan.”She understood. Noah had always been their positive, sunny child. The McAllens had already lost one son eight years ago. She’d seen the panic in their eyes once when Noah had been admitted to the hospital after an accident. She understood why he’d want to save them pain.“What can I do?”He was silent for a moment, and then he said simply, “Come get me. No matter how bad it is, I want you near when I find out.”

“What’s the matter, Rea?” he said, still sounding half asleep.“What makes you think . . .?”“You wouldn’t have called this late unless you need to talk. Give me a minute to pull my jeans on and I’ll go out in the hallway so I won’t wake the other guys.”Reagen heard several men moan or swear in the background. When times were good, Noah had a room to himself, but when times were bad in the road game he’d sometimes bunk on the floor in someone else’s room.“I’m listening,” he said after a minute.She wanted to hear his voice more than talk, but that would sound strange, so she told him about her dream and how frightened she’d been.“I wish I were there to hug you, Rea. We could cuddle up. You could tell me everything while I slept.”“I wish you were too.” Neither one said anything for a few breaths, and then she whispered, “I miss you so much sometimes. They’d probably never be as close as they’d been in high school. He was a different man and she’d changed as well, but she still missed the Noah who was half kid, half man.“What are you wearing?” he whispered, and for a moment she swore she could hear him smiling.“Shut up.”He laughed. “Just asking. Who knows, one night I might get lucky and you’d be just out of th shower.”“You never give up trying to make me blush.” Her bad mood had vanished.“Come on, Rea, give me a break. I’ve been wondering what you like naked for years. If I ever get too old to wonder, I hope you just shoot me.”“Go to bed, Noah.”“Good night, Rea. Maybe when you go back to dreaming, you’ll dream of me.”“Not likely.” She closed the phone, thinking how he always had enough magic in his pocket to change her mood even if he didn’t have enough to change his dreams.”

“He’d try to keep it light. “Kate, if you’re going to call my border collie your baby every time you see her, maybe we should marry and make the poor dog legit.”

“In his daydreams he was busy planning how to ask Kate to marry him someday. He thought, as a fourth-generation undertaker, it might be proper to say simply, “Kate, how would you like to be buried in the Wright family plot beside me?”

“That's all any of us can do. Try. sometimes I think it's not the winning or the losing, or even the right and wrong of things, it's the trying that makes us keep on living and hoping.”

“Times like this are like muddy water, Rea, you just got to keep moving through it until you get to the other side.”

“What about me?” Wes snapped. “Don’t I get a vote?”Daniel shook his head. “She’s willing and you’re breathing. I pronounce you man and wife.”

“Again, please,” she whispered.(Allie to Wes)”

“Did you tell her it was just until all was safe, or did you promise her forever?” Victoria shook her head. “Sounds to me like you’ve got some proposing to do before you’re really a married man. Maybe a few days alone will loosen your tongue and make that knee of your bend easier.”

“No.” Allie stood her ground. “I’ll not go in.““Me, neither.” Jason slid from his horse. “If Allie ain’t going in, I’m not going in.”Wes glanced skyward. How was it possible for his near mute wife to pick up an echo? After four years in the Army, leading men, and two years of pushing cattle to market, it took Allie to make Wes realize that a leader wasn’t a leader unless he had a follower.“All right, where would you like to sleep tonight?”

“How many times must hope die before tears were too deep to bear?”

“You go to school everyday. Folks who think they've learned everything they need to know are usually dumber than chickens.”

“Be my wife, all my life.”

“How do you know what a rock star feels like, Ada May? Have you ever been a rock star? I don't think so,' Beth Ann said.'I was just guessing.''Well, not me. I'm not saying I feel like something when I don't have any idea what that feels like and neither do you.”

“The dreamer whispered, Just once let something happen.”

“At this rate I never want to talk to you again. Stay mad at me, Allie. It allows us to communicate in other ways.”

“When trees burn, they leave the smell of heartbreak in the air.”