“I need to get to that tea party and wake up the guests."Jeb looks at me. "And how are you supposed to do that? Give a magical kiss to the half-baked hatmaker?”

“I shoved him. "Kishan. Kishan! Wake up!"He woke only halfway and pulled me closer. "Shh, go back to sleep. It's not morning yet.""Yes, it is morning." I pushed against his ribs. "Time to wake up. Come on!""Okay, honey, but how about a kiss first? A man needs some motivation to get out of bed.""That kind of motivation keeps a man in bed. I'm not kissing you. Now get up.”

“But I need to wake up somehow. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s best to get through the day half-asleep. Maybe that’s the only way to get through today.”

“Liz asked me the other day what I thought about twice baked potatoes. How the fuck should I know? Was I supposed to be thinking about twice baked potatoes all this time? Is this where I went wrong? Are grown men supposed to have an opinion about twice baked potatoes?”

“Dad has brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning! I said, 'Vati, why are you waking me up in the middle of the night? Are you on fire?”

“He waits a moment. And then murmurs, 'I love you, Janie Hannagan. I can't get enough of you. I wake up in the morning and all I want to do is be with you.' He props himself up on his elbow. 'Do you have any idea how unusual, how important that is to me?”