“Spanish was weird that way: two words for monkeys, and esposas meant both wives and handcuffs. That said a lot.”

“I found it curious that people kept animals for companionship and not food. When I'd asked Mama Oaks when she planned to cook the fat creature that slept in a basket in the kitchen, her eyes almost popped out of her head. Since then, she'd kept her pet away from me, like she suspected I meant to turn it into stew. Clearly, I had a lot to learn.”

“I have had passionate kisses and fierce ones, kisses so sweet they tasted like pure honey and kisses that cut like knives, but until this moment, I’ve never had one that said both hello and good-bye.”

“Yet sometimes being a friend meant letting people do things that hurt, like putting distance between you, just because it made them happy.”

“Right now, I wish I’d stayed because I want you at my side. That sounds pretty selfish, but I don’t mean it that way. You just never needed me that way; I said it to you once as I was leaving—that you love me, but you don’t need me. You don’t lean. But I admire that about you, and I could use some of your strength right now.”

“We’re both so fucking broken that I understand our strange attraction, a push-pull magnetism born of similar scars.”

“I’m as forgiving as the wall you hit at two hundred kilometers an hour.”