“It was all I could do to not knock him down right there in front of Asher and climb on him. If I stunned him with a frying pan first, he might not struggle too much.…”

“In fairy tales there's always one person who is made for one other, and they find each other and live happily ever after. Cal was my person. I couldn't imagine anyone more perfect. Yet what kind of sick fairy tale would it be if he was the one made exactly right for me and I wasn't right for him?”

“Years from now I'll look back and remember today as the day I met him. I'll look back and remember the exact moment my life began to include him. I will remember it forever.”

“Then what's the point of trying if you can't even win?""You win in lots of different ways," Asher said. "Lots of little wins. The point of this life is not to be good all the time. It's to be as good as you can. No one is perfect. No one does it right all the time. That's not what life is.”

“David held up his hands. "Hold it. This is going nowhere. You two are both afraid, and being afraid makes you angry, and being angry makes you lash out.""Thank you, Dr. Laura," I said snippily."I'm not afraid of her," Hunter said, like a six-year-old, and I wanted to kick him under the table. Now that I knew he was actually alive, I remembered just how unpleasant he was.”

“He gave a hard smile and the oxygen in my lungs evaporated. “Weboth know I’m not a gentleman.”“Yeah. Okay, let me out. I’m tired.”“There’s something else,” he said, and I groaned.“What now?”“This.” He stepped closer to me, so close that the containers weresandwiched between us. His eyeslooked down into mine, intent and golden, like a lion.“Oh, no, you don’t!” I hissed, dropping everything. I pushed hardagainst his chest; it was like shovinga tree.“Yes,” he said very softly, leaning down. “Yes, I do.”

“Please, ground, just open up and let me fall into an endless crevasse till I hit the center of the earth and combust. Please. Is that too much to ask?”