“I try to point my finger,/ but the wind keeps// spinning me around”

“I never met a girl I didn't meet”

“My brother is somewhere in here.” She paused and added in an almost inaudible voice, “I think.”Owen bit back an oath. He’d been raised not to swear around ladies, but as she’d pointed out, it was going to be a long trip if he had to mind his manners when the goddamned woman was going to be so provoking. “I knew this was going to be a total waste of time.”

“Everyone gets to the stage, or should get to it, where it's more important to stop doing things than to keep on trying to do them.”

“Charlotte!" Denbigh roared. "What are you doing in my bedroom, and why didn't you knock?""I brought the doctor," she said with asperity."A young lady does not enter the bedroom of a gentleman to whom she is not married," Denbigh retorted."Then what is Olivia doing in here?" she asked."Olivia is my sister.""So?""You are my ward.""So?"Olivia laughed. "Oh, Lion, you won't win an argument with Charlotte. Believe me, I've tried.”

“As she lifted her own backpack over the side of the black, heavy-duty dodge pickup, Owen took it out of her hands and set it beside the one-man tent and sleeping bag the FBI had provided for him.“I could have done that,” she said.“Sure you could. But my daddy taught me a gentleman always helps a lady.” Bay was so startled at what he’d said, and the chagrined way he’s said it, that she laughed. “Oh, my god. Chauvinism is alive and well—”“We call it chivalry, or Southern courtesy, ma’am,” he said. She realized he was heading around the truck to open the door for her.She stepped in front of him and said, “It’s going to be a long trip if you refuse to let me pull my weight. I can get my own door, Mr. Blackthorne.”For a minute, she thought he was going to make an issue of it. Then he touched the brim of his hat, shot her a rakish grin that turned her insides to mush, and said, “Whatever you say, Mizz Creed.”She was so flustered, she took a half step backward, slid into the seat when he opened the door for her after all, and said, “My friends call me Bay.”Bay flushed as she realized what she’d said. As he came around the hood and got in, she said, “That is—I mean—you know what I mean!”He belted himself into the driver’s seat and started the engine, before he turned to her and said, “My friends call me Owe. You can call me Owen.”She stared at him disbelief. “Oh. You. Blackthorne, you.”

“What’s your greatest regret?” she asked.He turned to look at her, then focused his eyes on the windshield in front of him. “You.”She felt an ache in her chest. “That you admitted you loved me? Or that you took me with you?”“Both.”“Will it help if I say I’m in love with you?”He shot another quick look in her direction, but a sudden gust of wind hit, and he had to focus on sideslipping the plane.When it was steady again, he focused piercing gray eyes on her and asked, “Are you in love with me?”“I think so.”