“Mama learned to laugh with them, before they could laugh at her, and to do it so well no one could be sure what she really thought or felt.”

“Why not? It's true. I don't even laugh for anyone but you."She hesitated, for that one. Did he really mean that? Surely not."Tim seems like a really funny guy." She tried, but all it did was make his mouth form that mean line."Tim pees in the kitchen sink.""Well, okay. I could atleast promise not to do that, but even so-”

“Are you okay?""Leave me alone, Charlie.""No, really. What's wrong?""You wouldn't understand.""I could try.""That's a laugh. That's really a laugh.""Do you want me to wake up Mom and Dad then?""No.""Well, maybe they could -""CHARLIE! SHUT UP! OKAY?! JUST SHUT UP!”

“Well, thought Winnie, crossing her arms on the windowsill, she was different. Things had happened to her that were hers alone, and had nothing to do with them. It was the first time. And no amount of telling about it could help them understand or share what she felt. It was satisfying and lonely, both at once.”

“She never felt nervous around Blue. She could hold her own with him, laugh at him, and, if necessary, slap him. There was something reassuring about that.”

“He’d never felt this protective of a woman before. Only she brought that out in him. That powerful, odd mixture of independence and vulnerability completely melted him.The fact that she flew a Black Hawk and could talk shop with the best of them? Hot as hell. And her laugh. God, she had the dirtiest laugh he’d ever heard. Every time he heard it he thought of sex. Hot, sweaty sex, the kind that left a man exhausted and weak and his partner unable to move.”