“My eyes pop out when I catch a glimpse of how much leg she's showing. She's wearing her shortest mini skirt, the one that drives me crazy. Her legs look about a mile long as she crosses them and bobs her foot in time with the cafe's background music.She's really trying to kill me, isn't she?”

“You know, me finding the perfect dress is more about you than it is about me." "Oh yeah? How's that?""My plan, you see, is to scour the city for just the right dress that will make it absolutely impossible for you to resist me. You'll simply be at my mercy the entire night."Trent frowns, "How is that different from any other time we're together?”

“The Visa bill has been almost manageable lately.""Don't you think that maybe buying things was just her way of coping with her loneliness? Like when you both had to hide so much of yourselves; that couldn't have been easy.""Hmm, that's quite insightful. Have you been watching Dr.Phil again?”

“Are we getting close to a rest stop?" Loerlai wants to know."We just stopped an hour ago!" Michael protests from the driver's seat."Well, gee, my apologies for being the only one on this trip with female issues," she spits back hostilely.”

“So it wasn't a dream. You really are here in my bedroom....”

“in all the years i had blundered along in search of my own footing, she had never given me an inkling of this wish. unburdened by the demands of history or anyone else's dreams, i had wandered toward and finally reached a world far outside the plains i loved and loathed. my mother had neither begrudged me this journey nor expected it, certain that i had to make my own way. but she packed my toolbox with her great wit and forbearance before i went, and she stashed there, for long safekeeping, her desire.”

“Counting on each other became automatic. When I found a sweater in Texas I wanted, I learned to buy two, which was easier than seeing the look of disappointment on Caroline's face when I returned home with only one. When she went out from the boathouse on a windy day, she gave me her schedule in advance, which assuaged her worst-case scenario of flipping the boat, being hit on the head by an oar, and leaving Lucille stranded at home. I still have my set of keys to her house, to locks and doors that no longer exist, and I keep them in my glove compartment, where they have been moved from one car to another in the past couple of years. Someday I will throw them in the Charles, where I lost the seat to her boat and so much else.”