“She’s really not my kind of girl — most of them have tattoos or nose rings — but there’s something about her smile. She smiles like she’s in love with whoever she’s looking at. She smiled at me a few months ago. I’ve been trying to get her to do it again ever since.”

“It’s fine, Mom, really.” She’s tucking me into my bed, asking me how my back feels for the one hundredth time in the ten minutes that I’ve been home. She smiles and strokes my hair. That’s what I’m going to miss the most about her. The way she strokes my hair and looks at me with so much love in her eyes.”

“ I want to hold my breath for as long as it takes.I want to stop breathing just long enough to know what it would be like to be totally sitll. Like being a cough away from death.Not really there- not really here.”

“I’ve never really found it hard to stay away from a chick before. Hell, I’ve never had reason to try. But this time I do. There’s something different about Olivia. I want her in my bed. Like, now. But she’s…I don’t know. I get the feeling she requires a gentler, more careful touch. She’s a challenge.And damn, if I don’t love a challenge!”

“I didn’t say a word. I just stared at him. I figured I didn’t owe him an answer, and I was too proud to even talk. I didn’t want to tell him a damn thing about me.”

“Look, girls know when they’re cute,” he said. “You don’t have to tell them. All they need to do is look in the mirror. I have one friend out in New York, an attorney. She moved out there after the school year to take the bar. She doesn’t have a job. I was like, ‘How are you going to get a job there in this market?’ And she’s like, ‘I’ll wink and I’ll smile.’ She’s a pretty girl. Whether that works despite her poor grades is yet to be seen.”

“She’s wonderful. Tell her I’ve never seen such beautiful hands. I wonder what she sees in you.”Waddington, smiling, translated the question.“She says I’m good.”“As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue,” Kitty mocked.”