“she was just…beaming at me, and I thought she’d won the lottery or something, her smile was that big. I asked what happened, and she said…” Park swallowed again. “She said, ‘You’re here.”’ He blinked at Tess. “‘You’re here.’ That’s all it was. That big goofy smile just because I was there. Nobody ever smiled like that at me before.”

“[...] Mom’s not keeping me out because it’s a dead friend, she’s keeping me out because it’s a dead sixteen-year-old girl with no clothes on’‘And that’s officially the creepiest thing you’ve ever said,’ said Lauren. She stopped typing, and then grimaced and shivered, like she’d just eaten something disgusting. ‘Seriously – yuck.’I smiled. ‘I’ve got a live girlfriend – what do I need a dead one for?’[…]Lauren folded her arms. ‘How do I know you’re not just trying to get her out of the house for your own nefarious purposes?’I smiled. ‘What kind of trouble am I going to get into? The dead girl doesn’t get here until tomorrow.”

“You’re doing it again,” he said.“Doing what?” I asked, wondering if I had done something wrong.“Melting my heart with your smile,” he said.”

“Come here, Cal," she says real gentle, and I come close. Read me something."I open up the book I'm holding, a new one brought this very day. Just chicken scratch, I used to figure, but now I see what's truly there, and I read a little out.That's gift enough," she says, and smiles so big, it makes me smile right back.”

“Is she worth all that pain?” he asked me, smiling.“Definitely,” I said, still reeling from the events of the day.“But I don’t deserve her.”“Then be somebody who does.”“That’s what I intend to do.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to take a leap of faith,” he said.“I think I can do that,” she said. “If you’re there to catch me.”“I’m here,” he said. “I haven’t let you down yet, have I?”She put her hand against his face. “No, Jack. You sure haven’t.”