“The simple rule: some get saved, but most don't. The choices are important before the years begin to go so very fast.”

“We used to all come outside when the streetlights came on and prowl the neighborhood in a pack, a herd of kids on banana-seat bikes and minibikes. The grown-ups looked so silly framed in their living-room and kitchen windows. They complained about their days and sighed deep sighs of depression and loss. They talked about how spoiled and lucky children were these days. We will never be that way, we said, we will never say those things.”

“If a nuclear disaster occurred, and you had to live out those final painful days just stretched out somewhere thinking about your life--This is who I am. This is what I love. This is what I believe--who would you want hearing your whispers? Or perhaps better: Who do you trust to hear your whispers? Whose breath do you want mingled with your own? Whose flesh still warm beside you?”

“Tis alright. I'm not going to hurt ye. Ye're one of me kind, I wouldn't dare," he said. So he could sense what she was too. That was encouraging, sort of. "And what if I wasn't?" she asked. The young man chuckled, a warm sound that eased her mind a bit. "Well I wouldn't ravish ye if that's what ye're worried about. I'm a Celt, not a barbarian," he said. Neala couldn't help but smile. "Some would say they are one in the same.”

“I learned that my new lover was hard, but always good. She did not tease. If you pursued her, she would reveal her sweetest secrets and uncover her hidden places. Yes, she would grant those who came to her by car a measured beauty. There were wonderful things to be seen from the road. Her lesser suitors would jump out of their autos, snapping pictures, trying to save memories before having them, and hurry on. But what can be seen from a road is more enticing than revealing – like a shapely woman whose fleshly mystery cannot be hidden by modest garments but is made more alluring. From the roadside her eyes would invite and challenge: “Will you pursue me?” I did. And though my pursuit cost me a lot – pain, humiliation, hunger and sleepless nights – she was good.”

“The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”

“There was a sensual feel to the way Aiden's eyes traveled over her, leaving her tingling without even a touch. ~from The Secret of Spruce Knoll.”