“You really do have some pretty fancy words lately.""Yeah." He put the mistletoe in his pocket and pulled her in closer. "And here's three more.....I love you.”

“You came here a fighter, Maddie. Maybe you'd lost a round or two, but you were on your feet. You want to stay in Lucky Harbor? Fight for it. You want a relationship with your sisters? Fight for it.""What about you? What about a relationship with you?"He pulled back to look into her face as if memorizing her features. His voice, when he spoke, was low and gravelly with emotion. "I'm already yours. Always have been. All you have to do is step into the ring.”

“Toby smiled and started to speak, but Josh adjusted his hold on Tank and reached back, covering Toby's mouth."Wait," Grace said. "I think he was going to actually use words.""Yeah, but trust me, you don't want to hear them."Toby pulled Josh's hand away. "Are you my new mommy?"Grace's mouth fell open in shock, and Toby giggled at the sight."Okay, Tiger," Josh said. "You know I love the sound of your laugh, probably more than any sound in the world, but I will squash you like a grape if you say that to one more woman today.”

“Matt?""Yeah?"A barely there sigh escaped her lips. "I really want to sleep with you, but...""Damn," he said. "That was a great sentence right up to the 'but'." -Amy and Matt”

“Matt?""Yeah?""You okay?""Working on it." His voice sounded unusually tight."I thought you said you did this a lot.""Yeah. I do. But apparently not with anyone I'm wildly attracted to."This caused certain reactions in her body that were best not experienced in mixed company. "It's just panties," she finally whispered."And they're really great panties," Matt agreed. "But it's not the panties, Amy. It's you.”

“Sorry,” he said. “Let me drop the belt-"“No.” She held on when he would have pulled away. “Don’t. I like it.” Again, he lifted her face, and he smiled. “The tool belt turns you on.” “No.” She closed her eyes and thunked her forehead to his chest. “Little bit.”

“It’s good to see you as well,” she said, her mouth against his ear, her lips brushing the lobe.He went still at the contact, then instead of trying to pull free, merely folded her into his arms, trapping her against him. And damn if her body didn’t burst to life, as if all this time it’d been just waiting for him to come back.“Yeah, you’re different,” he murmured, doing as she had, pressing his mouth to her ear, giving her a shiver. “The little kitten grew up and got claws.”