“He snorted and his long face informed her he was still as grumpy as a woodpecker with a headache.”

“He didn't mind facing the music in most cases, but he wasn't partial to the wedding march.”

“This time he jerked the appendage from her soft lap and tucked it under his leg, Indian fashion.”

“When she squeezed his arm and told him she had two pies in her buggy, he thought he'd died and gone to heaven.”

“Abruptly, he wheeled Shadow into a full turn, stopped, and yanked his rifle out of the sheath on his saddle.”

“How could he convince her to join him and hitch her buggy to a star when she was bound and determined to hitch it to a sodbuster's plow?”

“Never again could he see a dogwood blossom or eat a fish without thinking of her.”