“In sober moments, it shamed him to think and act like he did. But he wasn't sober now.”

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

“The worst part was he never did get any of that damned apple pie.”

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

“Coyness wasn't the only thing Ardetta had been aggressive about and he'd had to summon up all his southern chivalry to turn her down gently. When he'd relented and obliged her with a kiss, she'd been on him like ugly on an ape. He'd narrowly escaped her clutches with his honor intact.”

“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?”

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