“Chase asks her what time the appointment is booked for. Rachel says, "It's at 11:30 or midnight. He's supposed to call to confirm." She checks her cell. "But I want to be there early." she says."Why?""Just to be on the safe side.""There isn't one, Rachel.”

“She hesitated. “I’m not sure I understand.”“Don’t you?” he asked. “You changed my heart, Rachel.”She felt her throat constrict, making any reply impossible.“Rachel?” Her silence rarely made him uncomfortable, but this time he had no clear view of her features and no way to gauge her reaction. He wondered if he should have made a more straightforward declaration. “Did you hear me say I love you?”She turned her cheek into his shoulder. “I heard you.”

“Why don’t you call her?”“She doesn’t answer,” Chase said. “She may be somewhere that there’s no cell phone service or she may have her phone turned off.”He’d be embarrassed to say how many times he’d tried. That’s what guilt—in other words, meddling—did to a man.”

“The wolf turned to Rachel. She was afraid to run, afraid fleeing would make it chase her. Somewhere in the stored files of her mind, she remembered one should not look directly at a menacing dog, but she couldn’t take her eyes from it.”

“Rachel waved her hand in dismissal. “Yeah, well, I assume that he was upset, and she was there, he fell, and she caught him – right between her thighs.”

“One summer morning at sunrise a long time agoI met a little girl with a book under her arm.I asked her why she was out so early andshe answered that there were too many books andfar too little time. And there she was absolutely right.”