“Because you fight it out, and stumble, and write bad poetry, and pick yourself up again, and at the end, hopefully, someday youre sitting with your kid on her bedroom floor, talking about how you screwed everything up too.”

“But I could never see what was so awful and wrong about being honest. And I didn’t think it had anything to do with being an only child. I believed it had more to do with the fact that I had an inherently low bullshit tolerance, and what the hell is wrong with that?”

“Band camp isn't for the prissy.”

“You guys come from a really small town, and people talk,” Caleb shrugged. “I can’t go into a store in Covington without someone asking me how I feel about being a consolation prize,” he laughed. “People took your breakup harder than Brad and Jen’s! They’ve done everything but make up Team Jason and Team Caleb shirts!”

“Her head fell back as she cried out. She reached for him, drawing him down to her, loving the weight of him, the heaviness of him inside her, driving away memory, making the taunting vision of his fall shatter into a thousand pieces even as she herself did, again and again. Firelight gleamed, revealing and concealing the ancient poetry of possession.Flame-burnishing limbs entwined, voices cried out together, and fierce driving strength and power yielded up their tribute, there in the dark heart of the earth's tomb.”

“Again the king sighed. "That is a different matter.""Fine," Dragon said promptly. "I shall solve your problem for you." He made to rise.Rycca did not mask her response. She grabbed hold of his wrist with both her hands and yanked hard. "Sit down," she said emphatically, and then just to soften it, "I pray you,my lord."After a moment's shock, Alfred laughed. He shook his head ruefully. "You three must know how men envy you? The beauty of your wives is spoken of with awe, yet I am pleased to see they are not lacking in spirit either.""Mayhap too much spirit," Dragon growled, but he did not look truly angry, merely frustrated."Your killing Wolscroft will only cause more trouble," Alfred said. "No, this must be handled within the law."Slowly, Dragon resumed his seat but he looked in no way pleased about it. Rycca returned her hands to her lap and tried hard to look abashed. He wasn't fooled but he did reach over, take hold of her chair, and haul it up close to his so that he could rest an arm around her shoulders. A rather heavy arm, she thought, reminded of his strength and will.Not that she minded. Above all, she wanted him near her,not off risking his life against her father.”

“I’m going to have to come up with a new word for “excited”. Something preferably a verb that describes the simultaneous actions of jumping up and down squealing giggling and generally scaring the hell out of the cats. I’ll call it vrasting. This morning I vrasted.”