“It was so strange how someone could love another person so much and so well but still not understand what made her happy.”

“If someone loved you -someone decent and kind that is- you had a responsibility not to trample all over her heart. And while he had no intention of hurting Emma, he knew that he could injure her just by not loving her back. Of course, maybe, he did love her back.But then again, maybe she didn't love him in the first place. She hadn't actually said as much. He couldn't very well love someone back if she didn't love him first.He could, however, love her first.And that meant that he was going to have to convince her to love him back.But the question was moot anyway because he hadn't yet decided to love her.Or had he?”

“She was so beautiful it made her teeth ache.He made a mental note not to attempt poetry.”

“Yes.” She sighed again, with even more drama, not that Gregory would have imagined it possible. “It isall so romantic,” she added. “The bride, the groom…”“Both are considered standard in the ceremony, I understand.”His mother shot him a peevish look. “How could I have raised a son who is so unromantic?”Gregory decided there could not possibly be an answer to that.”

“He gave her his best smile. Hisbest I-almost-died-so-how-can-you-deny-me smile. Or at leastthat’s how he hoped it appeared. The truth was, he wasn’t a veryaccomplished flirt, and it might very well have come across as an Iam-mildly-deranged-so-it’s-in-all-of-our-best-interests-if-youpretend-to-agree-with-me smile.”

“Daniel immediately knelt at her side, pulling her close. “It’s all right,” he murmured. “Everything is going to be all right.”Anne shook her head. “No, it’s not.” She looked up, her eyes shining with love. “It’s going to be so much better.”

“She'd spent seven long years without so much as a hug, and she was starved for physical affection. She had known what it was like to be touched and kissed, and she had no idea how much she'd missed it until that very moment.”