“He’d done it like he did everything else—with passion and total disregard for how much it might embarrass her.”

“He threw her a distasteful look. "Uh...meaning," he imitated her, "That Caia like totally isn't like a self-absorbed bimbo. She only like totally mashed people into pulp when someone else is in like total danger.""I don't say like and totally that much, O-K!!”

“How did I do that to her? Her? Punching trees and screaming? She must have been terrified.Soon his hands would heal, so he might forget the pain he’d caused her. He’d left her in the woods. Left her. Watching her find her car and punch it with the same delicate hand she’d put so trustingly in his was too much.”

“Nothing embarrassed her. I admired that so much, because everything embarrassed me, and that hurt me.”

“Standing so close, he realized how much he missed her, but looking into her cold, indifferent gaze, he realized something else; it just might be too late.”

“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.”