“Maybe I should go put on my ragged white dress and stone necklace and you can put on your leopard skin tunic and we can pedal in our stone car to the roadhouse before you go bowling with Barney and I go shopping with Betty, Fred. –Sadie”

“You were just a beautiful woman. Now you're my beautiful woman. What you got under your clothes is for me. No one else. They don't look. They don't touch. That's the deal. Yeah?"I stared at him, speechless, which was a good thing because if I had words, I would have said them so loudly the neighbors would hear."Now," he went on, either not feeling or not caring about the badder than bad vibes emanating from me directly toward him, "go put on a tank."That’s when I found my words."Maybe I should go put on my ragged white dress and stone necklace and you can put on your leopard skin tunic and we can pedal in our stone car to the roadhouse before you go bowling with Barney and I go shopping with Betty, Fred.”

“My eyes went to him. "Your rule, honey. I can go put panties on." His eyes came to me. "You do, I get the strap.”

“You have two choices,” Vance said. I stopped in the doorway to the hall and put my hands on my hips. “And those would be?” I asked.“We can talk or we can f**k.”My eyes rounded. Then they narrowed. I didn’t answer.“Though,” he went on, “I should tell you even if you pick talking, after we’re done, we’re still gonna f**k.”I frowned at him and leaned in. “You are too much,” I snapped.He ignored my threatening posture. “You don’t chose, I will, and I’ll pick f**king. We can talk after.”

“This isn’t a decision I can make, you gotta make it, honey. You wanna go away and wait this out, I’ll be with you. You wanna stay and life your life as normal as you can, I’ll do what I can to protect you.”

“You just need to know, I gotta fight to keep what we got so we can build on it, I will. Him, your Dad, you, I don’t give a fuck. In my life, I’ve learned when to let shit go and when to fight. This, babe, what we got, I’ll fight for.”

“Never," Max said, again ignoring me. "Never did I walk into a room and see her dressed to go out and forget how to breathe like I did when I saw you before we went to The Rooster." I felt my eyes grow wide at this admission and I, too, forgot how to breathe.”