“She’s fiery for sure. I like a little fire. Makes me feel at home.”

“I walk up right behind Frannie, where she’s sitting near the door, in time to hear her say, “You know what, Tay? Go to Hell,” and I smile, because I think it’s cute that she’s inviting her friends along.”

“She gets to the bottom of the stairs, and I lift her off the ground and kiss her. As I lower her back to her feet she says, ‘Mmm, nice. That’s gonna score you some points with the parents.’ I look into the stands and see her parents standing there, slack-jawed, Dad with a camera perched, forgotten, in his hand. And Grandpa is laughing. ‘So what’s the plan?’ ‘I’m working on it. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include molesting me in front of them.”

“I try to pretend his shoulder touching mine isn’t causing totally unrelated parts of me to tingle.”

“We could work on our English outline," I say and almost can't contain the chuckle."Really? That's your idea of a hot date?""I'm sorry, I wasn't aware we were on a 'hot date'" And this time I can't contain the chuckle when she cringes. "So, how hot would you like it? I'm capable of all levels of hotness, from Luc-warm to - and I'm being literal here - hotter than Hell.”

“Tell me what to do to change your mind.”

“This is Hell. And Frannie and her demon put me here!No good deed goes unpunished.”