“I need you for a lot of things, Hardy. A lifetime's worth of things.”

“Hardy's either done the wrong thing for the wrong reason . . . " Another big swallow. "Or the wrong thing for the right reason.”

“I never talked about you much." I said to Hardy. My voice sounded odd to my own ears.Hardy stared into my eyes and nodded, understanding that some things mean toomuch to be expressed easily.”

“Hardy! Hardy —” He had come for me. I nearly lost it then. In the wild torrent of relief and gratitude, there were at least a dozen things I wanted to tell him at once. But the first thing that came out was a fervent, “I'm so sorry I didn't have sex with you.”I heard his low laugh. “I am too. But honey, there are a couple of maintenance guys with me who can hear every word we're saying.”“I don't care,” I said desperately. “Get me out of here and I swear I'll sleep with you.”

“May be, Churchill had pointed out, I should stop trying so hard not to love Hardy, and accept the some part of me might always want him. "Some things," he said, "you just have to learn to live with.""But you can't love someone new without getting over the last one.""Why not?""Because then the new relationship is compromised."Seeming amused, Churchill said that every relationship was compromised in one way or the other, and you were better off not picking at the edges of it.I disagreed. I felt I needed to let Hardy go completely. I just didn't know how. I hoped someday I might meet someone so compelling that I could take the risk of loving again. But I had serious doubts such a man existed.”

“I think you could probably thaw out a glacier, honey." -Hardy Cates”

“Just you,' Hardy said when he got his breath back. 'All I want is you.”