“One of the blessings human beings take for granted is the ability to remember pain without re-feeling it. The pain of the physical wounds is long gone …and the other kind of hurt, the damage done to our spirits, has been healed. We are careful with those scarred places in each other. ”

“We were each other's only link to the past . . . that was the strength of our bond, and also our weakness.”

“You've always asked me to wait, as if we had time in abundance. But time is too precious, Perry. We've wasted years, when we could have been with each other. Don't you understand how much even one day of loving each other is worth? Some people are separated by distances they can never cross. All they can do is dream about each other for a lifetime, never having what they want most. How foolish, how wasteful to have love within your reach and not take it!" She clamped her teeth on her trembling bottom lip to steady herself”

“I had learned that there were substitutesfor a mother who couldn't be a mother. Youcould find love with other people. You couldfind it in places you weren't even looking.But the original wound would never heal. Iwould carry it with me forever, and so wouldTara. That was the trick . . . accepting it, goingon with your life, knowing it was part ofyou.”

“Without a doubt... the worst part of being a single woman was having to take care of your own car.”

“Neither of us seemed able to be close toanyone. Not even each other. Closenessmeant the one you loved the most wouldcause you the most damage. How did youunlearn that? It was woven deep betweenevery fiber and vessel. You couldn't cut itout.”

“In all my longing for a family and a home, I'd never quite been able to decide what they should have looked like. But this house looks and feels so right, so perfect, it seems impossible any other place would suit me half so well.”