“You are the politest man I know, Jake Burnett." "Had politeness beat into me.”

“As teenagers, Marcus had been the muscle and Jake the brains. Marcus had beat up the kids who'd made fun of skinny Jake; Jake had convinced teachers not to punish him.Since then, Marcus had grown a brain (kind of) and Jake had developed muscles. But habits die hard.”

“But I can tell you this, Mr. James, I refuse to be treated with disrespect.""Disrespect?" Burnett growled.And then everything went to hell.Burnett and Hayden exchanged colourful verbal blows. According to Hayden, Burnett was a prick, and according to Burnett, Hayden was an overconfident jerk who had lied.She didn't know if she felt confident the tension wouldn't elevate to physical blows, or if she was simply too tired to care anymore. If they broke each other's noses, so be it.”

“Burnett fidgeted. She had never seen Burnett like this. He looked like a kid who needed to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh. Momma told me not to tell you that your bed squeaks. But I think you know, 'cause I could hear it this morning. Jake dropped his fork. Tor, for the first time Jake had ever seen, turned scarlet. Maureen looked at them both and sighed. Christmas is always so interesting with you, Mark.”

“I hesitated. You can’t hesitate with a man like Jake.”