“Miracle was thinking she'd finally fallen in love, for the first time and maybe the last, with someone who may or may not be around for very long. Hardy was thinking he'd found someone that made his past and his future not matter quite so much, someone who gave him a present that eclipsed everything else. But there was a chance he might lose her. Later, when he kissed her goodnight, it was a kiss full of promise, a kiss that said he'd be around forever, however long forever ended up being.”

“Then he walked home thinking he'd given Clarisse Haines her first kiss and thinking it would far from suck if he was also the guy who gave her her last and no one in between”

“He would not give her up,he could not.For the first time in his life he'd found someone who filled all the empty spaces in his heart”

“Someone to share his life with, who would greet him with a smile and a kiss, and a toddler to tackle him around the knees. Not much by today's standards, but everything by his own.”

“Instead of answering, Will took a step toward her, and all at once, everything happened too quickly to even make sense of it. One second he was standing three feet away from her, and in the next he had a hand on her hip and was pulling her close. Leaning in, he kissed her. His lips were soft soft, and he was suprisingly gentle. Maybe it was simply that he'd caught her by surprise, but even so, she found herself kissing him back. The kiss didn't last long, and it wasn't the kind of earthshaking, soul-destroying kiss common in movies these days; but even so, she was glad it happened, and for whatever reason, she realized it was exactly what she'd wanted him to do.”

“He kissed the salty tears from her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. And then he kissed her mouth, slowly at first, tasting her pain and despair. Tasting her desire.He didn’t know whether he turned her in his arms, or whether she shifted herself. He only knew she was astride him, facing him, her long legs wrapped around his hips, and the kissing had gone long past comfort.”