“Bootie Grant Glover! You do amaze me!" Mem stared at her sister. "Do I understand this? You're giving me permission to engage in a romantic tryst?""Certainly not!" Bootie pulled to her full diminished height. "I'm merely saying if disaster strikes, I won't abandon you.”

“I think I fell in love with you that amazing night on the kitchen floor. Or maybe it was the evening you stepped up and set my arm." Testing things, he reached for her hand, and, to his joy, she glared, but she let him take it. "Or maybe the night I knew I loved you was when I kissed you under the mistletoe on Christmas Eve. It's hard to say because I look at you now and it seems to me there's never been a time when I didn't love you.”

“I've always known what you were thinking. You're squeezing thatmarble in your pocket and you're thinking your cattle wouldn't be at risk if itweren't for Louise. And maybe you're right. But take a hard look, son. Whenyou see that woman working up a sweat pitching hay like a hired hand …you're looking at character."And if we ever have another family dinner that goes like the last one did,you pay attention. I have an idea that your Louise doesn't sit still for toomany insults, and I imagine she could cut someone down to size in aboutthree sentences if she wanted to. But she sat silent while Philadelphiaridiculed and belittled her. Louise did this out of respect for you and thisfamily. That is also character."Maybe you really believe Wally is living your life. If so, then you haven'tbeen honest with yourself. And you haven't taken a good hard look at thelife you have. Mark my words, Max. Someday you're going to hold thatmarble, and it won't be a symbol of all you lost. That marble will be the goldyou went to Piney Creek to find. It will be the most precious thing you own.I say this because I didn't raise any stupid sons.”

“He molded her body to his and another gasp tore at her throat. She had never expected to be held in a man’s arms again. Hadn’t dared to hope that she would ever stand chest to chest, hip to hip with a man who desired her. She had truly believed lovemaking was a pleasure she would never again experience in her lifetime. That was her choice and destiny.His hands moved from her waist to her face, and he kissed the tears shining on her cheeks and eyelids. “I love you,” he whispered. “I have loved you from the moment I saw you.”

“Say yes, Jenny. Promise you'll marry me. Promise you'll still be here, driving me crazy and loving me when we're little and old and surrounded by grandchildren. Promise that you'll let me love you until I take my last breath. Promise.”

“You are so beautiful,” he breathed. Standing over her, rampant in the moonlight, he gazed down at her body. “You are as lovely and as perfect as I imagined you would be.”Afraid to believe, afraid to trust, she dared a look at him and felt her heart wrench when she read his expression and understood that she truly was whole and beautiful in his eyes. She was a magnificent to him as he was to her.”

“I love you, Louise Downe McCord. You drive me absolutely crazy sometimes, and this is one of those times, but I love you.”