“He bent his head, bringing his lips near her ear. “Talk of the future confuses you, I know. But I think about it all the time."His hands moved slowly down her bare arms. “When the time is right, when it’s our time, I want to undress you – slowly – in front of the fire. Slowly, one item at a time. I want to roll down your stockings and unlace your corset. I want to slowly take the pins out of your hair and catch the weight of it in my hands. Then I want to learn the feel of every inch of you.”

“[Annie] “I just wondered … is slowly a good thing?”“Is slowly …” His fingers relaxed and she felt rather than saw his smile. He brushed his fingertips across her lips, then sank back to his pillow. “Oh yes, Annie love. Slowly is a very good thing.”“Oh, my.”

“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.”

“This time his kiss was full and provocative, summoning sensations she had believed, had hop, were submerged too deeply to be awakened. But his fingers on her face, his mouth, his lips, stirred slumbering emotions and coaxed them to life. His hands moved to cup her head, to spread across her spine, and he crushed her against him as their kisses deepened.”

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

“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'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.”