“Here's an exclusive, Tanner Graham. I love you like crazy.""My favorite kind of story," he said. "I already know how this one ends.""How?""Happily ever after.”

“No," he said, leaning back to take my face in his hands and dropping another soft kiss on my lips. "All I've wanted since you limped out of my life the first day I met you was to have you back in it. Does that scare you?"I stood on tiptoe to return his kiss. "Not even a little bit. Thank you, Tanner Graham."He smiled. "For what?""For being patient. I'll make it worth it.""You've always been worth it," he said punctuating his opinion with another kiss...Tanner smiled down at me, tightening his hold. "Thank you.""For what?""for being you. I love you, Pepper.”

“But the change was in the tiny fraction of space that Tanner closed between us, when his mouth touched mine and the gentle brush of his lips drew a sigh from me I didn't know I was holding. He smiled against my mouth and then kissed me again.”

“You're free to make your own choices, and you're free to pay the consequences.”

“Yeah, apparently this chick didn’t know-“ He held up a hand.“Thank you, but I came to hear your story, not theirs,” he took a bite, chewing and swallowing, “You see, stories are endless; there is always something before the beginning and after the end. They can branch off and follow any character. But because we ourselves can’t see the whole story, we have to cut it up into novellas. You see?”

“I figure the more people think I'm just mildly weird, the less likely they are to know how weird I really am.”

“I suspect you're thinking of Pascal,' Finkler said, finally.'Only he said the opposite. He said you might as well wager on God because that way, even if He doesn't exist, you've nothing to lose. Whereas if you wager against God and He does exist...' 'You're in the shit.”