“Pa? You never said. What'm I gonna be? Good or bad? He kisses the top of my head. Whispers in my ear, so's only him and me can hear. You, my darlin daughter, are gonna be somethin else entirely.”

“My pulse whooshed in my ears so fast I could barely hear myself speak. “I only have—”“Two days.” He squeezed my hand. “So what? You can spend them feeling sorry for yourself, or you can let me help make them the best two daysof your life, and my afterlife. So what’s it gonna be?”I stared into his eyes, like I’d never seen him before. And I hadn’t—not like this. But he’d obviously seen me, better than anyone else ever had.“Well?” Tod watched me, his hand still warm in mine.In answer, I leaned forward and kissed him again.”

“He leaned over to kiss the top of my head, and then groaned. I looked at him, puzzled."You smell so good in the rain," he explained."In a good way, or in a bad way?" I asked cautiously.He sighed. "Both, always both.”

“Travis tapped my apple with his fork. “You gonna eat that, Pidge?”“No, you can have it, Baby.”Heat consumed my ears when America’s head jerked to look at me.“It just came out,” I said, shaking my head. I peeked up at Travis, whose expression was a mixture of amusement and adoration.”

“As I followed him along the sharp black stones, I could hear Link's voice in my head. "Bad move, man. He's gonna kill you, stuff you, and add you to his collection of idiots who followed him back to his creepy cave”

“You gonna order me to kiss you so I can get all tingly or are you just gonna stare at me?"He knew his smile hit his eyes when he muttered, "Kiss me, honey.”