“The second Thomas laid eyes on me, he grounded me indefinitely.That's not true, exactly. He hugged me first. But the grounding occurred shortly thereafter.”

“You're not going to say hi to Thomas?" I whispered. He didn't look at me when he spoke, watching his family hug and laugh. "I got one night with you. I'm not going to waste a second of it.”

“Everything in me feels fluttering and free, like I could take off from the ground at any second. Music, I think, he makes me feel like music.”

“Twenty thousand birds moved away from me as one, like a ground-hugging white cloud, clucking softly.”

“We froze. Neither of us moving, simply staring at each other, wondering if the other was going to move first. "You are," he whispered, "uncommonly stirring." He closed his eyes then, as if he had to in order to break the bond between us, then lifted me to the saddle and stared at the ground as he guided my feet into the stirrups.”

“...because on some basic, soul-deep level within me, he is the solid ground beneath my feet.”