“I still loved Marc desperately and couldn’t imagine life without him. Jace was…something else. Something I could feel but couldn’t articulate. Something I wanted, and hadn’t been able to resist in my grief-weakened state. He was something that would have to wait.”

“would have to find something else, he thought mazily. Something new. Couldn’t stay here anymore. Couldn’t go back. Only forward.”

“He was waiting for something from me. Acknowledgement. Validation. Commiseration, perhaps. I couldn’t even look at him because I was afraid of feeling any more than I already did.”

“I tried to think of something good to ask of him. “Do you always do this?Rescue girls from embarrassment?”Surprise flickered across his face and then there was something else I couldn’t recognize.“No..” he said softly. “Not always.”There was something in the way he said that, which felt like there was something else underneath the words I wasn’t catching.”

“I wonder how many times in my life I would have been able to prevent something, change something, do something different, if only I'd listened to someone.”

“I was in love with her; couldn’t imagine my life without her in it; but at the same time, I wanted her to have better.”