“Jack laughed behind him, a mirthless sound from a man who had been on the wrong end of life's ironies too many times.”

“Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!”

“Fleetingly he wondered what the man's life had been like, where it had gone so desperately wrong. No one tried to end up like this, alone and defenseless and poor, eking a living from the harsh Arizona desert.”

“I started to kiss him back, slower and clumsy where his had been sure, practiced. I was worried I was doing it wrong, but then a deep sound came from him, almost a growl and instinctively Iknew it was a sound of approval.”

“She had to tell him, while she still had time, how wrong he’d been and how right she’d been. How wrong not to love her more, how wrong not to cherish her and have sex at every opportunity, how wrong not to trust her financial instincts, how wrong to have spent so much time at work and so little with the children, how wrong to have been so negative, how wrong to have been gloomy, how wrong to have run away from life, how wrong to have said no, again and again, instead of yes: she had to tell him all of this, every single day.”

“How dare Arion sit there and tell her he cared for her more than she for him when she was in love with him! Was the man dense? Had he fallen from his horse too many times?”