“Everything was quiet, a strange sort of quiet that felt like an unfinished sentence.”

“Everything had felt so precarious since her mother's death, like she was walking on a bridge made of paper.”

“Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.”

“I spent so much time telling myself that this wasn't home that I started to believe it,” she said carefully. “Belonging has always been tough for me.”“I can be your home,” he said quietly. “Belong to me.”

“...a sad sort of vulnerability was wafting from her, making the night smell like maple syrup.”

“If they just carried on like always, everything would be ok.”

“Girls like us, when we love, it takes everything we have.”