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

“She went to the window. A fine sheen of sugary frost covered everything in sight, and white smoke rose from chimneys in the valley below the resort town. The window opened to a rush of sharp early November air that would have the town in a flurry of activity, anticipating the tourists the colder weather always brought to the high mountains of North Carolina. She stuck her head out and took a deep breath. If she could eat the cold air, she would. She thought cold snaps were like cookies, like gingersnaps. In her mind they were made with white chocolate chunks and had a cool, brittle vanilla frosting. They melted like snow in her mouth, turning creamy and warm.”

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

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

“Those who decided to stick with her would be her true friends. The others would just be scenery.”

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

“Fate never promises to tell you everything up front. You aren't always shown the path in life you're supposed to take. But if there was one thing she'd learned in the past few weeks, it was that sometimes, when you're really lucky, you meet someone with a map.”