“He sounds like Jesus. Except rich and sexy.” “Watch it, Meg. In this town joking about Jesus could get you shot. You’ve never seen so many of the faithful who’re armed.”

“And Eth couldn't help looking. It's been years since he's seen a beautiful naked woman in the flesh. I'd be worried about him if he hadn't looked." "He's a minister!" "It was a blessed event. You sure you don't want me to hang that robe up?" "You're making a joke out of this." "Absolutely not. Only an insensitive jerk would think something this traumatic was funny. Tell you what. I'll go downstairs right this minute and kill him before he gets away.”

“You never get mad,” she said when their server left the table. “Except at me.”“That’s not true,” he said tightly. “Torie can get me going.”“Torie doesn’t count. You were obviously her mother in a previous life.”

“His pacing stopped. The mattress sighed as he sat on the edge. seconds ticked by before he spoke so softly she could barely hear. "Sometimes I want to leave this town so bad I can taste it.”

“For a moment he could have sworn he smelled violets, which was very peculiar, since he had no idea what violets smelled like, except somehow he knew they smelled just like Lady Emma.”

“People will always try to stealyour power. When you do well, they’ll say it’s only because you’re rich and your parents are big shots. People who care about you will try to stealyour power, too, but they’ll go about it differently. When you fail at something, they’ll try to make you feel better by saying that nobody’s good ateverything, and you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. They might tell you not to feel bad about screwing up a math test because math’s hard for girls.Or they’ll say you shouldn’t worry so much about injustice in the world because you’re only one person. And even though they mean well, they’ll bemaking you less than what you can be.”

“If another woman had been around, this would never have happened.""Whatever you're trying to say, just spit it out.""Come on, Heath. I'm not blond, leggy, or stacked. I was the default setting. Even my fiance never said I was sexy.""Your ex-fiance wears lipstick, so I wouldn't take that to heart. I promise, Annabelle, you're very sexy. That hair...""Do not start in on my hair. I was born with it, okay. It's like making fun of someone with a birth defect.”