To think, after all this time, after all the searching and all the waiting, after all the regret and the time she'd spent away, she came back to find that happiness was right where she's left it. On a football field in Mullaby, North Carolina. Waiting for her.

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

If a man has so much heat he burns your skin when he touches you, he's the devil. Run away

You are who you are, whether you like it or not, so why not like it?

...she was still water in his hands. He didn't know how to hold on.

If anyone had been paying attention to the signs, they would have realized that air turns white when things are about to change, that paper cuts mean there's more to what's written on the page than meets the eye, and that birds are always out to protect you from things you don't see.

That, they knew, was true friendship. And they knew, if you're lucky enough to find it, you hold on to it.