I could remember the details as if it had happened yesterday, even though it was hard to believe some of it had happened at all. Funerals were tricky like that. And life, I guess. The important parts you blocked out altogether, but the random, slanted moments haunted you, replaying over and over in your mind.

Maybe it needed to be broken. Sometimes things have to break before you can fix them.

Ladies first." "Why is it men only say that when it's something horrible or dangerous?

She had the power to destroy. I had only seen the power to love. When you discovered both, who could figure out what to do with that?

I needed to touch her, like I needed to breathe.

It was crazy how a hearse and a pair of sneakers could cheer a guy up.

The way she told it, she was such a criminal even the most God-fearing church ladies got bored of reporting on her; she did the marketing on Sunday, dropped by any church she liked or none at all, was a feminist (which Mrs. Asher sometimes confused with communist), a Democrat (which Mrs. Lincoln pointed out practically had "demon" in the word itself), and, worst of all, a vegetarian (which ruled out any dinner invitations from Mrs. Snow).