He is not coming back." And it hurt.It hurt until she was a mass of pain,worse than it had been when she thought he was dead. More all consuming. Ravaging her insides.

There are much better ways to handle the delicate male ego. With a two-by-four? Only as a last resort and never in public.

Sweetheart, all men are animals. Feed us, pet us, and use a firm hand, and we'll worship at your feet.

Yes, he would be gone, but she knew now what it meant to love. She might not know what it meant to be loved, but loving was almost as good.

Her head throbbed as though gremlins were ripping holes in her brain

That night we danced, I marked you as mine and I made it stick. There wasn’t a boy or a man on that lake that didn’t know who you belonged to, and the minute there was even a whiff one of them was stepping over the line, they walked funny for a week.

He couldn't even find the will to yell at her now. A real man didn't yell at those who weren't exactly sane themselves, he told himself.