because the past was always around her and might return at any time. It prowled the world searching for her, and she knew it was growing angrier at every passing day.

I don't care if your dad is the Sultan of Brunei. You happened to be born into a privileged family. What you do with that truth is completely up to you. I'm here because I want to be with you. But if I didn't, all the money in the world wouldn't have changed my feelings for you.

In the distance, he could see Molly lying in the tall grass off to the side of the house.

I tell myself that I know you, and then when I think about it, I realize that I don't.

But no matter what was going on in our lives, I could imagine lying beside her in bed at the end of the day, holding her while we talked and laughed, lost in each other's arms

These days she simply did the best job she could, accepting the good with the bad.

If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.