Being left makes you doubt your ability to keep people, even friends.

She accepted it from then on. Books liked her. Books wanted to look after her.

When people believe you have something to give, something no one else has, they'll go to great lengths and pay a lot of money for it.

But that would leave Paxton to fend for herself, and the last thing any woman wanted in this kind of situation was to look around and see all the people who could help her doing nothing.

Crystalline swirls of sugar and flour still lingered in the air like kite tails.

Don't let anyone see your vulnerable spots. Once they knew how to hurt you, they would do it again and again.

If we measured life in the things that almost happened, we wouldn't get anywhere.