The area was encompassed in a bubble of warm, fragrant steam from the funnel cake deep fryers. It smelled like sweet vanilla cake batter you licked off a spoon.

Memories, even hard memories, grew soft like peaches as they grow older.

He was the only person in the world she was tongue-tied around, and yet the only person she really wanted to talk to.

It was the best first kiss in the history of first kisses. It was as sweet as sugar. And it was warm, as warm as pie. The whole world opened up and I fell inside. I don't know where I was, but I didn't care. I didn't care because the only person who mattered was there with me.

Everything had felt so precarious since her mother's death, like she was walking on a bridge made of paper.

You're dying with the way things are," Della Lee said harshly, causing Josey to lower the handful of popcorn she was about to put in her mouth. "You're going to lose yourself in this, Josey. It's going to happen if you don't change. I know. I lost myself trying to find happiness in things that didn't love me back.

She looked like autumn, when leaves turned and fruit ripened.