When you're happy for yourself, it fills you. When you're happy for someone else, it pours over.

Blank-slate friendships were thin and temperamental. She knew that. There was no history there to cement people together, for better or worse.

That's the fairy tale. You meet, you fall in love, you kiss, and neither of you is revolted by it. You get married and have kids and live happily ever after.

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.

Wasn't that the point to being married? That you had a partner, someone you trusted, to help with important decisions.

He didn't think he belonged here, so she was making him face some uncomfortable facts. People adapt. People change. You can grow where you're planted.

...a sad sort of vulnerability was wafting from her, making the night smell like maple syrup.