But one thing she [Rachel] did believe in was love. She believed that you could smell it, that you could taste it, that it could change the entire course of your life.

Those silly girls had no idea what they were really celebrating. They had no idea what it took to bring Agatha and her friends together seventy-five years ago. The Women's Society Club had been about supporting one another, about banding together to protect one another because no one else would. But it had turned into an ugly beast, a means by which rich ladies would congratulate themselves by giving money to the poor. And Agatha had let it happen. All her life, it seemed, she was making up for things she let happen.

I lost myself trying to find happiness in things that didn't love me back.

Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.

People always say life is too short for regrets. But the truth is, it's too long.

You'd be surprised how easy some things can be, things you never thought you'd do, when you take self-respect out of the equation.

Snow flurries began to fall and they swirled around people's legs like house cats. It was magical, this snow globe world.