It felt as though they were the only people in the world, two young women about to bury the symbol of their helplessness, as if that's all it would take to make them whole again.

He used to believe good things happened in this kind of weather.

There was a certain power beautiful mothers held over their less beautiful daughters.

When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone. Because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again.

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

She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches.

To think, after all this time, after all the searching and all the waiting, after all the regret and the time she'd spent away, she came back to find that happiness was right where she's left it. On a football field in Mullaby, North Carolina. Waiting for her.