“I will be so glad for you to hear not the sounds of gunfire but the sounds of church bells, and of people working in peace.”

“I wait, with some impatience in my pulse, but no doubt in my breast.”

“Relationships are physics. Time transforms things- it has to, because the change from me to we means clearing away the fortifications you’r put up around your old personality. Living with Susannah made me feel as if I started riding Einstein’s famous theoretical bus. Here’s my understanding of that difficult idea, nutshelled: if you’re riding a magic Greyhound, equipped for light-speed travel, you’ll actually live though less time than will any pedestrians whom the bus passes by. So, for a neighbor on the street with a stopwatch, the superfast bus will take two hours to travel from Point A to Point B. But where you’re on that Greyhound, and looking at the wipe of the world out those rhomboidial coach windows, the same trip will take just under twenty-four minutes. Your neighbor, stopwatch under thumb, will have aged eighty-six percent more than you have. It’s hard to fathom. But I think it’s exactly what adult relationships do to us: on the outside, years pass, lives change. But inside, it’s just a day that repeats. You and your partner age at the same clip; it seems not time has gone by. Only when you look up from your relationship- when you step off the bus, feel the ground under your shoes- do you sense the sly, soft absurdity of romance physics.”

“It’s not a romance, it’s a love story.”

“Sneezeweed, Drew?”He grinned. “Jealous?””Surprised.””Remind me, and I’ll have a talk with Gerald. Give him a few tips.””Promise?””Absolutely.”

“no hay que desesperar de lograr aquello que deseamos, pues la asiduidad, si es constante, consigue el fin que se propone…”

“He tugged my zipper down like he was unveiling a gift, spreading my pants open. “Yeah. There it is. You have a nice fat dick. I would have never guessed it.”“I’m Italian,” I said inanely.”

“Love isn’t something you take from one to give to another. Love is to be shared among all; the more people we have in our family, the more love there will be to share.”

“He must have seen her shock, because he said, “You can’t defeat the power of the book. But you can make it work for you.”

“Their daughter scrunched up her hands and legs, waving them wildly in the air. He opened his palm, allowing the babe to kick his hand.”Is she like a puppy?”Constance choked. “What!”He looked up. “Will she get her spots later?”Laughter bubbled up from within her as she playfully whacked him on the shoulder. “Yes. Yes, I’m afraid she will. As soon as the sun touches her skin, the freckles will appear.”A delicious two-dimple grin spread across his face. “Good. I find I’m rather partial to freckled redheads.”

“The features of character are carved out of adversity.”

“Thought you didn’t like red hair.”One of Drew’s dimples kicked in as he draped an arm about Grandma’s shoulder. “Must have me confused with someone else, but I’m not surprised. Seems to happen to most of the older set at some point or other.”

“There is beautiful you are.””No,” said Marged, between a sigh and a sob.”Yes,” said Owen.”No,” said Marged, not so certain.”Behold,” Owen said, from Solomon. “thou art fair. Thou hast dove’s eyes.””Dove’s eyes are small.” Marged said.”Yours are so big they are my whole world,” said Owen.”

“Ah, God, Lys” he breathed, and she opened her eyes to look up at him. She was the love of his heart, his true partner in both work and life, and the idea of losing her to the violence of the world they lived in scared the living shit out of him.But her smile lit her eyes, her face, and he pushed the darkness away and let himself grin back at her like the damn fool that he was. This moment-now-was perfect, and he wasn’t going to let his fears interfere.”

“You could have arrived atop a wildcat and no one would have said a word. They will adore you.”