We'd known each other only a year, but we'd lived a lifetime in it.

"Nothing we've ever done has been easy! Our life before-before the attack wasn't easy and we made it through that! We can make it through this too. We can make it through anything together. It doesn't matter if you put your faith in this place. I don't care. What matters is that you put your faith in us."

Her heart bumped against her chest and she didn't understand it. She couldn't possibly find him attractive. It was ridiculous to find him attractive. So why were her legs shaking so much she needed to sit down?

"There's more to education than sitting in rows in a classroom with a book in front of you."

That was the thing about telling somebody something private and true. It was like handing him a gun and waiting to see if he'd pull the trigger.

Were horses one of those animals that could smell fear? It seemed likely, after all, their faces were practically all nose.

Loneliness in a crowd of people was the worst kind of loneliness, but she couldn't help it

Had there ever been a time when she enjoyed the moment without worrying that something bad was about to happen? Had she ever lived without protecting herself?

"You know me. I think about the journey, not the destination. You can wast your whole life thinking about where you're going, and then one day you wake up and realize you missed today because you were thinking about tomorrow. I like to live in the moment."

She knew exactly how he would have felt because she'd felt it, too, that brutal loss of someone who was part of you. Like ripping away flesh and muscle down to the bone, the wound going so deep it never really heald. Eventually it closed over the surface, leaving bruises and scars invisible to the naked eye.

"Don't know how you can bear to live in a city. Too many people and not enough space. I wouldn't be able to stand it, having to fight for my own patch of air to breathe."

I found myself smiling privately. For once in my life I felt I was part of something and that the people who mattered liked me for who I was. I wasn't a 'background person' lost in a crowd, or the foreground only by association. I felt I could handle anything.

There was no way this was love. It was a serious case of lust with a whole lot of like and laughter thrown in.

"Are you saying I have a short attention span?"
"Not at all. I'm saying there's a fire in you that drives everything you do, that makes you need to better the world and those you love. To stand up for those you can't. It's one of the wonderful things about you."

"Life's like that," he said. "As we grow and change, sometimes things we've experienced before take on new meaning. It'll happen for the rest of your life."

"Shave that Moses beard and you might have better luck. Women don't want to kiss carpet, you know."

"There's more to this amazing body than awe-inspiring abs. I have a pair of ears, too, and they happen to work superbly."

"You're dangerous," he says.
"Why?"
"Because you make me believe in the impossible."

"Do I hear a challenge?" she whisper, then leans forward and says against my lips, "Oh, Carlos. You know I can't resist a challenge."

"I'm mad at you."
Man, I'm gettin' heat from all sides today. "Take a number and get in line, kid."