“Tibby cried into her soup when it finally came. "I'm scared…," she told it. The carrots and peas made no reply, but she felt better for having told them.”

“She thought of something her mother had told her when she'd finally broken up with one of her most dysfunctional boyfriends.”

“She told me once that the year she went to England she painted her buttons yellow so she would remember what the sun felt like.”

“Told her she was beautiful. Didn't give up when she didn't believe me.”

“I told my wife the truth. I told her I was seeing a psychiatrist. Then she told me the truth: that she was seeing a psychiatrist, two plumbers, and a bartender.”

“The sergeant's widow told you a lie when she said I flogged her. I never flogged her. She flogged herself.”

“His dress told her nothing, but his face told her things which she was glad to know.”

“Tessa put a hand against the wall as she made her way numbly down the stairs. What had she almost done? What had she nearly told Will?”

“That was it. That was really it. She knew that she had told herself that that was it only seconds earlier, but this was now the final real ulimate it.”

“I love my mom. And this time, I told her I loved her. And she told me she loved me, too. And things were okay for a little while.”