We love them, and then, if we are lucky, we get to take care of them, and the caretaking is not the source of the love but one of its dearest expressions.

Marcus had it exactly reversed, and it had nearly cost us everything, and I was not going to let him carry that terrible arithmetic for one more second.

Chapter 17 — What Your Hands Could Do

I did not wait for him to finish whatever else he was going to say.

I dropped the lunchbox onto the grass, that foolish precious lunchbox with the note still tucked under the fork, and I crossed the space between us and threw my arms around his neck and held on.

For just a second he was rigid in my arms, unsure, as though he did not know whether he was still allowed to be held.