“It’d be stupid not to marry me right now in case I get shot.” He smiled. There, that had to be enough romantic-ness for any woman.

Their eyes met, and she looked a little sheepish, in a bloodthirsty kind of way.

In her youth, Jane had foolishly prayed for good handwriting after seeing Suzanne’s for the first time.

God had answered her prayer, years later, and now Jane wondered what He would’ve done if she’s prayed for something that really mattered.

Like friendships that didn’t fade away as quickly as the changing seasons.

She smacked his shoulder. “For your information, you little brat, Mitch is one of the happiest men around.”

“Yeah?” Steven cocked a hip. “And how do you know that?”

“Simple.” She tossed her hair back and sashayed out the door, slipping a grin over her shoulder that included a wink. “Because I tell him so every day.”

“All them old mob guys are croaking. Pretty soon there’s not gonna be any more mob. All the young guys are going into the hedge fund business.”

“If the good Lord couldn’t use fools and foolishness, he wouldn’t get much done.”

The judge pointed to the coat tree behind Clara. She wondered whether he thought her particularly tall and thin and inert for a woman of her age and station.

“Ain’t much of a prayer,” Lillie grumbled.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I-I could say the Lord’s Prayer…”

“No thanks. I’m thinking the Good Lord has that one about memorized by now. He don’t need to hear it again.”

We are, each of us, meant to change the ocean and to be changed by it, to become new creations as we travel our paths, and answer our challenges, and live and relive our Camelots.

“You need no music, Eden. You need only me – and I you.”