Joyce’s Reviews > Bluebird Gold > Status Update

I hated when students rolled their eyes. Though I probably deserved at least one of those.

Cosi's kitchen was functional to its core. Beige countertops. Hickory cabinets. White appliances. Taupe linoleum floors. Its lack of character was the character. Sturdy. Reliable. Manly.

He would have given me a bear hug - a honey bear hug, those tight all-encompassing embraces he saved only for me.

Her dry humorless laugh sounded a lot like the one Mom gave at times. The times right before she burst into tears.

If I had to guess, I'd say, deep down, she and Dad were very different people. And when you put love on one side of the scale and their differences on the other, no matter what, they were never going to balance.

That's the harsh reality of life, isn't it? That love alone isn't enough.

I hope you're wrong about that. I hope that when love is real, it's always enough.

You're thirty? So you had Spencer when you were sixteen?

How long have you lived in Dalton?

Twenty years. Mom and I moved here when I was ten. After my dad's accident.

A broken promise was a wound. I'd suffered enough of those from my own father - I wasn't going to inflict that pain on others.

it was only by chance that my light caught a string of red dots. I bent, touching my finger to one of the dots before lifting it to my nose. Dyed diesel. As far as I knew, Ike didn't have any equipment that would need dyed diesel. His boat's motor was gas.

A different smell hit my nostrils. Not gas, but diesel. Fresh. Pungent. It mingled with the smoke.