Quotes from Karen Rose Smith

It was one of those things—until you knew a person well, you didn't really use their name. Names had power. Names conveyed meaning.

Crime in Willow Creek is mostly limited to DUIs, jaywalking, and now and then a domestic violence issue. But he dealt with more than that in Pittsburgh. He's witnessed a seedy side of life, and that's what colors his thoughts and his memories.

what to do with her.  She'd rebelled because she'd wanted their attention.  Any of their attention.  All of their

expected—"  He inhaled a deep breath.  "We only

has a...civilized look.  Maybe because I know just beyond are highways

had become foreign to him.  Maybe his

cats had more emotional intelligence than many humans.

Work was one of the reasons I wasn't paying enough attention when Sally died. I hadn't taken parenting classes. I hadn't had enough experience. I didn't realize a dad has to be there as much as a mom, for all the everyday things as well as the birthday parties. My ignorance cost us our child.

The trees were turning now. Yellow, russet, orange, and shades of brown formed a canopy above them as they walked through maples, sycamores, elms, and birches.

Soon an Amish gray-topped buggy came along, clamored through the covered bridge, and continued down the lane to a farm over the hill. There was something about the horse-drawn carriages of the Amish that spoke of a slower pace of life and an earlier time where the things that mattered in life were always in the forefront.