Quarter 3: Week 7, Post B

"'You'll live with it, Nikki. I'll help you.' I waited for Strabane to say more. I knew him now: my lover. I waited for him to reason with me, to argue with me. I waited for him to say those words we say to one another at such times. But he remained silent. He gripped my hand in such a way that his fingers pushed through my fingers and held them tight. I understood that this was the reasoning, this was his argument. In this way ended my first full year of missing Mom" (434).

This is the final quote in the book, and one of my favorites of the entire novel. In honor of Mother's Day and the anniversary of her mom's death, Nikki and her new boyfriend, Detective Strabane, are vacationing in Key West at the same resort her parents stayed at on their honeymoon. As Nikki and Strabane take a walk on the beach, Nikki breaks down from the grief and memories that still haunt her from that terrible day one year ago. But, unlike the rest of the traumatic year, this time she has someone there for her. Strabane takes her hand and shows her that he will be strong for her, that he will be her rock, her light through the storm. He silently promises this by simply holding her hand-grasping it tightly and showing that he will never let her go. In the past weeks, he has had to reason and argue with Nikki to prove that none of what happened was her fault, that she will make it through this. But now, instead of words, his hand holding hers is reason and argument enough to keep going.