Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3)

by Lisa Kleypas

The worst kind of alone, Pandora thought morosely, was being the only person in a crowd who wasn’t having a good time.

Nor did he want to take away her choices. He wanted to be her choice.

It was insane to let a creature so perfectly beautiful and artlessly spirited and vulnerable as his wife venture out into a world that could crush her with casual unconcern, and he had no choice but to allow it. But he had no illusions about ever being comfortable with it. For the rest of his life, he would feel a stab of dread every time she walked out the door, leaving him there with his heart wide open.

“That I’ll never be able to control them. They are who they are. All I can do is love them, and try my damnedest to keep them safe, even knowing it won’t always be possible.”

Dragon knew next to nothing about children and seemed to regard them as nothing more than short, slovenly adults with poor depth perception.

I love how this is so clearly Pandora's voice, not a narrator