The Lake House

by Kate Morton

Spooked was a bit too close to vulnerable for Sadie’s liking and she’d decided years ago it was better to march straight up to trouble than have it sneak up behind her.

“Life will cure you of naïve assumptions. The only thing one can count on is that no one else can truly be counted on.”

Love made people lawless, winged and unconfined; it made them careless.

May your past be a pleasant memory, Your future filled with delight and mystery, Your now a glorious moment, That fills your life with deep contentment.

That’s where Ben had been wrong. Alice blinked away the sudden unexpected heat of loss. His preference for people over places was all well and good, but people had a nasty habit of changing. Or leaving. Or dying. Places were far more reliable. They prevailed. And, if damaged, could be rebuilt, even improved. People could not be trusted to stick around.

“Boredom is the province of the witless,” she heard herself say. “A state to be pitied.”