The Wrong Family

Wolves know when they’re being raised by bears.

Didn’t he know that once words were out, they stuck in people’s minds like barbs?

She was back to her old ways. Sweeping pieces of crazy under the rug.

Nothing wrong with having different interests and loving each other the same.

You couldn’t fix a child—they didn’t need fixing right out of the box. Kids just needed a healthy example of love to thrive beneath.

Humans had a way of uprooting happiness. They found flaws in it, picked at it until the whole system unraveled.

When you’re an adult you can control who you allow into your life, but you can’t control how they’ll behave once they’re there.

We’re laughing because you’re all the same.

Emotional detachment was a survival skill. The person subconsciously muted their emotions in order to protect themselves.

She didn’t hate being a mother, she hated parenting—being the enforcer,

Unfortunately, we aren’t the only ones in control of our

Kids needed to talk; they needed to empty themselves of their experiences so they could process them properly. And, more importantly, they needed to have someone who wanted to listen and who could gently guide.

Juno had his number and every other man who started their game with the same line: “I’m not like this, you’re the exception.

I’m not what you think. I’m scared, too. I’m sad, too. I want my family, but they don’t want me.

He made her laugh and he made her come: win-win.

Drunks seldom looked inward, and when they did, they usually ended up drinking more.

The thought of some stranger in her house, watching her, terrified Winnie.

Nowhere, Juno, you dumbbitch. She’d graduated from calling herself an idiot to a dumbbitch.

Prepubescent boys had a way of wringing their parents’ nerves dry.

No. You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like to steal someone’s infant—

She knew from experience that what was good for the kids wasn’t necessarily good for the marriage; if you were wizards you could balance everything, but for the rest of the nonmagical population, children put a strain on marriage while simultaneously keeping it together.

emotion: Wolves know when they’re being raised by bears.

The first draft Juno clicked on was titled: Pretty Sure I’m Adopted.

It was when she looked at her face that the laughter was snatched from her throat. The right stuff was all there: nose, eyes, chin, mouth—but the way her skin hung was unfamiliar. She regretted looking in the mirror; she always managed to avoid it; what happened this time? As she headed down to the kitchen, she made a vow never to look in the mirror again.

why marry a man and then serve loyalty to the family you’d left for that man? As far as Juno was concerned, when you got married you started a new family with the person of your choosing: leave and cleave. You had to fight it out together, figure it out as a team. And when the extended family tried to get involved, as they usually did, you were to tell them to mind their stinking business.

Juno and Kregger were wet for adventure, hard for travel.

She hadn’t realized how hard this would be—parenting. People, for some reason, chose only to highlight the good parts: the cute chubby cheeks and cute little socks—not the temper tantrums and lollipop bribery it took to get them in the socks.

what he really wanted was to find his bottle of Jack and coat his anger with it.

The very thing that kept them together was also the thing that kept them apart.