A Look Back - Secondhand Smoke

 Sometimes, she reflected, it wasn't as simple as getting the boy. Sometimes it was as difficult, painful, and wonderful as getting the man. 

This is going to sound strange, but one of my favorite things about this book, and Aidan in general, is that he is still so immature. Sudden shifts can definitely happen, and people can experience grand-scale change in crucial moments, but for the most part, personal growth is an ongoing process. Aidan is, at his core, an unserious person, but he's grown up inside this very serious - and dangerous - world. He doesn't fit into it as well as men who came to it as adults, as total outsiders, and that's always going to grate and sting for him. He's learned a lot about himself, and life in general, but he's always going to be a kid at heart, and I think that's what makes him endearing.