She thought a short while about how to phrase her answer, before launching into a short story: I’ve seen your mother on and off these last eighteen...years, in town, around and about. We’ve always passed the time of day, kept up with news – nothing regular of course, and perhaps we’ve gone as much as two years without news at certain times. But I always liked your mother, she was very kind to me as a kid, and of course, we have some shared history. As I started my work, and then more recently,. "We gotta keep it a secret between us. Can you keep a secret, kid?" "Well... yeah... I guess so." "It's a grown-up type secret. You look like a grown-up girl to me." "Yeah, I can keep a secret like that, 'cause I'm a young lady now." "Come on then. Sit on my lap. It'll be fun. This is going to help me out a lot, Terry being gone all this time. Guys like me miss having a woman around, and she's been gone a lot lately." I got up and sat on his lap, facing him. We kind of fooled around. We hung out on the bed for a couple minutes and lit up a smoke. Not a word was spoken, except by her, asking me if she was good. Of course I said yes, you were great. She got dressed and said she had to go because her friend, the one I banged a couple years back while in HS, was her ride. Off she went. So I got dressed.As the buddies started to emerge from their own escapades, we all sat on the couch and the Q&A session started. So after a couple of stories the focus shifted to me. Of course I. The last five years had been grueling in the extreme. Ben never hesitated at any task given him. He often thanked God for the extra strength and stamina because he would have died from exhaustion otherwise. Assignments flowing from one to another seemed to grow intensity. He often healed from wounds while in the saddle because of the urgency to save the next innocent. Ben would never stop but sometime he felt weary to the bone.The three men walked into the firelight and Ben stiffened. The men's.