I keep our little bag of toys and sometimes I bring them, sometimes I don't. If they're there, we might remember to use them, but often we don't. I li...e that, that we don't really plan things, but that they are spontaneous. Anyway, the last couple of times we'd met up, we'd got very hot and heavy very quickly. He'd basically meet me at the door, often already naked. It never takes him more than three minutes to get me from arriving to nude, and within seconds we'd been at it really hot and. What do you want to say?’ ‘Albert was…’ ‘a bastard?’ Simon’s word shocked me. ‘Yes.’ I replied. ‘I know he was,’ Simon added. ‘But I’m not Albert. I have never interfered with any of the women at the Hall, have I?’ ‘Not as far as I know,’ I replied, ‘but…’ ‘There are no ‘buts’,’ Simon said. ‘I have never. I like them. I trust them. They trust me. I trust you, Ellen, and always have. That’s why I let you three truss me up like the Christmas turkey.’ I scrabbled at the knot on the apron around. Mary's burgundy dress pressed tightly against her body and hanging to mid thigh and Roger's shirt and jeans, both black denim contrasted with the seated couple.The wine poured, a rich Bordeaux, the foursome sipped and nibbled on the crusty bread, the various cheeses and the melon slices and grapes. And they talked.Roger explained his entrepreneurship. Denise waxed about her designs. Neither Mary nor Harold talked much. He mostly stared at Mary.Mary greeted his stares with a cheerful smile at. Where boys got there’s, he cared about her responses.He’d already sent in his resignation from the school district. Come September, come the time Sharon decided to move on if that were earlier, he’d go look for a third career. Teachers don’t date students. High-school teachers sure don’t date girls going into their Junior year. But he’d take Sharon over a career any day. In his eight years as a widower, he’d never met a woman to match her. And Sharon was only beginning. He’d seen her go from.