I spat a mouthful of beer halfway across the room. Then he explained that since his fourth divorce he'd given up on marriage and had decided that he'd...only sleep with virgins from that point on." Uncle Freddy said that?" Yeah, then he told me he'd found this little girl on one of his sales trips and was just about ready to do the deed when he realized she'd be a perfect graduation gift for me. Then somehow he talked her into it." Your father convinced some farmers daughter from rural. "Try," Brad ordered.He set a glass of orange juice and a plate of the bacon and eggs in front of her and set a plate for himself. Amy drank all of her orange juice but just picked at the bacon and eggs."I don't want anymore," she said.Brad finished his breakfast. He picked up the plate; silverware and glasses scraped the plates into the garbage disposal and put the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. Amy sat in silence staring at nothing. Brad didn't speak to her knowing that she needed some. Many times the three of us played cards or Scrabble or another board game together until I had to go home. And sometimes it was just Natalie and me.My birthday was Dec. 7, an easy date for everybody to remember, and usually the weather was still quite mild in our Deep South town. On my birthday, though, it was cold, cloudy and windy and threatening freezing rain or sleet. I pulled up to the house early and shivered when I got out of the car. I hadn't even put on a jacket before leaving the. "Why not Benson Manor? Creighton Place!" "Very funny. Creighton is my mother's maiden name, so that wouldn't make sense. It's a family thing for me to take her name, but I've never gone by it." I was just teasing. I still live on our estate too," I said, laughing."There's the house," CJ said, pointing ahead.I couldn't see all of "the house" at once, through the windshield. Massive trees and a garden wall concealed the lower half from the road. The upper floors with lights on, seemed to go on.