I went back to the room, put on clothes, and then completed the move. When we had finished, Seth identified Rick’s things and told us to move them t... Ben’s room. Seth took a playful swing at Jay with Rick’s baseball bat. After he got back on his feet (he’d wound up on the floor clutching his balls and moaning), Jay said it was his turn to go get dressed. Seth might be a good biology student, but he sucked at baseball. If Rick was not expelled from the dorm he would live alone. Nate would room. I thought about telling him that I didn’t think about my parents when I was with him, that besides for my grandma and little brother he was my family. Maybe that was fair to put on him, he owed me for all the kisses I’d given him, how I took care of him when his grandfather died, for all the womanly roles I’d taken on for him in the last few years. ‘When I’m with you I don’t think about my parents.’ I wasn’t sure if I’d said what I meant. When we were together I didn’t dwell on the absence of. ”“When I saw you standing there, I wanted to go throw my arms around you,” I answered, “but I was sure by now you, as beautiful as you are, would have found somebody else. I thought the man in the truck, your uncle, was your husband.”She laughed.“What do we do now,” she said. “I don’t want to be taken away from you again.”I pulled out my cell phone, punched in a few numbers.“Rick, this is Jake. How’s it going now that you’re a big wig,” I said into the phone.Rick had worked his way through the. If I can take out the leader, maybe it will cause a panic.”“Betty Mae, if these men are professional hires, they won’t care who they shoot, just like with Raylene.”“They might think twice if I have Rory’s shotgun pointed at them. Maybe I can get them to wait there while their leader comes over the gate and talks to you, Paul.”“I don’t like it, Betty Mae. Mick would kill me.”“Mick’s dead, Paul. And these are the men who killed him. This is now my home and I’m going to defend it, and Mick’s.