Few men, however, were about to complain about that.The two teenagers exchanged a few words too low to be overheard. Then, true to form, Josh walked a...ay a few seconds later, a look of dejection on his face."Kerplunk!" Lois laughed softly."Doesn't that boy ever get tired of being rejected?" Lois said as she brought her cup up to drain the last of her coffee."Evidently not," Mandy laughed."You'd think he'd realize by now that Jennifer was way out of his league," Lois added."You'd think, wouldn't. Outside the room, he listened intently and heard, what he interpreted to be, the anguished moans of his mother's acute distress. Twisting the ornate handle, which gave way easily, he slowly glided the door inward while peeking around its edge. "Mom?" he whispered. "Are you okay?" His gaze travelled across a lengthy marble counter, backed by an extensive mirror, and eventually found his mother. For the briefest of moments, she appeared to have one hand braced against the counter and the other. I would love to kiss you. You have beautiful lips, I know what boys like. I was a boy once. Even a grown man like me would love to kiss those lips.”His words went through me like lightening. I looked over at him, leaning back, his shirt taught across his hard chest as he took a swig of beer. Would a man like him kiss someone like me? He was much older and I’d never thought of older men, being so focused on my lack of experience with boys. If he kissed me and I wasn’t good at it, no one at. She loved the villages at the foot of the mountains and the quiet life of the area. When she left at the end of the summer to return to Danube City, she did so with great reluctance. The forest seemed to call her back.Just before she was scheduled to start university classes in Danube City, Cassie changed the direction of her life and answered that call. Instead of attending the National University in Danube City, she left her brother and the Havlakts to study forestry at the Natural Resources.