"What color are your panties?"Before she could answer, I spoke again."No? You're not going to tell me?"Samantha shook her head. I visited the cabinet ...gain and returned to put a collar around her neck."Tell me," I hissed.Samantha shook her head again.I smiled. She looked like Mom, but she wasn't, and she played the game differently. This was going to be a lot of fun. I pulled down on the rope at the back of the collar and tied it off around her waist. Samantha's head was drawn back but not so. They made the impression of having gone through hell and back, their love surviving and being stronger for it. A love like tempered steel, Colleen thought, the poet in her taking over, for she wrote poems as well as prose.Her gaze then swept over the American woman, Melissa Martin. She was a painter, living on her own, defying her parents to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. Colleen thought she understood her. She, too, did not look forward to being married to some young guards officer. I said, "He can't get here till after church. He is a doting husband, a caring father and a true Christian."He chuckled. I offered him a beer and we watched the game until half time without really talking.Just as the half was ending, both agreeing the Bears needed to be more aggressive on offense, there was a knock on the door."Come in," I called.Trevor came in, still in a suit, and said, "Carol is not too happy about me leaving today." So why are you here?" I asked, loving to hear him admit he. On impulse, I pulled her into a hug and held her for a few minutes. She snuggled into my chest and held on to me for dear life. After a bit, I released her, kissed her on the forehead and headed back to my car. I drove home with the radio on low, lost in my thoughts. I still had a lot of work to do on myself before I could approach Jennifer, or any other girl for that matter, in an attempt to move forward.When I arrived at the house, I found Jeremiah Brown and Jackie hunched over the drafting.