I ponder those questions, not finding an answer that I can put into words. All I can decide is that her appeal in total is greater than the sum of its...parts. The search for an answer detracts from my enjoyment, and I abandon my quest.Now she has completed her transaction and turns to yield the cashier’s station to me. She smiles openly and honestly. I feel helplessly compelled to return my own smile, finding a warmth in my breast that I hadn’t realized was there before. She steps away as I. I'd just never noticed before, like I knew I wasn't supposed to notice. It seemed sorta wicked, thinking like that. He was though, tall and handsome, yeah. I'd noticed that before, but pretended not to. That's dumb, huh? Not thinking about my dad cause he's my dad. But now he wasn't, not anymore. Not if I was the mommy, right? If I cleaned and cooked and took care of his kids, didn't that make me his wife? Yeah, I thought, like we were married sorta. That's what it felt like, kinda, especially. She never forgot to send me a card on my birthdays and would write about all of the European cities she’d visited, and I’d find them in my atlas. She spent a few years working with a traveling ice skating show as a costume manager and seamstress. She said that the garments were always tearing, ripping, splitting, so seamstress was an important part of the job. She was always mending something. She then had come back to the States and was married for a while, but that hadn’t worked out. That’s. ”“Great for you to say that but how are we going to do it?”“I’ll just cash in some of my investments and come up with the funds we need for the down payment. You and I have never discussed money but you should know that the two person law firm I work at is not a nickel and dime operation. It generates a very nice income for both Ray and me. Besides the defense and other legal work we do, the plaintiff’s work on the side just adds big time to the bottom line. Mom instilled in me the need to be a.