“Well the truth is that since my friends found out that I was pregnant to you and that it wasn’t actually rape, they want nothing to do with me…... Mel has been kind enough to allow me to hang around with you two.” Emily said turning with a smile and looking at Mel.“Your welcome here Emily even though it’s only because Charles put his bun into your oven.” Mel gave out a little laugh, Emily joined in and Charles was still a little confused.It was around one o’clock and Sue was hanging clothes out. Underneath it, Kevin looked up, up, up into its many layers of branches. It was amazing that a cottonwood would thrive so far from a river. They usually need lots of moisture to survive. There must be an underground spring feeding it, he mused.Amanda walked up to the tree trunk, and murmured something that Kevin couldn't make out. She ran her hand over the bark familiarly. Like it was an old friend."A truly magnificent tree," Kevin said finally.Amanda looked up at the tree wistfully. "It was.. She was spent. He pulled his hand slowly out of her most intimate place. She gasped as he gently withdrew. She was weak, exhausted, elated. Her heart pounded and she could literally hear it beating. God!! GOD!! She lay prone across her desk, coming only slowly to herself again. She sensed Kevin moving around behind her. She wanted nothing more than to be held now, to be in his arms. Too see Kevin’s face. To hear him whisper her name in her ear. But she didn’t move. She was still. . Nikki and Dan 2.0. Me ‘n’ Ed. All those felonies.”I love watching Terri talk. Her face telegraphs the thinking that’s going on behind the scenes. “You remember that bunch that visited us a while back? Carlita and Brindy and Dave?”“Yeah...” I do remember. Carlita’s a pixie, kind of like a Latina version of Cindy. I think Brindy’s a lot like Kim’s Aunt Jenn. Dave’s a nice-looking guy who gives the impression that he fell into heaven. Husband and wife and family ‘friend’, indeed.“I think there’s a.