That could be a real mess. But as you say, younger girls will probably eventually want kids. Even Abbie changed her mind on that!”I laughed, “Exac...ly.”When we’d dressed, I kissed Kara goodbye, and headed to Ailea’s house for lunch.As she’d said would be the case, her parents were gone and we had a nice lunch together, and a very good conversation. I reproved myself for the thoughts I’d had and the fact that I’d completely misread her intentions.We agreed to have lunch again in November, and. But of course I'm biased; perhaps you'd get a truer opinion from my friend Evelyn, here.”“Delighted to meet you, Evelyn, Daddy's told me such a lot about you.”“He has?” I wondered to myself. That was quick work; I had only spoken to him on the phone for the first time about four days earlier. Still, I'm not going to break his dreams today.“Has he now? And I don't even know your name.”“Oh, Daddy, you are awful. I'm Holly,” she said. “I hope we'll be great friends.”“Pleased to meet you, Holly,” I. ‘Jennifer, there is something, I must ask you. Every time I’ve tried…’ Jennifer put two fingers to Peter’s lips and smiled with a knowing, amused look in her eyes. ‘I won’t stop you this time,’ she whispered softly. For minutes, silently, not daring to breathe, they stared into each other’s eyes until Peter stood, lifting Jennifer to her feet. Holding her hands, he dropped to his knees and looked up at her face. The world seemed to become quiet and still, as if holding its breath in. ‘You weren’t here yesterday,’ he said to himself. He slowed even more and circled around again with his maneuvering thrusters. He got a better look at it on the slower approach and saw that the entire craft was riddled with small craters in the metal and there was a halo of slivers of armor around the craft, looking like a never-falling metallic snow. The glass of the cockpit was completely smashed out, and only jagged shards along the edge of the frame were still part of the craft. Inside,.