.. some frat. I vaguely remembered Rachel'scomment about it the day before. It had slipped my mind until justthen."I haven't decided," I said, smiling...back at the chocolate-tressedgirl. "I figured I'd just stand in front of my wardrobe and wait to beinspired."The grin faltered a bit. "Oh ..." she said in a tone of voice thathinted at hardship and woe. Then that overly-friendly smile returned."That's okay."Alright. Something weird was taking place here, and it wasn't allfemale related. I mean,. “Marty won big in his office pool. He bet on you. Barb seemed a little surprised by the relative size of your opponent. For that matter, so was I. He was huge. How did you prepare for that?”“The little guy that was in my corner...” I said lightly.“Yeah?”“He’s a Gurkha. Military trained. He’s got decades of experience fighting larger guys.”“Well, thank him for all of us for keeping you safe,” she said and then paused. “Barb wants to talk to you,” she told me before she handed over the phone.“Are. ” He acknowledged.“We’re here.” She turned into a driveway. “Uh, how do we open the garage door?”John crawled to the front and looked out.“That keypad right there.” He pointed to one mounted on the garage frame.“What code do I use?” She asked.“Try the other house address number. If that doesn’t work, use this one.” He suggested.The door opened on the first try.Inside, they stripped off everything, which John asked Veronyka to help with before she did the same.“Because if you’re touching me. Michael looked down into the eddies playing along the surface of the stream, at the way the light caught them and made them sparkle. In the middle of such a setting, he thought, there should be no room for pain. This is a place of love and happiness. "I beg to differ," he said at last and leaned over to kiss his wife. At first Gemma pulled his face away, and then, knowing that this was a moment that would never come again, met his husband's lips. In the meadow where as nervous and.