I sighed and shook Gretchen gently. She half-way woke up and I whispered to her that I needed to use the bathroom. She sleepily let me out of bed and ...as asleep again before I had the covers settled back over her gorgeous form.After I'd finished my business, I made my way quietly out onto the balcony. The sky was dark and the moon was nowhere in sight, but the ship churned the sea behind us into a glowing green arrow pointing back in the direction we'd come. Leaning against the rail, I mutely. Neither Kathy nor Garrett was completely happy with the sentence but at least he was sentenced this time.On April 1 Kathy came up to Garrett's place about her normal time—right after she got off work—and bounced across the balcony to plop down on his lap. After their hello kiss she said, "Garrett, I heard a great rumor. Hell, it's more than a rumor. You know the White Oak Cabinet shop burned about a month ago over in Neosho? Well, they just signed a contract to buy the old Eagle Picher plant up. ”“Can I see that? I’d like to know what it looks like when it’s big. Do I just touch it or what? How does it work?” Willy looked pretty excited at this point.“Pretty much. You touch it and rub or squeeze it and it gets bigger. I can do that for you if you want.”“I’d like to do that myself, if it’s OK with you. I’d like to know how to do that.”“I guess that would be OK, Mom and Dad won’t be home for another hour. This isn’t something you usually do with a family member, but we won’t go too far. Gabriella sensed my hesitation. “Kai, just hurry up and do it. We don’t know how much time we have before we get interrupted again, and it needs to be done. I want her too, so hurry up.”Avery looked at Gabriella in alarm, prompting my fiancé to give her a reassuring smile. “No, it won’t hurt,” she said gently, answering her previous question. “He’s going to inject some of his blood directly into your arm, and it will probably make you feel really sleepy. When you wake up, you’ll be like.