I told her to expect us to pick her up around five thirty. She said she was looking forward to it, and would be ready when I came to get her.Friday, w...en I rang her door bell, she opened her door right away. She gave me a big smile and told me she was ready, but I was looking behind her at Brenda, who was standing not five feet away. Emily saw the look of surprise on my face and turned around to see what I was looking at."Brenda, you promised! Kenny, she's here to watch Gary until my parents. " She found herself murmuring. "You know very well why you are staying."She was in love. Strange, how long it had taken for her to come to grips with it.So simple an admission, yet evoking depths greater than any ocean."Tenchi." Ayeka sighed, unable to fathom how such a thing could even be possible, let a lone that now, she was to lose him or that someone such as Ryoko could even be her rival for any mans affection!She was so ... different.Boyish, opinionated, loud, rude and in most cases just. ”“Want me to do it,” Josh checked.“Would you,” beamed the cosmetologist.“Yeah! You’re practically family, right?”“You’re the best. I told Mariah not to let you go.”“Sure you did,” Josh gave Darian the side eye.“What do you think?” Darian gave Josh a handheld mirror.“I’m back in the game,” laughed the dark-haired man.“Great!”“How much?”“We can settle up after you wash my car. Let me get my keys.”Josh took the fob from the five-foot-eight effeminate dude with deep sepia skin over a cool, magenta. Laurel sat with her back against a tree, Miranda snuggled against her side, Connor sitting with Hank, listening to the tales of the storyteller, she smiled at the look of awe on her children's faces as they listened to tall tales and wild adventures, of mages and magicians, witches good and bad, castles hidden in the mists of time. When the storyteller was done Miranda turned wonderfilled eyes to her mama and purred with a soft singsong, Laurel gently stroked her head then took out her lute..