" But you're cute. I like you like this," he said. "Come sit on Daddy'slap."He sat at the edge of the bed; I did as he asked. It looked like hewanted ...hat "Daddy" thing again. Boy, this guy had issues. "You comfy Gabby?" he asked. I was sitting sideways across his legs; hisright hand was on my thigh, his left hand was rubbing my back."Yes, Daddy," I said. He seemed pleased.He rubbed me a little, nuzzled me a bit with his nose. Hands on mythighs. I didn't care; I submitted to the buzzing. ‘Hey, Mama’, her oldest child, Katrina Lynn, or Lynn, greeted her, bussing her cheek and walking in the kitchen. ‘I went past the restaurant today. When did Nia start back working there?’ she asked. Tania, or Nia, was her second born girl, born a full 25 minutes before her twin brother, Jayden. She was a very smart girl, but had gotten into trouble her sophomore year of college. A computer whiz, she made and released a computer virus into a major bank’s files for the man that she was involved. Mostly ones my grandmother told me, when this was her home. I could tell you one, if you like? So you‘ll see that they‘re not so bad.”Herb almost agreed, but when opened his mouth all the spit dried up. Nice as she seemed, he had a feeling that Nancy Brookwood had a talent for ghost stories that he might be better off not sampling. To cover himself, he reached for a cookie. “But why are you doing all of this?” Herb’s wife said. “I live alone, Mrs. Beaser. I have a condition that makes it so. Mike Furl, Karen’s first I Do, quit when he figured that if she wasn’t going to provide certain favors, well, he could find it elsewhere—and cheaper, too. That was then. This was now. Travis finds her ex’s accusation silly. During the first year of their marriage, Karen and he were making regular practice of the horizontal mambo—sometimes vertical, diagonal, or whatever which way you might imagine mechanically accessible—at every possible opportunity. It was great, just great. He felt young.