They weren’t always welcomed but they were tolerated. Claire took one look and sent the children to gather everyone in the lobby.“Miss Delilah,”...I said in acknowledgement. I looked over at Claire, surprised to see her grinning. That couldn’t be good.“Honey, where are your manners? Introduce us.” ‘Honey?’, where did that come from? I liked the sound of it though.“Miss Delilah, this is Claire Benson of the Split Trails Ranch, my business partner. Miss Claire, this is Miss Delilah, a local .... "You think he's still up." I heard one of them say just before I opened the door.My next door neighbor got a big grin on his face as soon as I opened the door and he was holding what looked like an unlit cigarette in his hand. They were both older; my neighbor looked to be around thirty-five and his friend even a little older than him – maybe early forties."Hey man," it was my neighbor, "didn't mean to wake you, but I saw your light was on and thought maybe you'd want to help us smoke this. “Hi Mandy, the house is all done and I have the keys, when can you start?”“Roger, nice to hear from you. We’ve got most of the furniture in our warehouse. Monday is already pretty booked, how about Tuesday? We can bring our crew and set up the house.” Mandy cheerfully suggested to Roger.“That works. I’ll just take the day off and watch you work.” Roger replied with a bit of cheer in his voice.“Just watch? Something tells me you’ll be directing traffic.” She offered, with a smile in her. A small part of her, steadily growing bigger, was even just a little grateful. ?Just breathe for a moment, you’ve just gone through an ordeal that most women would rightfully press charges for,? Travis paused, he lowered his face down close to Missy’s ear, ?but you’re not going to press charges, are you?? Missy, still reeling from the rapid fire turn of events of the evening, slowly shook her head as much as she could in the gag trainer. ?I didn’t think so,? he continued,.