You two... alone." That's better." I said. "You are a good sister after all." I stopped tickling her and she was breathing heavily and almost crying s...e had been laughing so hard."That was cruel, Jeffrey." I know, but you love me anyway," I said and gave her a nice peck on the cheek."I owe you one now," she threatened."No, I really do owe you one. Thanks for talking to Leslie last week and for being a good sister. You really are the best."That caught her off guard. She was expecting some. ’ I flip the talkback off and turn to Brian. ‘Can you give me a really punchy sound to those drums? Compress ’em down with a slow attack and get all the mud out of ’em?’ ‘Sure thing,’ he seems relieved to actually be getting asked to do something. ‘I’ll make ’em punchy as a boxer, if that’s what you want.’ ‘Try it. Let’s see what happens.’ I feel good. I’m really just working a variation of what helped me make ‘As Long As I’m Here’ successful, but at least I’m doing something. The second take. "Dirk, Bob wants to say something. Will you hear him out?" Yes." I waited."Dirk, why the fuck didn't you beat me up after I raped your wife? Every time I got to drinking, I would think you were a wimp and didn't deserve a woman like Mary. I'm done. No more. You are no wimp and you must love this woman more than you did Mary. You certainly showed me you did. Now, I'd like to ask for your forgiveness."I looked at Rena. I could see the hope in her eyes and I could see that she was totally serious.. That didn't work out, just like things failed with Beth Ann, Regina, Rebecca, and Colleen – not to mention Tammy, Sherrie, and Teri. Maybe it was for the best was my thinking as I parked and took a seat in a corner booth at the restaurant.Because I could see the parking lot, I saw the old, beat up, Olds roll in to the lot, looking like it was on its last legs. The driver hopped out and immediately opened the hood and started tinkering with something underneath. I could read his lips, and hear.