‘Cathy?’ ‘Yeah Itsy?’ I responded with my pet name for him, only half awake. ‘I just…’ I put a finger to his lips, then embraced him, wh...spering into his ear. ‘You don’t have to explain.’ Silence, then a faint murmur ‘Yes, I do.’ I kissed him on the temple. ‘I’m always here to listen. You don’t need to rush.’ ‘I know I haven’t been very good to you lately.’ ‘None of that Jewish guilt bullshit,’ I said with a soft chuckle. ‘Oy, take all my little pleasures, you Dragon Lady you!’ he exclaimed. Her eyes fell back on the map, and she traced her fingers along the same lines as Erik had, though hers varied slightly in places. Southeast instead of due east here, north instead of northwest there. “Aran informed me of his movements last night. I have yet to hear from Elaina, but my heart tells me she is well.”Erik hoped so. Elaina had shown him nothing but kindness and love from the moment she entered the Temple. Making love with her had been only a small step down in heavenly bliss from. She told me that when it was just the two of us she wanted me to call her Bobbi. That was what her family called her. She had always called me Cole since that was what everyone else called me. Our relationship gained its focus on a slip of the tongue, on words that could not be taken back. Two nights before our trip to Miami Beach as we parted for the evening she inadvertently said, ‘I love you’ before driving away. Neither of us brought that up the next two days but I saw in her eyes that it. Christine blushed and appeared to be searching for an answer."Yeah, thought so," Amber said, flicking an eyebrow at her. "And now are you going to pass up a rematch just because you know the truth?" Christine," I said. "Age is a date on a piece of paper. Jimmy Matthews is dead, or as good as. David Malcolm is twenty-two years old and legal in any state. If it makes you feel any better, I checked, and the legal age of consent in Nevada is sixteen." Well, thank god for that anyway." All kidding.