Two other important things happened to the family that winter. The developer, who had built the houses on the cul de sac, asked to get together with B...et. It seemed that the person who owned the twenty acres of land adjoining the backs of the houses had died. The estate was wanting to sell the land. The developer said that realistically, due to the topography, the only ones who could develop it were Bret and his family. No one else would have the needed access to the property. By extending the. “Hi, remember me? I was wondering if you had a date for the evening?” he asked. “Yes, Brandon, she does,” James’ voice replied as he sat down beside me. He tucked his arm behind me in a very possessive manner.The hunk, called Brandon looked at James. He sneered and then looked at me. “If you’re looking for a husband, you should keep looking,” he said.“Oh, why is that?” I asked. I felt James stiffen beside me, but I kept my attention on Brandon. “He’s been married once and couldn’t keep her. Nobody else did. Well, I suppose Kathy and Kurt, to a point, but Jess didn’t open up to them as much as she should have. Heck, she didn’t even really open up to Alicia or Gina, and they were her closest friends at the hospital. So in order to eliminate the risk, she used the situation with my sister as a pretext.”“And Jorge wasn’t a threat to her façade?”I smiled, “No. He was so used to being used that had he noticed he wouldn’t have cared. I personally think Trish was the best thing that ever. I was so nervous. As I stood at thetop of the stairs, I giggled nervously as I thought about my future. Theone thing I knew for sure was that my future would be very different thanmost boys my age. That thought really cracked me up. I mean, how manyteenage boys would be wearing a cute outfit like mine for their firstreal date? Not too many that's for sure. Not too many boys would be goingout on their first date with polished toenails and a pretty manicureeither. Most boys would not have been.