As it turned out, he was a football fan and my admission to being the apple-corer boy probably carried more weight in his decision to accept my check ...han Becky fluttering her eyelashes at him. But I gave her credit for swaying him to take a chance on me."I couldn't have done that without you," I said to her as we left the store."You're helpless without me and don't forget it," she said. We shopped for bedding, with me watching while Becky made the selections. "Don't you dare try to make up the. It couldn't get better than that."Yep. Hey, where's your apartment? We've been walking for ages." It's right there! On the right. If you didn't remind, I would've forgotten," Lana said."It's alright. Good conversations do that," he said.They stopped in front of the apartment."It's a nice building," he mused."What, you thought I lived in a trashy complex?" she teased.AJ smiled "No, no of course not. Well, I guess this is where I say goodnight. Call me sometime, yes?"Lana's heart melted. "Of. Everything went great. I slept in on Monday, Read the first half of the new John Sandford novel that afternoon, and spruced up the apartment and myself for the brief visit from Peggy and my Number One Fan.Later, when we drove back to the Gabriel place, Sarah had prepared a great-looking strawberry pie dessert and the four of us were getting along great. I gotta say, Peggy’s mom was as cool as moms ever get. It was the unspoken understanding of all three of the adults that Marty Coggins, boy. El Niños miss their godparents, too.”“Just so.” Luc took a long drag and finished his cigarette. “This, then, also explains why Whyte was so quiet between the attempt on her life and now. He had pawns to gather. I must look into this, and then, based on what you have not at all told me about La Contessa, I must rethink my entire notion of how our universe works. I should have something in an hour. Was there anything else?”“Oh, si. La Contessa’s old friend, the one skilled in matters of money;.