” She looked at me, “What?” I looked down and spoke. “I miss you my friend.”I’d had a rough day with some crawl jobs and generally dirty o...d equipment ill kept needing too much labor to get running again. That was the fare in winter with furnaces never tuned up in the summer, frankly needed replacing. I know I smelled strong like diesel and my clothes were grubby dirty. I couldn’t have been much fun to be around. But we drank the beers and she left to go get another before I was finished with. ‘Heaven above, what have you done to yourself my girl?!’ Bill called out, rushing to open the gate to let them inside the yard. Lena smiled to show she was okay. ‘Don’t worry, old man,’ she said affectionately. ‘I just fell. It’ll be fine in the morning.’ Bill grumbled under his breath. He pulled the gate wide enough to allow them to enter. Kit glared down at her, his eyebrow raised as if to say ‘You think so, huh?’ ‘Well, it’ll be fine sometime soon, anyway,’ she conceded quietly. ‘Yeah, well,. She gave her thoughts time to settle for a moment. "When we get back home today I have to go back to being ... me." Wait," Ben said as he pulled away so she could turn to face him. "Now you're scaring me." Ben, I don't get to date one-on-one until my birthday next month. Even if my parents don't freak about you being two years older, they'll still expect to get to know you before we can go out at all. And forget about overnights like this." She touched his face and bit her lip. "But now that I. Even after the harsh things he has said and done lately, he would give anything if you could have a healthy, normal marriage." But we HAVE a healthy marriage!" came through tears."Please. By now, you know that is not true. You know that your mother tragically warped your thinking about sex." But I can't just change!" Arlene protested."By yourself, you probably can't. That is why I am going to change you little by little. You see, Arlene, just like I told you yesterday morning, your problem is.