He told me I was a pearl of great price and if a man wasn't prepared to give up everything for me; he wasn't worthy of me. I believed him, and I still...do."That was the second reference to pearls she'd made. It gave me a weird feeling."Where's your father now, do you still live at home?" I still live at home, but both my parents were killed in a private plane crash right after my freshman year in high school. I've lived alone there ever since. Look, I don't mean to be unkind, and I am enjoying. .. apathy ... he told me that I was in position to make sure that never happened there. And, he also told me that if he ever even heard a whisper that I’d treated someone like that, he’d wear his belt out on my ass. He wasn’t kidding.”“No,” Liz said. “I doubt he was. I ... I wish I had just once told him how great I thought he was.”“Me, too,” I said. “I never did. He died so suddenly that I had a lot of things I’d left unsaid.”“He knew,” Liz said.“That’s what Mom tells me,” I replied.. Then, Coldwater had merged with a small school district, and it booted them into the next sports class. Since it was now a bigger school, the game had been moved up to become the traditional season opener. Coldwater was enough bigger, now, that the Marlins usually had a tough time handling them, unless they had a really hot team.Both teams had been pretty much unable to move the ball against a tough defense, and at the end of the third, the score was six to three, with the Marlins on the short. I was so nervous by this point, I didn't know what to do. Odd, I have the man of my dreams in my place, and I'm at a loss of what to do! I asked him if he wanted a drink, and he said, sure, I'll take a beer. I gave him one, and we started to talk, organically, about our lives, families, where we came from.Rod asked me how long I've liked men. I lied, "I don't know. Not long, I don't think. You're the first man I've met like this. I don't know why, but I just couldn't help thinking about how.