I had no memory of the accident, but my recollection of my experiences in the hours before I lost consciousness were still vivid. When I finally reali...ed where I was, I desperately tried to explain. She just held my hand and told me to get some rest.When I came around again, Professor Kleinberg was standing nervously by the door. My mother, he said, was getting a bite to eat. He told me about concocting a story for her, and the police, that I had dressed as a girl in preparation for an. As far as he was concerned, watching the two of them together was all the proof he needed. A freshly showered Gabriel stretched his wet, naked body out as he walked around the bed, drying his face off with a towel. “Do you want me to do something?” He could see that Adam was a little worried. “Run some bath water for me,” Adam told him. Gabriel left the room for a moment, returned and sat on the bed beside them. He wanted to touch her too, to somehow continue the connection they had shared. “Would you rather cook?” he asked.She said, “I can if you want.”“That would be fine,” Dexter said. “Buy whatever you need.”“Okay,” she said. After spending five minutes in the kitchen, she came out. “You’ve got nothing in your kitchen.”“I don’t cook,” Dexter said. “I nuke.”“I don’t nuke. I cook,” she said.“Feel free,” Dexter said.When Amber left to do the shopping, Dexter took a seat in his easy chair, wanting to rest a little. He didn’t seem to have much stamina, and he didn’t feel like he was. They had all known Cowboy Bill long enough to pick up on any subtle cue he gave them, and he was not being subtle now. Coco knew something was up and watched avidly as Bill turned to her. “This toast is in honor of your beauty, my Dear, and your nudity!” He grasped his section of lime between the thumb and index finger of his "off" hand, and they all followed his lead. He licked the base of his thumb and finger holding the lime. He sprinkled some salt there, licked the salt, slammed the shot.