Okay... , I will admit—I did feel sort of happy, to receive a copy of that important e-mail from the brave little clique of Wantabe's. I guess they'...e hoping for a good turnout, I thought. Even after all these years, because of their thoughtless cruelty, I still felt a trace of bitterness.Smokey Joe (I'm not going to tell you his real name), and I had one thing in common back then—we had both spent our high school years on the outside, looking in.Smokey had transferred in from Butler High. You certainly have nothing to be embarrassed about and he’ll probably jack off to the memory when he gets home tonight.”He was back with our drinks and asked me, “I haven’t seen you here before. What brings you to the Boro with these two lovelies?”“Thanks for asking Josh. I’m just helping an old college friend to see if I can hook these two up with an internship.”He said, “I see, well hope things work out for you girls. Good to have someone watching out for your best interests.”I could tell. Embarrassed, I looked down and took it back when I saw he had kept hold of me throughout the time we stood there. He chuckled lightly. ‘C’mon, California,’ and with that, he headed out of the barn into the corral area, grabbing a cowboy hat that hung on a peg on the way out the door. There was a saddled brown mare all ready to go. It reminded me a little bit of the horse I’d ridden on the trail the other day. I began to get nervous. Of course I knew I’d be safe riding since I had Tripp there. The Earl explained the death of his cousin the Duke of The Eastern Province and his family had forced him to pick her as his heir.Else, it would go to any living, true relative the lawyers could find. He had planned to leave it to the second son. At the time of his death, he hadn’t been able to locate any other living relatives of their direct family line.He informed her that he hadn’t petitioned the King for the Dukedom due to his illness. At the time of writing, he knew he didn’t have long to.