If those trees had been thinned out fifty years ago it’d be a different story. I needed to expand our perimeter to where it would be defensible, and...do it right away.’ ‘You trying to tell me that you thought all that out? You didn’t just panic and go on a hunt for the guy who had said to kill you?’ ‘Sheriff, if I’d acted out of panic I’d have run out of those woods screaming my head off and I might still be running now. When that bullet hit that tree, just a little over my head, it switched me. She really has a good heart. And I think she loves me, too,” Carla finished. She could feel her mouth curling into a grin as she said the last. “Well, I can hear you smiling,” Alice replied, “So you must really believe it.” “I do. And that’s why I want to ask a big favor. I want to come over to play this weekend, but I want to bring her too. I want you and Gerald to try to keep an open mind, and give her a chance. I think once you get to know her as I do, you’ll find you like her, too.” “Know. Still, this is hard." "I know it is, Michael. I'm sorry I'm putting you through it. I wish I'd done a better job of preparing you for it." Shrugging, I said, "That's in the past and there isn't anything we can do to change it. Right now you're doing a good job of making me feel loved and important to you." "You are loved and important to me. No man will ever be more important to me." "I'm beginning to believe that, but I still worry that whenever we make love, you'll be comparing me to the. "Ephus grinned as he broke contact as he heard Loki start to scream again.Ephus turned to Odin and Frigg, "we are going to need more allies. Do either of you know where Thor is?"They looked at each other, "I had heard the Dark elves say that Thor was banished to the realm of the Light elves, Alfheim. We aren't sure how that realm and Vanahelm were sealed. No one can reach them." Frigg said.Ephus's eyes went wide in surprise, " Let me look a moment. Ephus had been nodding as he looked over what.