"Your dad is downstairs if you want to go watch TV withhim until I get Lily to bed."I realized dad must have brought her bottle up already as it wassi...ting next to the rocking chair. I felt my jealousy monster roaragain then, but I nodded and said, "Okay," and began walking down thehallway. Being carried so much today this walking business was almost anovelty! I got to the stairs and had to hold back a feeling of panic oflooking down the tall staircase! I grabbed the rail tightly and took itone. I drove down to pick her up. All she had with her was a suitcase and a small purse."Ken's shop was lined with shelves holding an array of taxidermy stuff: plaster molds which he'd carved for laying up paper-mache heads and bodies for his animal mounts, boxes of chemicals and fittings, racks of hand tools, jars filled with glass eyes of all sizes and carved claws, partially finished paper heads for jobs in progress. A huge bear skull, pinkish and mottled gray, glued up from torn paper strips. I got a reputation to think about. My girlfriend would pitch a fit if SHE found out, and fuck me up in bed some night while I was sleeping. She's got a mean streak in 'er a mile wide. She's all "honey an' roses" when she's happy, but worse than anything, when she gets pissed." Both raised their hands, and crossed their hearts with the other hand. "We promise!" they answered.Francis reached out and took Chloe's hand. "Let's all go and take a swim to cool off first. I'm sweaty as a Missouri mule,. .. er, Elizabeth?" I ignored the question."Ginny tells me that you're a virile young man."He blushed, shrugged."How do you do with the girls, Ryan?" OK, I guess." He looked confused. Did I not know 'everything'?"Do you have much experience with women older than you?"He just turned beet red; he had no answer."Any as old as me?"Again silence, but this time his eyes widened like saucers."Let's have a look at what you've got." With that, I leaned over to his end of the couch, put my hand on his.