I soon had two sets of perfectly polished toes to match my redtipped hands. Mary wasn't done. She again admonished me not to smudge mypolish then stoo... and reached into her bag of tricks. She begansmoothing a beige liquid on my face, rubbing it here and there tofurther emasculate me. I frowned."Oh don't pout. I'm not going to put a lot of makeup on you. Just enoughto cover the remnants of your beard and soften your features a little.You'll hardly notice."She stepped back and admired her. So we are going to have to keep it straight. Jennifer doesn't know what's going on between me, you, and her mom." Yep, Jennifer is Karen's daughter. I had only met her once, which was about 2 years ago. She is 13, the same age as me. But they live across town, so we haven't been in school together or anything like that. When mom and Karen would ever do anything socially, it was usually at a third party's house, such as one of their other friends. And Karen had only been at our house a couple of. . but it was harder and harder to face as the seconds ticked by."Well, what're you waitin' for? Get on with it!" growled Hawkins, now only a couple of feet away with his vicious four-legged companion at his side. The wolf obviously hated her perhaps only because she was a woman, but Hawkins was holding him securely by his heavy collar to keep him back, without that restraint he looked fierce enough to tear them both apart without much effort.Sarah tried to speak, but the words hung in her dry. Old, but very well taken care, the home had been in her family for generations. It was now hers, and she had moved into it after her divorce. Johnny loved the place. It was out in the open, at the edge of the desert. It was hot, but the heat was dry, easy to take. The ground was fertile and she had plenty of water. Tall, graceful trees surrounded the house, helping to cool it. There was a wide expanse of lawn with a grape arbor. The arbor had been constructed with a sprinkling system.