All of her friends had previous commitments, so itwould just be 3 and 1. Their hopes of some “fresh meat”to liven up the day would be limi...ted to burgers at thebar, it appeared. We dropped the boat in the river at2:00 and our adventure was on. About 30 seconds afterthe boat got wet, the first round of beer hit our lipsand the day had officially begun. We all have knowneach other for a long time, so the atmosphere was verylight and easy-going. The guys see Annette as a buddy more than. I'm going to enjoy myself. I'll make the best of it. I'd really like for Tim to be here, but that's just not going to happen. He's been away before, and he'll be away again. We can have fun without him." She lowered her eyes, and then looked at us again. "I'll do my best to not get in the way of your fun," she added with a shy grin, looking directly at me."Let's all get freshened up. We can go down to the beach together," Megan suggested. That made Lisa smile. I took a deep breath in relief. I. I hurried to the door and pulled it open.There he stood in his pinstriped blue suit. Mike Lawford. All six footsix of him. Broad shoulders and an avid tennis players tan. Even in mythree inch heels he dwarfed me in size."Hi, Rachel," he said."Hi, Mike. Please come in," I said as I tried not to focus on the smallbouquet of flowers he held in his hands."These are for you," he said and extended the flowers to me."They're absolutely gorgeous," I said and took the flowers from him. Idon't know why. The surprising part was they were talking about him.- Did you find Virin's son?- I told you three hours ago, no, and we have been looking for five days.The boy must be dead. The beasts of the forest must have killed him. You saw that huge bear we killed yesterday, right?- I guess you're right. We'll probably never find him. Come on; let's go back, it's getting late.What he heard was too weird. He had been unconscious for five days, and he still didn't know what had happened to him. He wanted to.