Mom wasn't the kind of person that everopened up in front of us kids.She took a sip of her tea. "Lucy Kratz was asking about you." Who's that?" Natash...a asked."A girl from mom's church," I answered. "A couple years older than me.Mom was always trying to hook us up. She bakes really good pies. That'swhat you kept telling me, right?"Mom rolled her eyes. "A nice girl. Good values. Always helping PastorJim. If you'd taken the time to look deeper, you'd have found she has abeautiful soul. That's the. Marisa twisted her body so she could run her right hand up and down Brooke's leg as she spoke. "I mean a complete Brazilian wax job Brooke."Brooke smiled and pulled up the hem of her dress to flash the lush triangle of hair between her legs and said. "You want me to get rid of this beautiful bush I've been growing all my life?" "Yes the next time I eat your pussy, I want a Chiquita smoothie," Marisa said. Brooke laughed at the comment and said "The next time? You've never eaten my pussy. " I'm just efficient from all those years sorting out the back room at the store. Good lunch, Kate, thank you." Yes, I love the tomato soup," John said. "So what's the plan for tonight?" We have to be there at seven, so we'll leave here by six forty-five or so. It's not that far from here," I replied.He nodded and went back to his food. As I watched him eat, he suddenly seemed fragile to me. Since Christmas, the changes in our relationship had brought us so much closer. The sadness he'd arrived. They drove up in John’s truck just as I poured the first two fingers of whiskey, and they practically manhandled me into the truck’s narrow cab. ‘You’ll thank us later,’ John proclaimed. I grunted a reply even I found unintelligible, but deep down I was grateful for their initiative. No-one would ever call them Exeter’s finest, but they were the best I had. I knew them all my life, and they weren’t like the others who stuck around, or left, for the bragging rights of knowing an internationally.