My eyes narrowed. "I'd rather not if it's what I think it is you want to talk about," I said. "Please," she begged. "Why do we have to talk about i...t? We've been doing okay, haven't we?" I asked. "Yes, we have. Better than okay actually. And that's not going to change if I can help it," she said. "Okay, so again, why do we have to talk?" I said. She began to fidget. She clearly wanted to say whatever it was she wanted to say, but was weighing the wisdom of doing so. I wasn't making it easy. I guess my disguise must be all right,” Ed told me with a chuckle.“Okay, I guess that’s good. Be careful out there, and if it looks like they suspect anything get out of there -- fast!” I told him.“I will definitely do that if it looks like things will get sticky,” he told me. We both went back to observing for a while after that. There wasn’t much going on.“Bill, there are several cars pulling into the cul-de-sac now,” Ed told me a little after noon. “Women and a couple of kids are getting out. I need to get up, Baby,” I said quietly in her ear while shaking her shoulder lightly.She mumbled incoherently into my chest, and her right hand clutched at my far side as she pulled herself in tighter to snuggle me. CC had her back to me and was holding onto my left bicep, where it lay akimbo above her head. My cast was on a separate pillow above hers and was resting in such a way that kept it from getting too cumbersome.“Amber, my love. I need your help, Baby,” I said quietly again while. Every question, even fixing coffee in the morning, was a reminder that she was missing. None of us had heard from her. Even the Trips.I tried to keep my funk from showing by escaping to the gym every afternoon for a couple of hours. I’d become so aggressive on the court that without Lissa there to temper me, no one would play with me. Dad came over one day to watch me play a half-court game against myself. Yeah. Half-court. If the ball went past the short-line it was a point deducted. Once I.