“Don’t you know very well I don’t look upon you as my sister? Maybe you can be my girlfriend and maybe something more.” I told her. She blushe...d again and didn’t reply.It was a Saturday afternoon; the offices had closed at mid-day and SC and I were sitting in the coffee shop of a large hotel (our office used to work six and a half days a week). The time was rather unusual since we mostly met in the evenings on weekdays.On an impulse I excused myself, went to the hotel reception and asked for a. It was nice meeting you.’ Jen gave them the keys to the rooms they would be using. I met most of Bill’s relatives for the first time. Many had said they had all but written Bill off, but he sure changed his life around. I give a lot of the credit to a good woman and Shauna was just that. She understood him, kind of like Jen understands me. His uncle Andy did come to the wedding with his wife and two married daughters with their husbands. Shauna’s family I met for the first time. At first they. She’s a good sister. She listened. I think she’s safe, cause my Dad wouldn’t want her to be totally aware of what he was doing. Even terrified, an eight year old will still let stuff slip, you know?” I stroked her cheek, eliciting a smile, drugged as it was.Was I being a hypocrite, judging my neighbor so harshly? I don’t really think so. I remembered an incident; Tory and I had been out with some friends of his and this one cop, he kept calling girls ‘gronks’. You could tell he meant it in a. "The people who avoid me now," she said."Then bring them on. Lets get those roofs checked out and started."By the end of the next day Sylvia had arranged the roofing material and the crew to nail it on. "Maxine, we caught a real break," she said to me after she and her roofing crew had inspected the roofs."How so?" I asked."When old Mr Hart closed the houses after the mill closed, he had new roofs put on because he knew it would be a while before he could reopen. Those roofs have been on a.