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"All right, since you want to know I’ll tell you, but you aren’t going to like it" Chet stopped in the h it ell past seven the streets were busy Several people were forced to walk around theht for one reason and one reason only I planned to seduce you"

Monica went pale "I see"

"Apparently you don’t Good-bye, Monica" Having said that he turned and walked away, leaving her standing alone in the middle of the sidewalk

Chapter 10

"Mom, I need another dollar" Tiht and his eyes sparkling with excite the brains out of the Laser Man"

"I don’t think this is the kind of video ga"

"Mo, or I was until just now, but I need another dollar Hurry, I gotta get back before soets the machine"

Luckily the pizza parlor wasn’t overly crowded, although a handful of kids had gathered around a row of video gaainst the back wall Jody didn’t kno they could play at all with the lights so dih her purse for yet another dollar Ti with Glen had come as a welcome relief

"Here" Glen held out a fistful of change to her son "Take what you need"

"All these?" Coins spilled over Timmy’s small hands His eyes were round with disbelief as he hurriedly pocketed the change "Gee, thanks"

"I want you to enjoy yourself"

"I will Thanks, Glen," he said, walking backward He turned abruptly, eager to get back to his prize ood idea," Jody felt obliged to say She didn’t want Glen to spoil Ti each other Her son ht come to look upon Glen as his own personal Santa Claus

"I have an ulteriorwith a smile "If Timmy’s busy with the video uessed as reeing to this outing had been an enormous decision for her

She’d been afraid to accept, but , afraid of what she already was She’d stood in one place for so long she feared she’d rooted there like the flower garden she so carefully tended Bit by bit, Glen was urging her forward Each step was agony Each step momentous

"It hasn’t been so bad, now, has it?" Glen asked, coaxing her into ad the truth Even that didn’t coreed Ti five pieces of sausage and pepperoni pizza and a huge cola Jody didn’t knohere he ed to put it all Generally when they ordered a h for two o out with ain?" Glen asked, and his eyes held hers steadily until she couldn’t bear it any longer and looked away

Glen was pressing his advantage and deliberately pushing her, forcing her to stretch her boundaries This was only the beginning, she realized with a hundred foretto get any easier Soon Glen would want to hold her and kiss her, and if she continued to date hi tiether

He hadn’t made any secret of what he was after He wanted a wife and a family, and he’d said so from the first Part of her attraction was her son Glen and Ti busters Glen was literally the answer to her son’s prayer That was the crux of the proble Glen for herself, but for her son Now she had to learn to do so for herself

"I was able to get two tickets to The Nutcracker"

"The Nutcracker?" Jody repeated, her voice no more than a breath of sound The ballet was performed each December by the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and was said to be both char the costumes and music were Everyone she’d ever knoho’d attended had come away filled with the Christmas spirit Since Jeff’s death, Christ told her this year it would be different

"They’re for this Thursday night I realize it’s a week night, but I was lucky to get those"

"I" The teer than she expected "I’ to decide if she should continue this relationship

"Then you’ll coreed with a short nod of her head

Jody watched the play of glad euise his excitement, and in that inning for the else that had led up to this moht It had been for a good long while, but she’d been too stubborn to accept it As odd as it sounded, she was too co