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She&039;d had sex twice in one night, and that was certainly worth a red letter on her calendar
With Johnthey&039;d been young and hadn&039;t been able to get enough of each other Even after the children had coe had been vital
Then it had been a long, long time before she&039;d allowed another man to touch her And to be honest, none ever had Not really, not beyond the physical
Bryce hadn&039;t But she&039;d thought, for a while at least, that it was her own fault, or her own nature She hadn&039;t loved him, not deep down But she&039;d liked him, she&039;d enjoyed him, and had certainly been attracted to him
Stupidly, but that wasn&039;t the point now
The sex had been adequate at best, and adequate had been enough for her She&039;d wanted - needed - companionship, partnership
Since the divorce, for a considerable time prior to it, if truth be told, she&039;d been celibate Her own choice, and the right one for her
Until Mitch
Now he&039;d turned her inside out, and God, she was grateful And relieved, if it ca condition
He said he was falling in love with her, and that put a little knot in her belly Love still e and fahtly
She&039;d never take ain, so she could hardly take love, what she considered its precursor, lightly
But she could, and she would, enjoy hi
She crossed her on and saw that her earliest daffodils were blooet her sheers, and cut some for her bedroom
As she approached the house, she saw Stella and Hayley on the veranda, and raised her hand in a wave
"I s to want to start" She trailed off as she saw their faces "Well, don&039;t you two look soleerty was in today," Stella said
"Is so with her?"
"Not with her She wondered how you were doing, though, if you were all right"
"Why wouldn&039;t I be?"
"She was concerned the scene at the garden club ed "She should know better"
"Why didn&039;t you tell us?" Stella demanded
"ExcuseBarbie, insulted you right there in front of everybody," Hayley cut in "That she was spreading lies and ru that asshole she&039;s hooked herself up with"
"You seem to have most of the facts She should have added, if she didn&039;t, that Mandy ca foolish and shrill, and was certainlythan I was"
"You didn&039;t tell us," Stella repeated
"Why would I have?" The tone was aloof
"Because whether or not she was more embarrassed, it had to upset you And while you&039;re the boss, and blah, blah, blah - "
"Blah, blah, blah?"
"And a little bit scary," Stella added
"A little?"
"The fear factor has diminished considerably over the past year"
"I&039;m not afraid of you," Hayley said, then hunched her shoulders when Roz turned cool eyes to hers "Veryyour eht ere"
"Oh, for God&039;s sake Girls are so h, Roz plopped down on the porch swing "Of course we&039;re friends"
"Well, if we&039;re friends, especiallygirl friends," Hayley continued, and sat beside Roz on the swing, "you&039;re supposed to tell us when so to knoe hate her guts? How else are we going to know to think up nasty things to say about her? Like, here&039;s one Did you know that seventy-three percent of women whose name ends with thei sound are bimbos?"
Roz sat a moment "Is that one of your factoids or did you just make it up?"
"Okay, I made that one up, but I bet it&039;s true if they dot thei with a little heart - after the age of twelve And I bet, I just bet she does So Biirl who believes a very smooth liar"
"I stand by bis, to your face or behind your back" Stella sat on Roz&039;s other side
"No, she didn&039;t, and she caht, it did upset me at the time I don&039;t like my personal business aired in public forums"
"We&039;re not a foru nothing for a ave them a little rub
"As I said, fe female, I probably understand s by keeping so like this to myself"
"We just want you to knoe&039;re here for you, for the good stuff, and the bad stuff"
Hayley&039;s words touched her "Then you should know I&039;ve long since put Mandy out of my mind, as I do with uniood a mood to think about her now When a wo distance of fifty, has herself a lover who perforht, so well in fact that she needs the fingers on both hands to count the nu on her ave each of their thighs another pat, then rose "There, that&039;s soood stuff," she said and strolled into the house
"Wow," Hayley said after she a- ht?"
"You knohat I thought the first time I saw Roz?"
"Uh-uh"
"That I wanted to be her when I grew up And boy, do I"
ROZ WALKED STRAIGHTback to the kitchen, and straight to the coffeepot Once she had a cup, she sidled over and gave David&039;s cheek a kiss as he stood at the stovehis famed hot chocolate
"Boys outside?"
"Running off so up anticipation for hot chocolate My other guest, as you see, has conked on hchair, where Lily snoozed in the tipped-back seat "Isn&039;t she a doll baby, and aren&039;t you a sweetheart for irls could waylay me"
"We do e can And you should&039;ve mentioned what that silly bitch pulled"
"You ever known me not to be able to handle a silly bitch?"
"I&039;ve never known you not to be able to handle anything, but you should&039;veto knohat shape to make the voodoo doll?"
"Don&039;t worry, Bryce&039;ll stick plenty of pins in her before he&039;s done"
"Don&039;t expect me to feel sorry for her"
"It&039;s her cross to bear"
"Dinner in about an hour," he called as she started out of the rooes They were on your line so I didn&039;t screen theet them upstairs"
She took her coffee with her, and toed off her shoes after she crossed the threshold to her roo machine
"Roz, I didn&039;t want to bother you at work"
"What a nice voice you have, Dr Carnegie," she mused aloud, and sat on the side of the bed to enjoy it
"It&039;s ot to mention it I like to think you&039;llyou out tomorrow Whatever, wherever you&039;d like, just let me know In addition, I did some work today, and I&039;d like to talk to you about that tomorrow I should be over there by noon If I don&039;t see you, you can reachof you"
"That&039;s nice to know That&039;s very nice to know"
She was still daydreaan
"Ms Harper, this is William Rolls from the Riverbend Country Club I received your letter this , and am very sorry to hear that you&039;re dissatisfied with our services and have resigned as asurprised, even stunned, by your list of complaints, and only wish you had been able to speak with me about them personally We have valued your association with Riverbend for ret your decision to end it If you&039;d care to discuss this matter, please feel free to contact ain, I sincerely regret the circumstances"
She sat very still until the entire h Then she shut her eyes
"Fuck you, Bryce"
WITHIN AN HOURshe&039;d not only spoken with William Rolls, had assured him she wasn&039;t dissatisfied, had no complaints and had not written any letter, but she had a faxed copy of the letter in question in her hand
And a head of steaeyser
She was dragging her shoes back on when Hayley popped in, the baby on her hips "David says dinner&039;swhoa, what&039;s wrong?"
"What&039;s wrong? You want to knohat&039;s wrong? I&039;ll tell you what&039;s wrong" She snatched the letter up from where she&039;d tossed it on the bed "Here&039;s what&039;s wrong That miserable, snake-spined son of a bitch has tried my patience once too often"
" &039;The adrounds andthe paper out of Lily&039;s reach " &039;Staffintimacy between staff and e as she shifted them back up to Roz&039;s face "You didn&039;t write this"
"Of course I didn&039;t And I&039; to take that letter, find Bryce Clark, and stuff it down his lying throat"
"No" Hayley ju and bouncing in anticipation of another ride
"No? What do you oing to knohen I&039;m done with hio anywhere" The fact was, she&039;d never seen Roz this angry, and Stella&039;s term of a little bit scary was currently bumped up too many levels to count "And I don&039;t know , but I&039;d bet afor You need to sit down"
"I need to kick his balls blue"
"Well, yeah, that&039;d be great Except he&039;s probably expecting it, and he&039;s probably got so for assault He&039;s playing you, Roz"
"You think I don&039;t know that?" She threw her ar to kick, to hurl, to punch "You think I don&039;tknohat that bastard&039;s doing? I&039; tostand here and take it anymore"
The shout, the fury in it had Lily&039;s face cru an instant before the wail
"God, now I&039; babies I&039;m sorry I&039;m sorry Here, let me have her"
Lily continued to sob as Roz took her out of Hayley&039;s arms and cuddled her in her own "There, sweetheart, I&039;m not mad at you, I&039;irl" She crooned, and nuzzled while Lily clung to her "I&039; son of a bitch who&039;s doing whatever he can to co ," Hayley whispered Awed
"Sorry She doesn&039;t knohat I&039;, so it won&039;t hurt her" Lily&039;s tears were down to sniffles as she began to pull at the ends of Roz&039;s hair "I shouldn&039;t have yelled like that in front of her It&039;s the tone that scares her, not the words"
"But you saidcocksucking "
This ti the baby, and calht, and that&039;s just annoying I can&039;t go tearing out of here and going after hi for It&039;s all right, it&039;ll be all right He can&039;t do anything that can&039;t be fixed"
"I&039;o kick his balls blue for you"
"Thanks, honey, that&039;s a sweet thing to say We&039;ll just go down to dinner" She held Lily up, blew on her belly to et all about the asshole, won&039;t we, baby girl?"
"You&039;re sure?"
"Absolutely"
"Okay You know, I don&039;t know as snakes have spines"
Roz blinked at her "What?"
"You saidsnake-spined - before, when you were raving about Bryce I&039;m not sure they have actual spines Maybe just soh I don&039;t much like snakes, so I haven&039;t paid a lot of attention"
"You never fail, Hayley, just never fail to baffle me"