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“No” Esther giggled “I’ain, Dick?”

“Maybe you will, maybe not” Dick smirked

“Oh, please come by,” she wheedled “Come back and see me”

Dick rinned and ushered us out the door

“Well, I learned ” I wrapped a purely platonic arm around him “You are a very bad man, and I hope you’re always on my side”

Zeb was not the depressive type, so it was disconcerting to see hiuest room, also known as her Precious Moments display area The walls were lined with shelves where carefully arranged figurines stayed perfectly preserved in their plastic viewing boxes As far as the eye could see, there were towheaded, large-pupiled children forever frozen while cavorting in adorable pastel rain slickers Huddled under a pink chenille comforter, Zeb stared blankly at the wall

“I don’t like this place,” Dick whispered after Floyd had let us into the house and flopped back into his easy chair without coer had taken to her bed “It’s like all the little eyes follow you around the room This is a bad place”

“Well, it wasn’t upsetting before, but it is now” Gabriel griel that recited the Lord’s Prayer when squeezed

“Zeb,” I whispered, shaking his shoulder “Zeb, we’re here”

“Who’s going to do the honors?” Dick asked “I think unscraroom’s brain is a man-of-honor duty”

“But I think I should do it,” Gabriel insisted “I have the h human brains”

“It sounds gross when you say it like that,” I told hi to do this I made a call on the way over”

We heard Floyd open the front door and grunt Jolene stepped through the bedroos, her eyes welled up at the sight of her stone-silent fiancé She curled up against his back and stroked his shoulders, nuzzling the curve of his neck with her nose “Zeb, honey, it’s me”

Zeb’s araze stayed fixed on the wall

“Our friends told me what happened, that what you did wasn’t your fault I love you, Zeb And I forgive you And I want you to snap out of it so we can have our wedding We’re like peas and carrots, Zeb We’re different, but we belong together Did you hear me? Like peas and carrots”