“These boys talk more than a pack ofwomen.”

“I like the idea of a Vibrator Ceremony. After we’re done burying them, we could make canapés and drink champagne. It’s a lot more fun to talk about that than hunting down humans.”

“Then I said, “Matt’s got a big mouth.”“They all got big mouths, girl, learn that quick. These boys talk more than a pack of women. I lost fifty bucks on you.”I was stunned speechless again, this time it didn’t last as long.“What?”“See, Lee nailed Indy the first night they were together. Not nailed her nailed her but she was in his bed. Eddie, with Jet, it took a few days. Hank and Roxie, like, a day. Vance, like three, but Jules was a virgin and he had to interrupt the festivities once to go out and shoot someone.”I was blinking rapidly and feeling kind of faint at the amount and sensitivity of information Shirleen was imparting, not to mention what it might mean to me.“So we had a pool. Everyone threw down money on when they thought Luke would nail you. Mace won five hundred dollars.”Ho-ly crap.“So,” she went on. “Did he nail you nail you or did you two just sleep?”For some reason, I answered her unbelievably nosy question. “We just slept.”“New pool!” she shouted.”

“She's wearin' heels, boy, but she's five foot seven, you got five inches and at least a hundred pounds on her," Max replied and I figured he was being a might bit generous with the weight but I wasn't going to correct him, mostly because he wasn't done talking. "And, lastly, she's a woman. You don't ever strike a woman in anger.”

“I was in love. Perhaps not with the man of my dreams, but with a man that was more man than any I’d ever encountered.”

“What just happened was somethin’ that was bigger than all that. It was bigger than everything. I had a taste of you four years ago that I could never get off my tongue. Now, I’ve tasted more of you with more than just my mouth and I know I wanna keep it in a way I Don’t want to think of it ever bein’ done. Not in a few weeks. Not in a few months. Maybe not ever.”

“No one puts his hand on my boy. Not like that. Get me?”