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Show All the Variables & Other Love Stories 58 but told her frankly if he suspected anyone yanked it to the thought of his legs he would be mostly flattered and a little sick to his stomach. Cara told Zach he was a pig in case he didn't know. She reflected aloud that perhaps she was partly to blame for what happened since the skirt might understandably have been misconstrued as scandalous. After all, it barely came to the middle of her thigh and she couldn't very well wear something like that and then be offended when men noticed. Though in her defense, she stressed, it really hadn't occurred to her that men would notice. She was not in the business of thinking about men when she tried something on; only if she liked how it looked. No excuse, of course, but the skirt must have seemed vulgar since it was very cold yesterday and absurd for her to wear such a short skirt if not to attract admirers. She was talking to herself at this point; she paid no attention to Zach. They watched a physical comedy on pay-per-view and fell asleep. Mrs. Neal knocked looking for Cara at almost three in the morning. She found them both dressed as they'd last been seen. Cara answered and her mother saw the bed had not been turned down and Zach slept at one end with his face to the wall. Michael Hutson was a former rancher turned real estate man. He moved his family when Zach was three to a two-bedroom place on Lincoln Street in Afton, Wyoming, next door to the Michael Neal family. Neal was a private practitioner and had lived on Lincoln Street all his married life. The two Michael's were instant friends and their wives, Julia Neal and Janet Hutson, quickly followed suit. Zach was an only child and Cara the youngest of three by sixteen years. The two grew up together virtually |