"I mean, my mother doesn't have all the hangups about her kid that your parents have. She treats me like an adult, so there isn't any need for me to rebel against her. I mean I didn't run away from her like you did from your parents. There wasn't any need to."

"Look, kiddo, I didn't run away from my parents. I just left, see? And anyway, I think you're just kidding yourself, because your mother just isn't as understanding as she pretends."

"Bob, that's not true…"

"Yes it is true, baby, I know it's true… When we were all down at your mother's place, she was hanging all over you, man, like you were some kind of teddy bear or something…"

"Come on, Bob, that's not fair! Just because you can't visualize any kind of love between parents or children doesn't mean it doesn't exist, right? I mean…"

"All right! Let's just forget about it, O.K.? It's Saturday afternoon, and the sun is shining… let's talk about something else for Christ's sake! The whole thing is so fucking sentimental I think I'm going to cry."

Lani looked over at him as he turned away on his side, and then she sat up abruptly, and looked away. Her long blonde hair was tangled with strands of grass, and her eyes were moist with a few tentative tears caused by the lack of understanding on her boyfriend's part. Her face was almost an exact replica of her mother's, with the same soft brown eyes and delicately formed features, but lacking the coolness, the distance her mother had cultivated after so many years of frustration. Lani was young, but already had a figure that surpassed even her mother's, with large rounded breasts and gently flaring hips, and soft smooth thighs that were tanned a delicious golden brown by the hot California sun. Her slender arms reached out around her shapely legs, and clasped together tightly around her knees, which were trembling slightly now with emotion. She glanced over at Bob, and tried to decide why he was sometimes so harsh with her. She knew he had had a rough life, but still… sometimes it was as though he didn't have any feeling for her at all.