Lani's face eased in a sly wink at him, and she laughed a reassured laugh.

"Well, it's a good thing she didn't. She might not have liked what she found."

"Maybe she should have found us," Bob interjected harshly, "then maybe she'd realize you're a big girl now and she doesn't have to come change your Goddamn diapers anymore!"

"Oh Bob," the voluptuous young teenager retorted, "it's the first time she's visited me in all the time I've been up here. You're just being difficult." She turned again to Moses. "You said she was down at my cabin?"

"Yeah, she went down about fifteen minutes ago."

"Well, I better get on down there then!" she exclaimed excitedly, and skipped down the steps of the meeting hall. She poked her boyfriend as she went down. "Come on, grumpy, come and say hello."

Bob glared at her, and shook his head.

"I'll see her later. If I know her, she'll be here at least a month. I'm going to take a swim."

Lani frowned at him, but then her face brightened immediately.

"Well, you're an old stick in the mud, but I don't care. You just sit here and sulk, I'm going to go have a good time. Bye, sweet." She gave him a playful peck on the cheek, let her eyes linger warmly on his for a split second, and then turned to run gaily across the clearing and down into a grove of oaks on the far side, to where her mother was waiting for her.

Bob sat slumped on the steps, his eyes following her curvaceous body as it finally disappeared in the trees, and then glanced quickly at Moses.

"Shit," he said simply.

"Well, it might not be all that bad, Bobby my boy," Moses laughed. "Unless I miss my guess pretty badly, it seems that you got that little piece of yours pretty well sewed up. She's not going to go running back to Momma now, not after what you've taught her."