“We had stoneware in the home and you’re right. It didn’t last long.”

“My mom bought those unbreakable dishes, but nothing could prevent us kids losing them. The small square bowls made too good a shovel in a pinch.”

“I can just imagine you as a small child.”

“I was a terror.”

“But shy with strangers,” he guessed.

“Yep. Teachers never believed my mom about me until I’d organized my first boycott of the cafeteria’s no-name catsup. That stuff was nasty. Or had a petition going to reinstate outdoor school when budget cuts threatened that right of passage. It didn’t usually happen until my second year in school anyway.” She sounded altogether proud of herself.

“I see, you lulled the authority figures around you into complacency and then you sprang.”

“That’s about it.”

“I have no problem seeing

mother. School administrators were not so insightful.” Her eyes twinkled mischeviously. “Until after the

what your children will be like.” Her daughters would be stubborn, her sons protective

gave him a strange look followed by a negligent shrug that wasn’t. Negligent. At least it didn’t seem so to him, but he didn’t ask her about it because she was already headed to the

in front of a male kouros statue. “Nice to see Greek

or modern. However, the genitals

that made him want to do something that would turn that smile into a grin. “I read somewhere that the aspect of a statue’s form was deliberately underrepresented so the focus could be on

the only men willing to be used as artists’ models had teeny

it was indulgent, one serious-looking elderly man glared. And a young woman sent daggers Piper’s

once-over when he and Piper had first arrived at the National

on her and smiled down at his beautiful companion. “That is

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