Colin Kelly returns from the war with the sure knowledge that his marriage to Edna is a sham. He only insists on his own child and he gets her, his darling little girl Babs. For the rest, he copes as best he can until Edna places Babs in a boarding school and Colin ends up on the streets.<br><br>Bill Teague has loved Colin since he first saw him strolling through the art fair with little Babs on his shoulder. So when an old acquaintance calls him to come to Colin's aid before he throws him out of the pub for good, Bill goes.<br><br>Face to face in Bill's apartment, will their friendship survive the mutual confessions and legal problems Colin has?

A Permanent Arrangement

Since January, Babs made regular trips into Manhattan with her friends to &ldquo;shop.&rdquo; They never saw the inside of Macy&rsquo;s and always came straight to Uncle Billy&rsquo;s. Babs&rsquo; friends loved Colin. She hung with a theater crowd and the fact that Billy was an artist and Colin a novelist gave his Babs some cachet. She never spoke about her life with Edna and Kate. They had moved to New Jersey back in 1960 to thwart the court-imposed visitation, but Billy&rsquo;s lawyer didn&rsquo;t let them get away with it. Babs had never been able to talk to him frankly about her life.


He worried, but when Bill held him in his arms every night, he could make Colin forget the whole ugly world out there. He remembered the first time they made love. He had a virgin ass, hell, he had a virgin everything.


Chapter 7