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"You're certainly not too ugly," he smiled.
"I know this will sound strange, maybe even a little forward, but I've never been kissed like you kissed me," she murmured. "I have to admit, I was a bit shocked. Men don't usually kiss me like that."
"Like what?" he asked a bit aggravated that she hadn't forgotten it.
"Like they—enjoy doing it." She firmed her lips now and frowned.
"That was a mistake," he affirmed. "And should be forgotten."
"Was it? It was the best kiss I ever had!" she replied. "How could I possibly forget something that good."
"Then you have had very few." He chuckled.
"That's true… " she sighed and rolled over to go to sleep. But unable to let it settle she added. "Earl was a drunk," she murmured, "his kisses always smelled of whiskey. I did not like it. I tried to discourage him from it, but the more he came around, the more he kissed me."
"Is he the only man you ever kissed?"
"Lord, no, this may sound strange but, the few men I've kissed I didn't know very well. And there was rarely a second kiss from them. I think there is something very wrong with me. Men actually shy away from me. And you are probably right, it is my incessant talking that bothers them. Like I'm bothering you."
"There is nothing wrong. Perhaps you have been around the wrong kind of men. Or like you said, you didn't know them well enough, or like them well enough"
"That's the truth. There was a time I thought if I could find a man of my own, my father would quit throwing Earl at me. But the problem was, I wasn't interested in them. When I became a schoolteacher, it was impossible to have someone court me. So, I resigned myself to being an old-maid schoolteacher."
He stared at her for a long time before he ever closed his eyes that night.
***
When she woke, he was roasting something over the fire.
"You went hunting?" she asked propping on an elbow to watch him.
"Yes, we have to eat to keep up our strength." He chuckled.
"Smells good. What is it?"
"Snake."
"Snake?" She repeated making a face, her nose wrinkled up and she got to her feet to come and sit beside him by the fire. "Really, we're going to eat it?" She shrieked.
"It tastes very good. Something like beef steak." He told her. "Have you never eaten it?"
"No, never. I've heard people say it is good, but it's hard to believe. I mean they have kind of an odor about them."
"Then you shall have your first snake." He grinned.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Actually, better than I've slept in a long time. You think it's because I'm out in the open, in fresh air?"
"No," he shot her a quick appraising glance. "I think it's because you are not afraid here." He glanced at her.
Her grin faded. She nodded. "You may be right. I like the sounds of this Jack, I’m eager to meet him. Tell me about him, what is he like?"
"He's in his fifties, had a wife and kid a long time ago, they were killed in the war. After that, he never married again. He reads the bible, he works in his mine, and he likes animals."
"His wife and child were killed in the war? How?" She turned so she could watch him turn the spit.
"It is gruesome, do you still want to hear it?"
