"He was just pesterin' me. I rode Ol' Ned off the road a ways to discourage him. Then Monroe came along and told him he didn't have no business up the road, so he turned around and went back."

Ma jerked her head around and looked wide-eyed at Monroe. "If I was you, I'd watch out. He'll tell his kin and they'll be ready for you."

Monroe looked like he was studying on that for a few minutes. "I don't want any trouble." He shrugged. "I had no intention of bringing trouble on you, either." He studied on it some more and turned his attention to Mary Jo. "I'm beginning to see why you were so concerned about going up there to make a phone call. I'm glad you didn't."

For a moment they stood in awkward silence. She hadn't even asked him how he was feeling. Her face felt warm as she looked up at him.

"How's your head?"

His somber gaze drifted over her face and came back to her eyes. "As I told your mother, it's hard. As for why I'm here, I thought I might take you to lunch somewhere if you weren't too busy."

She frowned. "Why?"

Ma put a hand to her forehead and moaned. "Lan' sakes, girl. You been away from sociable people way too long."

The warmth returned to Mary Jo's face with a vengeance. He was asking her out - like a date. She looked down at her clothes and ran a hand through her hair. "I ain't fit to go nowheres."

He leaned against the door jam with one shoulder and folded his arms across his chest. His gaze drifted over her clothes. "You look fine to me, but I didn't give you any notice." His gaze came back to her eyes. "I didn't have any way of contacting you. Maybe we could set another date?"

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He wasn't interested in her. He was interested in that timber. She gave him a disgusted look. "It ain't gonna do you no good to try romancin' that timber outa me. If I had anything to do with that land, there wouldn't even be no trespassers on it."

"Rosemary JoAnn!" Ma gasped.

Monroe dropped his arms and laughed. "Wouldn't that be a futile scheme - the timber man romancing the tree hugger?"

Ma looked like she didn't know what to think, and to be honest, neither did Mary Jo. She looked down at her clothes again. "It ain't like I got a long line of suitors waitin'."




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