You really wanna hear about it? What is it about girls that makes them want to know us fellers deepest secrets? You think you can just bat those eyelashes, pout a little, and we’ll give in to your feminine wiles. The fact that it works is beside the point. But don’t think you can get round me like that. I’ve hardened my heart. Even when you look at me like …

Okay. All right. You win. Though something about this is just downright unsettling.

I was all of sixteen. Tall enough, still a bit on the skinny side, but pretty. You know, like I am now. Don’t make that face. Anyways, I had this … well, I guess you could call it a crush on Amy Kroll. Prettiest little thing you ever saw. Blonde hair, big green eyes … she could melt you with those eyes. Melted me, sure enough, ‘til I was just a puddle on the floor. Had me some dreams about her, I can tell you. The kind where I … well, anyway, where was I?

Oh, yeah. She kinda liked me too. We … actually we kissed behind the back of the church. Odd place to kiss. Most people do it on the mouth, or …. Okay, I was just joshing. Yeah, it was after the sermon, and she let me run my hand up her leg. Not far, in case someone saw, but … it was far enough. Got me a little warm under the collar.

Sorry, zoned out there a moment. Just remembering. They were good days, back on Shadow. Long summers, even if it rained most of the gorram time the whole winter. Just made it all the better when the sun came back.

Anyway. Amy. She … invited me to … chat. And we did talk. Honest. Sitting on the corral fence, watching the world go by, just her and me. She kinda held my hand, or maybe I held hers, but we were getting on well. Very well. So when she suggested she was maybe a mite tired, and perhaps we should get somewhere more comfortable, I agreed.

Now, I know what you’re gonna say. I shouldn’t’ve taken advantage. Well, truth is, I didn’t. If anything, it was the other way around. Soon as Amy got me in that barn she was undoing my buttons