"I'd prefer not to discuss my private thoughts tight now if you don't mind."

"So you do think about it!" Terry said, jumping up again.

"Everybody thinks about it." Jane filled the teapot, spilling boiling water on the floor as she did. Terry was amused at the way her older sister was upset at the mere mention of sex. And she still couldn't figure Janey out. Someone so pretty must've been approached by boys in her life. But she couldn't remember Jane ever really having boy friends. She never even got phone calls anymore. Teresa whirled around the kitchen, admiring the way her slim feet looked in her sandals.

"I think I'll walk up to the mill and see what's going an."

"You'd just be in the way," Jane said.

"I wouldn't either. I'll just watch."

"Teresa, I don't think mother would approve of you going up there with all those men hinging around…"

"They're not hanging around. They're working. You just said so."

"All the same…"

Teresa kicked a chair. "Oh, shit, do I have to be locked up? I'm already a hundred miles from nowhere." She could see that Jane was ready to go on arguing with her. But before her big sis could get another word in, Terry slammed out the back door.

"You come back here, Teresa!"

"Come and catch me," she cried back and jogged down the rutted road towards the sawmill.

The men stopped to look as she came up to the big shed where the saw was screaming so loudly. How could they stand all that noise? Terry wondered, smiling at one hulking man in overalls who gave her a lewd smile.

"I'm Nat's niece," she said, clasping her hands behind her and rocking on the balls of her feet. The big man was looking directly at the tan exposure of tummy that showed between her western belt and the edge of her T-shirt. She cocked her hips and watched his eyes widen even more. She felt his excitement exciting her. God, it was fun to turn a man on.