Chapter 4

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With summer in full swing, my room at the saloon is hot all the time. Some nights, when business is done,I take a bedroll to the bluff overlooking the river and sleep under the stars. When I tell Jack about this, he stops by one night and lays with me for a time. We play around such as we can without stripping,but then the sun returns to cook us and I’m back in my room with sweaty men going at me.

I make it near a year before I tell Jack I can’t keep on. I’ve saved enough to buy a decent horse and amsick of selling myself, but I can’t bring myself to go north because of the man I love. “I want only one man,” I tell Jack.

“But you’re looking to head north.”

“I’m looking not to be in this room anymore.”

He looks stricken when he says maybe he can find me ranch work. “I know some good men who’ll hire you on my say-so.”

“They wouldn’t before.”