She was bent over with a trowel and a bag of seeds, making a hole and then putting three or so in it, stepping on it to bury them, and then bending for the next hole. He couldn’t help noticing that as she worked and sweated, the thin cotton cloth of her skirt and blouse tended to cling to her. She would go on working, pretending to be unaware that he was watching. When someone else would call, “Time,” she would straighten, appear to notice him, and smile before she walked off with the other women of her crew for their break.

He always to ok that as the sign that he should go back to his own work on the pipeline. One afternoon, as he was coming back down the hill on a wooded trail at the end of the workday, he rounded a curve and saw her sitting on a log. He stopped and stared at her for a moment, not sure what she was doing there.

“Come on, Ed,” she said. “Are you suddenly afraid of me after staring at me all those times? Was that what you were thinking? ‘She’s scary?’”

He walked the rest of the way to the turn where she sat. “No, I guess it wasn’t.” She stood up a foot or so from him and looked into his eyes.

She said, “I know some things about you, but you know very little about me.”

“That’s true.”

“First thing is, I’m married. My husband’s name is Bob Carpenter.” She held her hand out, grasped his, and gave it a shake. “Charlotte Carpenter. Pleased to meet you.”

“I didn’t know,” he said. “I’m really sorry for that.”

She inched closer, smiling. “I didn’t mean to ruin your whole day. I just needed you to know. The first day I met you, he came home early from town, but I saw him before he saw me with you, so I could move on.”

Ed said, “I think that you just did ruin my whole day.”

She took his right hand again, and he thought that she would shake it again and say, “Now go away and leave me alone.” She didn’t. She placed his hand on her left breast.

He leaned closer and kissed her, very gently at first, and then more deeply and passionately, both hands beginning to move, to feel the shape of her body. She pushed him and stepped back.