This will be scene 29
EXT. PINE FOREST - DAY
Hunter, Tom and Chloe stroll through the woods some distance away from where Sess, Jackie and Claire are setting up lunch at a picnic table in a clearing near where the horses are tied.
TOM: Why dya reckon they call 'em ponderosa?
CHLOE: Pinus ponderosa, from the Latin ponderosus, large and heavy.
TOM: Oh. Ponderous.
Chloe nods.
CHLOE: Speaking of which, sort of, did you watch Bonanza when you were a kid?
TOM: Sure did. You ever seen it?
CHLOE: We watched an episode in Miss Hill's American Popular Culture class last year.
TOM: What else ya speak besides Latin.
CHLOE: I wouldn't say I speak Latin. I going into my third year of Spanish. How about you?
TOM: Poquito español. Suficiente para meterse en problemas.
CHLOE: Bastante suficiente, I reckon.
Tom smiles and winks.
TOM: Hunter?
HUNTER: Two years of French in high school.
TOM: Ever come in handy?
HUNTER: As a source of humor courting Barbara, who is fluent, and the summer after college I traveled in Europe. I took it because of a girl.
TOM: Remember her name?
HUNTER: Charlotte Barbier.
TOM: Girlfriend?
HUNTER: Something like that. What was your first girlfriend's name.
TOM: Well, more of a crush than a girlfriend but the afternoon I seen Ana Baca openin' the door of her fifth grade home room the same time I was openin' mine across the lawn is an image that'll stay with me til there ain't no more images in the memory bank, which lately shows signs of withdrawals.
CHLOE: Name of the first girl you loved?
TOM: Well Chloe, hate to be long-winded -
CHLOE/HUNTER: Be long-winded.
Well, my notion of the kinda love I'll call romantic has changed like weather over what I'll call the seasons of my life, startin' with symbolic spring and endin' in symbolic winter. But I reckon ya both know that's how I'm puttin' it. Or tryin' to anyway. Obviously I've arrived at winter. Toldja I'd be long-winded.
CHLOE: And we encouraged it.
TOM: Yes ya did. Still, lemmee see if I can condense what I'm tryin' to get at and we'll pick up some a the loose ends later. No matter what I mighta thought I knew about lovin' a woman I know I was never quit up to speed far as holdin' up my end of the deal. Ain't no accident I didn't marry til the fall of my life, and damn good that I didn't. Fact a the matter is, and if y'all'll pardon my Latin, I didn't know shit about lovin' a woman - about bein' loved by a woman - 'til I met Wanda Pearl Burroughs. Still learnin'.
Tom wipes away the tears that escape his eyes.
TOM (CONT.) I'm sorry, y'all. This sure snuck up on me. Been awhile since I been away from her for more than a day. Sorta thrown me off. Obviously.
Jackie RINGS TRIANGLE BELL.
TOM: Saved by the bell.
They walk to the picnic table. Chloe puts an arm around Tom's waist. Tom puts an arm over her shoulders. Hunter takes note, and a picture with his phone from behind them.
EXT. PICNIC TABLE
Jackie, Sess and Claire having prepped a meal (TBD) watch Tom, Hunter and Chloe approach.
SESS: So Jack, Claire notes Hunter's resemblance to her dad's favorite author H C Hunter.
JACKIE: One and the same.
CLAIRE: I knew it. Do you think he'd be okay with a picture.
JACKIE: I do. But I'll ask him.
CLAIRE: Thanks. My dad would love it.
SESS: So who is Tom to Hunter.
JACKIE: A man he met yesterday. Like when you met Charlie.
Sess looks at Jackie, who looks at her and nods.
SESS: Oh.
Sess and Claire exchange a look. All watch Tom, Hunter and Chloe approach.
