"It was damn good chicken," was Emerson's simple, teasing response. The food disappeared quickly enough, and he was thankful that it did so without any awkward pauses. He hadn't ever been much of an accomplished conversationalist, at least not in what his mother would have called the proper sense of the word.
When she leaned in to kiss him, it hadn't been the very last thing he'd expected, but it had certainly up there. Shocked and taken aback as he was, he certainly wasn't complaining and was quick to respond, kissing her back but not taking the steps just yet to deepen it.