He smiled a little at the joke, thinking it was a good sign. "Just the pretty ones. Which, as of right now, is a category of one." His hand moved back down to rest against her arm, considering the rest of what she said.
"You can draw the line wherever you want, Mattie. It's not exactly a secret that I care about you. But I don't want to box you in. You're too strong for that, anyway, an' I don't want to get my ass kicked." He decided to go back to the joke, rather than devolve into complete sap. It was probably really inappropriate to bring up, but... she'd asked. Right?