Page 18 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
Cole looked out the window and didn’t say anything to that. The silence felt less relaxed than it usually did between them, and Grady didn’t know why. He turned on the radio.
Cole hopped out and did the gates at each one they passed from the main farm as they headed out onto the dirt road to the other farm. He hopped back in after securing the last gate and looked up at the massive trees flanking the pasture, bordering the lake that sat on the Floyd property.
Grady knew he’d seen the eagles when he heard him say, “Whoa.”
“Yep. Been nestin’ there since I was a boy, I reckon. Maybe before.”
“God, they’re massive, huh?”
“Yep.”
Grady pulled up alongside the trees, put it in Park and hopped out. Cole’s boots crunched in the gravel as he made his way around the other side, and once Grady had unlocked the back, they lowered it together.
Cole slipped in and moved alongside Chloe, patting her flank and keeping a hand on her all the way to the front.
Grady stepped aside as Cole shuffled her back. She came on out easy enough, but then she made her feelings known, rearing up and cutting the air with her hooves. Cole just kept a loose hold on her lead rope and spoke softly to her.
Red came out with no theatrics, and they saddled up and set out at a nice canter across the pasture to get to the flock.
Chloe had to nudge her head so she was just in front, and Grady could see it was making Cole smile at her, so he just shook his head at them with a smile of his own and enjoyed the ride. And it was nice riding. Lady kept a steady clip at Red’s front, and she saw the flock as they went over the rise, the sheep trying to make something out of nothing in the sticks that were left of the feed. She accelerated like a greyhound that’d just busted out of the starting gate and got to work.
Grady didn’t have to say anything. Cole was sitting up in the saddle, nudging Chloe with his boot heel, and they peeled off to take the left. Grady nudged Red to head for the right, and between the three of them they had the flock in a huddle, had them moving like one in the direction of the gate.
Cole was holding the back corner steady, and Lady was streaking up and down the back line, so Grady was able to creeparound the front and open the gate. Just before he did so, he looked over to Cole and was about to shout at him to push them to the northern part of the road while he held them from bolting for the south when Cole sat up in his saddle and shouted, “Yeah, boss!”
Grady laughed under his breath. This damn kid.
Grady could hear him laughing, still talking and talking to Chloe, and he watched as she responded with another gear for him. Grady went through and took up point on the road while Lady and Cole got the sheep through. The flock swarmed onto the road and spread across every inch of it, right up to the fences on either side, turning the road into a mile of white that stretched and walked in that clipped way, that hustle that said,Yeah, we walkin’ here, but we ain’t gonna go any faster than a walk.
Once Cole cantered through and took up the rear, Grady refastened the gate and slung himself back up onto Red. He set off at a canter until he was pulling up beside Cole and settling in for the easy pacing along the road.
“God, she loves it,” Cole said, his voice breathless and his smile blinding.
“Yeah, I guess she does.” Grady looked at her. Head high and haughty. “If she got the right rider.”
“Nah.” Cole patted her on the neck, a few gentle slaps. “Just gotta handle her right, be honest with her, ’cause she’s honest and she don’t trust nothin’ else in return. And some horses, you have to be real gentle with ’em. Meet ’em where they’re at, you know?”
Grady nodded. “Guess so.”
“Sorry,” Cole said.
“What for?”
“I’m just talking shit. My brothers always said that. ‘Here goes Jesse, talkin’ all this book shit.’ But I never even got it from books, you know? I just got it from ridin’.”
Grady didn’t quite know what to say to that. Cole was animated in a way he normally wasn’t.
Before he got a chance to respond, Grady heard a truck coming up behind them. He and Cole glanced back as one before peeling off to let the driver through.
The truck slowed as he came up between them.
“Grady,” Joel said at the same time as Grady noticed it was him.
“Joel.” Grady leaned down to nod his head before straightening up and walking Red alongside the cabin.
“You ridin’ it?”
“You reckon?”
