Page 19 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
Joel laughed and looked out the windshield at Cole on the other side, a little bit ahead of him. Grady followed his gaze to where Cole had moved as far off the road as he could without putting Chloe in the ditch or up onto the shoulder.
“That one of the Cole boys?” Joel asked.
“Yep.”
Grady knew Cole could hear them. Joel had both windows down, and he’d said it at a volume that carried the expectation for Cole to turn around and say hello. Cole didn’t. He kept his eyes front, his posture stiff.
“Didn’t know you were hirin’ hands.”
“I ain’t.”
Joel laughed again and rested his arm outside the window.
“Chris said you were askin’ about horses.”
Grady grunted. The flock were moving nice and easy in front of them, Lady trotting along behind them and occasionally moving out to get some stragglers to pick up the pace.
“Thought maybe you were lookin’ to buy, and I said to Chris, if he’s buyin’, he ain’t mentioned nothin’ to me. But now I see why you were askin’ after the Cole horses.” Joel waved his hand at Cole.
Cole glanced back as Joel finished. He gave an awkward tip of his hat before nudging Chloe to a trot to get farther ahead of them.
“That the youngest one?” Joel asked.
“Yep.”
“Huh,” Joel replied and then said nothing more, the silence heavy like he was thinking on it.
Grady normally didn’t mind settling in for a chat with Joel, but he could see the man’s presence was bothering Cole for whatever reason, and so he decided to try to get him moving.
“You goin’ somewhere, or you just gonna sit here and talk all day.”
Joel snorted and tapped the steering wheel. “I’m headin’ out. Ain’t no need to get your panties in a twist.”
Joel accelerated slowly. “Later,” he shot out the window before he eased up behind the sheep. They parted slowly as he went through, then re-formed once he was past the rear of the flock, his truck a red square in the middle of a sea of white. The engine hummed between their bleating as they swallowed him up and spat him out the other end, where he gained speed and disappeared in a haze of dirt up the road.
The drone of the truck was long gone by the time Cole came back over alongside Grady and Red. He hadn’t relaxed, his posture rigid and both hands tight on the reins. It was notable now that Grady had seen what he looked like when he was at ease, the way he normally sat in the saddle like it was part of his body, kept the reins loose in one hand.
“Joel’s all right,” Grady said.
“Never said he wasn’t,” Cole retorted, quick as a flash.
“All right,” Grady replied around a quiet laugh.
He heard Cole muttering “They all all right ’til they ain’t,” and decided not to ask.
Only thing was, Cole got to asking what Grady hoped he wouldn’t before he could change the subject.
“Were you askin’ after our horses?”
“Askin’, yeah. What of it?”
“Why?”
“Just wonderin’.”
“Just wonderin’ why?”
And that was a damn good question. Grady didn’t answer it. Not directly.
