Page 20 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“Chris reckons they didn’t go to the slaughterhouse. Probably up at the school.”
If Grady thought that news would’ve made Cole happy, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Cole sucked in a sharp breath.
“I don’t wanna know,” he said after a heavy pause.
“All right,” Grady said.
“Just, don’t. Don’t. Look”—Cole glanced at Grady, and his expression was fierce, but it was like the fierceness was busy holding back a breaking point—“I know I ain’t got a right to ask.”
“You got a right to ask,” Grady said.
Cole shook his head, tension stark in his neck. “Don’t go on askin’ about this stuff, all right? Just don’t.”
“All right.”
“Promise?”
Grady wanted to make a crack about what were they, twelve? But Cole didn’t look like he was in the mood for kidding around.
Grady nodded.
Cole nodded back like they’d settled something important. He exhaled long and hard through his nose, eyes blinking rapidly like he was busy keeping his face stern.
“We gotta turn ’em,” Cole said and nudged Chloe so she was moving across the front of Red and up onto the shoulder before he could hear Grady’s response, which would’ve been that he knew that, it was his land, but he reckoned Cole was just resetting the conversation.
They had the flock secure and grazing on the fresh feed in Grady’s far pasture before noon and were able to turn back before it got too hot. It was a good day for a ride, hot but not steaming, and they took the horses at a canter down the road and back to the other farm.
Red had white foam under his saddle blanket when Grady pulled it off, his fur slick, his skin strong and rich with the scent of horse sweat.
“We can hose ’em down when we get back,” Grady said.
Cole nodded at him. He told Chloe he’d hose her down real nice, and asked her to be a good girl and get on the trailer so she could cool down. Grady had forgotten that she might take a good hour to get loaded while it got hotter. But there was nothing for it now, so he settled against Red, arms resting over the dip of his back as he watched Cole stroke Chloe’s neck and talk to her.
“You ever try puttin’ him in first?” Cole nodded at Red as he said it.
“Don’t want him gettin’ hot while he waits.”
Cole shook his head. “No, I know, but she might be more inclined to go in if she sees he’s already in there. Sees it’s all right, you know?”
Grady thought about it. “Inclined, huh?”
“Can always take him out again if she starts fussing,” Cole said, ignoring the jibe.
“Starts fussin’,” Grady said under his breath.
But he took hold of Red’s lead rope and walked up the ramp into the trailer, slid under the chest rail at the front, and tied him on. He could feel the trailer rocking as Chloe came up thegangway, and then her big head was nudging in alongside Red’s, snorting in his face. Grady huffed at her as Cole tied her on.
“Probably just ’cause it’s hot,” Cole said once they were both in the truck and slamming their doors.
Grady hummed. He started the truck and turned in a wide circle. He went through the gate and waited while Cole jumped out and closed it. As he was getting back in, Grady said, “It’s probably ’cause you were right.”
“Right about what?”
Grady drove onto the road and picked up some speed as they headed back.
“She needed to see it was safe first.”
Cole shrugged and looked out the window. “Have to see if she does it again when she’s not worn out.” He looked back to Grady. “Once don’t mean anything.”
