Page 64 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
He stood in a burst of movement and left the room with his unfinished plate. Grady got up and went after him. It also wasn’t like Cole to not clear the plates, and it wasn’t like Grady gave a flying fuck about good housekeeping, but he’d become attuned to Cole’s moods and he hated it when something was bothering him. He didn’t necessarily want to talk about it, he just… didn’t want it to be happening.
Cole was at the sink, rinsing his plate with the kind of complete attention that meant he was actually focused on Grady coming in.
Grady put his plate on the sink.
“Coffee?”
Cole shook his head. “I’m gonna turn in.”
Grady couldn’t see his face; it was covered by that curtain of hair. Grady couldn’t have said what made him do it, but he reached over and brushed the strands back from Cole’s face, held the fall of his damp hair against his neck.
“Might need a hair tie,” he said.
Cole nodded quickly. His eyes were down, long lashes blinking fast.
“I reckon I got one upstairs.” Grady tucked the hair on the other side of Cole’s shirt.
Cole glanced up, eyes shining. He averted his face to hide it, nodded again.
Grady stepped back and went over to the kettle. He made himself a coffee and made one for Cole anyways. He knew Cole was going to sleep downstairs on the couch, and he reckoned he’d want another hot drink and was just saying no because that’s what he did when he got like this.
Grady turned to go upstairs and leave him to it but stopped at the door. He didn’t look back but said what he reckoned he ought to have said a while ago.
“I ain’t no expert on what gets a man spooked.”
He could actually hear Cole go still behind him.
“But I reckon if you ever wanna talk on it, well then”—Grady wrapped the doorframe with his knuckles—“I reckon I’m all right at listenin’.”
He went out, and Cole didn’t reply, but Grady knew he took his meaning well enough.
34
C
ole smiled at himwhen Grady found him the next morning with the room cleaned and a lamb in front of him taking a bottle. It was a smile that said almost all his pieces were back together and the armor would be firmly back in place in an hour or so. Grady nodded and asked if he needed a hand.
“Those three,” Cole indicated with his chin at the three milling about on shaky, barely born legs. Grady got one of the bottles from the basket and got to it.
It was still raining something fierce, and Grady knew he didn’t need to tell Cole they’d have to do another search today. And check the fences. And probably fix the fences. He got to feeding the lamb in front of him, its tail wagging ferociously, and wondered how he’d managed it without a hand. And why. His missus called him a stubborn loner, but that wasn’t quite true. He liked company. Liked it a lot, in fact. He’d just never found much company he liked.
“Go on, then,” Cole was saying to his lamb, setting him back in his bed near the fire and reaching for the other bottle. “Reckon they can go out once this rain stops.”
“Reckon it’ll clear tonight,” Grady said. “Give ’em back to their mamas in the morning.”
“You hear that? Gonna see ya mama again,” Cole said and grinned at the lamb in front of him.
And that was him back, Grady thought, feeling relieved but also disappointed, which gave him pause—shouldn’t he just be relieved? But, no, he was worried. Grady didn’t know much about much, but he reckoned Cole was going to need to talk this thing out or he was going to be swinging back and forth, vulnerable to the wrong word or name. And that wasn’t a way to live around here; Grady was at least sure about that. He was thinking maybe he’d just ask. He looked up at the sound of the water shifting as it hit the window panes. It’d gone from sideways and stretched out to fat and straight on, and he knew it was a better time to head out. He could see Cole knew it too as he moved through the next bottle quickly, making to get up and get going.
“You eat yet?” Grady asked and stood. He wasn’t sure why he was asking; he hadn’t eaten, either, and he knew they wouldn’t.
“We gotta go.” Cole went to the entryway as he said it. “I defrosted some chicken last night. Can get to it when we get back.”
Cole was sitting on the stairs and getting his boots on. Grady sat down next to him and did the same. He huffed a laugh and, from the corner of his eye, saw Cole glaring at him.
“Go on an’ say it then, you got something to say,” Cole said and stood.
And here he was, fully back; the moody little fucker. Though he wasn’t all that little. Grady looked up as he finished tying his laces and smiled.
