Page 73 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“Easy girl, easy,” Cole was saying, a panicked edge to it. Chloe was picking up on the panic and wasn’t settling.
Grady heard the car door slam at the same time as Chloe’s hooves hit the ground with a thud and Cole reined her in.
“Morning, Grady,” Tom shouted over to them, but Grady was looking at Cole and couldn’t have missed the shudder that went through him at Tom’s voice, the flash of terror in his eyes before he was shutting it down.
“Well, I’ll be,” Tom said. “Is that Jesse Cole?”
Cole looked directly at Tom, another flash of fear contorting his face before he glanced at Grady, eyes wide. He skittered his gaze away, fixed his stare on Chloe’s mane.
“I didn’t know you were in a position to be hiring, Grady,” Tom said, and Grady finally looked over at him. “And he’s got a nice ride too.”
“She ain’t mine!” Cole shouted, the words bursting across the pasture. Grady started; he had never heard him sound like that—furious, but scared too.
Red wasn’t settling—shifting his hooves and moving sideways, tossing his head against the rein—disturbed by Chloe’s frantic energy behind him. Grady reined him in, looked away from Cole to Tom.
“What’re you doin’ here, Tom,” Grady said. He always wanted the man off his land, but this time it felt damn right imperative.
Tom stretched his arms wide as if to indicate said land before coming to rest them on the fence.
“Well, I was seein’ if maybe you’d be reconsidering my offer, especially on account of that hailstorm, but now I see I get to make the acquaintance of an old friend as well.” Tom looked past Grady to Cole as he said it, and something about the words, the look on his face, put Grady at an unease so profound he found himself moving Red forward to where Tom was at the fence and blocking his view of Cole and Chloe.
“I reckon I done told you my answer,” Grady said.
Tom was looking past Grady, a smile on his face that wasn’t a happy thing, it was delighted in a way that was grotesque, and he was looking as if he could still see what Red’s body was blocking from view.
“And I reckon things be changing,” Tom said and finally looked up at him. “When did you get that one out here?” He nodded past Grady.
“I reckon that ain’t none of your business.”
Tom smiled, slow and indulgent. “Maybe it ain’t right now. But I got some work, and I can pay. You payin’ him?”
Grady knew Cole was listening, and he could feel his anxiety in the tapping of Chloe’s hooves in the dirt behind him. Grady wasn’t normally one to lie, but something told him he better be lying now, though he couldn’t have said why.
“It ain’t your business, but yeah, my hand gets paid.”
Tom sized him up and then looked past him again as if he’d developed X-ray vision and could see Cole through the horse.
“I bet he does,” he said after a while and that was definitely off, but before Grady could answer, Tom was calling out to Cole, “You come on into town when you done here, Jesse. I got some real good work for you.”
Cole didn’t answer. Tom grinned.
He glanced back at Grady, smirked, winked, and said, “You might wanna think about my offer. Reckon this stormin’ not done yet, and then you ain’t gonna have money for hands, never mind anything else.”
Grady stared at him. He spat. Then he stared some more.
Tom smiled, smiled like he finally had something on Grady. “See you soon.”
“Hope not.”
“Later, Grady, Jesse.”
He went over to his car, opened the door, and paused before he got in. He zeroed in on Cole, lips ticking up in another smirk. He finally took his seat, turned the ignition, all the while smiling out the windshield, before making the U-turn and driving off.
Grady watched as the water splashed around the tires from the puddles, the engine droning in the smooth way of city cars as Tom headed back up the driveway. He looked to Cole once the car was out of sight but could still be heard.
“It ain’t what you think!” Cole yelled.
Grady raised both eyebrows. He wasn’t sure he took Cole’s meaning, even though he was thinking a whole lot.
