Page 17 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
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hen Grady came intothe kitchen the next morning, Cole was already at the table, dressed and fed by the looks of the empty plate, a steaming cup of coffee beside him and a book open in front of him.
“Mornin’,” Grady said and went to the cupboard for his mug, but it was already out and waiting for him beside the kettle. He cleared his throat and turned around.
“Mornin’,” Cole replied and closed his book. “We gonna move the other ones today?”
Grady cracked a smile. “You just wanna go ridin’ again.”
Cole blushed and looked down. He shrugged.
“Just messin’.” Grady sat down at the little table with his coffee, Cole to his left. Their legs were close enough to knock together at the knees when Grady kicked his leg out and drank his coffee.
“Yeah. I reckon we should do that,” Grady said after a while. “You’re not gonna like Chloe as much after you try and get her on the trailer, I reckon.”
Cole tilted his head to the side and studied Grady. For a kid that was barely twenty, he had an unsettling way of watching people. Then he smiled.
“She’ll be all right.”
“Hmmm.”
Grady had only ever got her in the horse trailer once, and he could say for certain she would not be all right, but what did he know? Kid seemed to have a way with her.
He went to say something about Cole’s horse and found himself swallowing it down. He wasn’t sure why. He sipped his coffee, gave Cole a smile when Cole looked at him, and Cole returned it before hastily dropping his gaze back to his closed book.
There wasn’t any sunlight when they went out to load the horses, just the cool washed-out blue of a morning that felt like a mirage. Cole got the lead rope on all right, walked Chloe over to the trailer all right. Grady got to thinking maybe it was just him. And the missus. And the previous owner.
Chloe walked up the ramp. But just before her head entered the trailer, she took a sharp left and clattered off, almost bowling Cole over.
Maybe not.
Cole took her in a wide arc and tried again. She balked again. Grady settled in against the fence, kicked his boot up to rest it on the lowest rung. Red nudged him from behind, and Grady stroked his nose as he watched.
She kept on doing it and Grady reckoned Cole would snap any second now, but he didn’t. He just kept on trying, talking to her, saying words in that soft voice Grady couldn’t make out.
It took him an hour, give or take, but on a pass that looked like it’d be like the others, she went up and in as if she’d been doing it all her life. As if she hadn’t just spent an hour doing otherwise.
Grady shook his head. He got the lead rope on Red. The old beauty swished his tail back and forth to get the flies off before following Grady up to the trailer and walking up the ramp and inside.
Cole was on the other side of the chest rail, stroking Chloe’s nose and feeding her pieces of carrot and telling her she was a “good girl, such a good girl.”
Grady snorted. He whacked Red on the neck, a few friendly slaps, then hopped out the front and waited for Cole to follow before securing the door, then going around the back and lifting and locking the ramp.
“Better than usual,” Grady said as he went over to the driver’s side and whistled Lady into the back, told Dog to stay. He hopped in and turned the key.
“Better,” Cole scoffed as he got in the passenger seat.
“Yeah.” Grady accelerated slowly up the hill and away from the house. “Last time it took me, hmmm…” He thought on it. “Probably a good three hours.”
“Nooo.” Cole dragged it out before laughing in disbelief. “And you kept at it?”
“’Course, what else could I do?”
“I dunno. Leave her?”
Grady cracked a smile. “You ain’t met my missus. I could not be leavin’ that horse.”
