Page 26 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“It’s somethin’.”
“It’s really nothin’.”
Grady rolled over, propped his head in his hand and looked over at Cole stretched out on his back.
“You got somethin’ to ask, ask it.”
Cole lifted his head, and Grady made out him swallowing before he asked his question.
“You were in Jack’s year, weren’t you?”
Grady was thrown by the question. He also felt like it wasn’t what the kid wanted to ask.
“Yeah.”
“Were you friends?”
“Not really.”
Grady thought about Jack. Popular, boisterous, always bragging on what he’d been up to. They boarded together in the city for high school too. But where all the Cole boys went on to the private school, Grady went to the public. No, him and Jack weren’t friends. They weren’t enemies either. They weren’t anything. Even being what? Five or six years younger, Cole here should’ve known that.
“Okay,” Cole said.
Grady rolled his eyes, lay back down and went to sleep.
“Grady?”
Jesus Christ. They were camped out in the middle of the biggest field on the property. The sound of the horses driftedover them from nearby, shifting their feet as they settled. It was late, but the sky was clear and the moon high and bright so everything was cast in blue.
“What.”
Grady listened to Cole breathing.
“Just say it,” Grady said after a while.
“Say what?”
“Whatever it is you been wantin’ to say for the last three days.”
“I ain’t wanted to say anything.”
Grady huffed. “All right. Suit yourself.”
“I’m just wantin’ to ask about somethin’ is all.”
“Don’t need my permission to be askin’. Just ask.”
Grady listened to Cole’s breathing. He waited. Cole wasn’t saying anything, but whatever in the hell had him coming to the edge and backing off three times had Grady pretty damn curious even without wanting it to.
“Whaddya-know-about-guys-helpin-each-other-out?”
Grady had to parse that out because that’s exactly how the kid said it. All one word.
“What do I know about what now?”
He was pretty sure he got it, but best to check.
“Nothin’. Forget I said anythin’.”
