Page 46 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“I got a feeling he’s been through it.”
And well, that wasn’t news. Everyone knew that.
“Bye, Grady.”
“Charmaine.”
And then she was gone in a puff of dirt, her red sports car disappearing against the glint of the sun. Something about her words stayed with him. Of course he’d been through it, but... And what was the “but”?
Grady put it out of his mind and set about getting the shed ready for shearing. He reckoned Cole would be riding in any minute now to let him know he had the sheep at the nearest pasture, only he didn’t.
Grady thought about setting out with Red to see where he was at and then decided against it. He finished up in the shed and went back to the kitchen. Standing in the dark in the weatherboard room where he’d been born, he looked through the parted, faded curtains, the pink flowers long turned dull orange, past the smudge of the windows and into the yellow glow on the horizon, the copse of trees brown and green sentries against it. It was making the turn to dusk, and Cole still hadn’t turned up. Grady told himself he’d see him in the morning. But he found himself walking back out, saddling up, and setting off.
Red’s hooves kicked up the dirt as they went over the hill leading to the pasture at the back of the house. He rode through a cloud of dust as the sunset cast a halo about them.
Sure enough, Cole was there, settled under the oak in the farthest corner. He had his bedroll out and Chloe unsaddled, grazing on what she could make of the grass not a yard away. Lady sprawled and slept beside him. The sheep were milling about in clumps of three, five, seven, eating leisurely by the last of the light and bleating to one another—a final check-in to ascertain everyone’s position before night fell. The pasture was chosen for how barren it was—they didn’t need a shed full of shit to work in.
Cole watched Grady approach, his expression serious save for the pulse of delight that flashed in his eyes that Grady saw himtry to conceal. Red walked over to Chloe, and they snorted in each other’s faces before turning to the grass as one.
“So close, might as well have come in for the night,” Grady said.
He dismounted, turned his back on Cole to loosen the girth and pull up the stirrups. Cole was still watching him as he turned back.
“I like it out here,” he said.
Grady sat on the end of Cole’s bedroll, brought his knees up, boots on the earth and gaze on the sheep.
“Seem to like it at the house too.”
Cole didn’t say anything, and Grady let the silence stretch out. It would be full dark in half an hour, and he figured he’d either have to commit to staying and unsaddling Red or riding on home.
“You want some coffee?” Cole asked.
“Yeah.”
Grady got up and unsaddled Red. He gave his rear a friendly slap and the horse turned back to look at him before wandering off. Cole poured the coffee, and Grady rested his saddle at the end of the bedroll so he could lean on it and accepted the cup. He set it aside, got his boots off and stretched out so he was lengthways alongside Cole, his socked feet at Cole’s armpit and Cole’s at his.
He drank his coffee.
“You ain’t gonna spend the night with the missus?”
Grady sipped his coffee.
“She’s gone.”
“Oh.”
Grady hummed.
“She seems nice.”
Grady set the mug aside and stretched out; he rubbed his foot against Cole’s underarm. Cole sniggered and squirmed away.
“She is,” Grady said.
Cole sat up, wrapped Grady’s foot in his hand and held it tight to his body.
“She doesn’t like it out here?”
