Page 72 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“The course? You wanna try it?”
Grady swung his mug back and forth and looked at the fifty-five-gallon drums strategically placed inside the perimeter made of the old railroad ties Grady had stacked up behind the shed. Fencing poles dotted an intricate track creating the course, some ready to have towels attached; small crates were scattered at deliberate distances with an apple on top of each; and sacks filled with straw accompanied by a length of rope sat waiting just inside the far boundary. And this was in addition to the jumps and arena he’d built at the front of the pasture. Grady reckoned this whole thing must’ve taken a lot to rig up.
“I reckon I might need a practice run first.”
“I reckon you might be right.”
Cole was grinning as he said it. Little shit.
“Where’d you learn to ride that way?”
“Whaddya mean? Back home, where else?”
“You don’t look out of practice.”
Cole shook his head, a little blush staining his cheeks over the exhilarated flush, and took his meaning. “I stayed on, did the distance program to finish school, didn’t want to give up riding.”
Grady hid his surprise. He’d been toying with the theory something must’ve happened to Cole at boarding school. Grady’d heard the stories. No one was stupid enough to pull that shit on him in the dorms, but he wasn’t as pretty and slight as Cole. And, as Grady had come to know, underneath the moody exterior, Cole was clever in a way that’d piss off a lot of boys, andkind in a way that meant before he developed the asshole bit, he might’ve been naïve. He wasn’t now.
Grady realized he hadn’t said anything for a while, which wasn’t unusual with anyone else, but it was with Cole.
“It shows,” he said.
“Thanks.” Cole smiled, relieved, the tinge of embarrassment disappearing.
“You comin’ in to eat?”
“In a bit. Gonna make another pass. She’s not turning quick enough at the top corner…”
And he was off, explaining how Chloe could improve. Grady looked at Chloe, her head high, ears pricked up at attention and nostrils flaring, and reckoned she’d pull it together for Cole. Damn horse looked like she was having the time of her life.
“All right, well, I’m cookin’ up when you ready.”
“Then you’ll ride it with me?”
Grady spat, twisted his lips and looked up into Cole’s hopeful face and said, “Yeah, I reckon I might.”
Grady hadn’t had his ass handed to him that thoroughly in a long time. Probably not since he was a boy and his daddy and granddaddy taught him to ride by telling him to get on up on the barely broken-in gelding they’d bought for him. They figured teaching him to ride was watching him fall on his ass constantly while they laughed. He didn’t fall this time, but he was beat on the games without a point. Cole was impossible to beat in getting to the obstacles, in stealing the towel; in speed and focus and agility.
Grady was sitting Red and laughing to himself, sweat pouring down his hairline, when Cole rode up, absolutely beaming.
“Ain’t no contest!”
“That it ain’t,” Grady agreed.
“Wanna try again?”
Grady laughed and shook his head at Cole. “I reckon I’ll get some practice in.”
“It won’t help.”
Cole circled Chloe behind Red in trotting arcs, smiling and taunting.
The sound of a car in the distance had Cole and Grady and Chloe and Red all turning to the sound as one.
“What does he want?” Grady said when he recognized the white sedan.
Cole turned Chloe at too sharp an angle to ride off, and she knocked her rump into Red’s and reared up. Red skittered to the side, and Grady held the saddle to steady himself. He looked over at Cole holding on as he went perpendicular to Chloe’s neck while she cut the air with her hooves.
