Page 98 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
“I ain’t ever been surer about anything in my life. You ain’t my hand, Cole. You ain’t been my hand for a long time. You’re my partner. If you … If you want that.”
Grady watched and waited as Cole went from shocked to unsure to the slowest smile breaking out on his face. Grady finally exhaled.
“I had a crush on you since I knew what my dick is for, Amos Grady,” Cole said.
Grady huffed a laugh. “Well, I reckon that’s a good start.”
Cole shook his head. “Yeah, but, now I know you, too. And well, I don’t reckon I could love anyone more.”
Grady smiled, nodded, and on the inside he knew he’d never felt like this. Like it was the best damn feeling in the world. “Good.”
Cole laughed. “Good.”
Grady brought his arm up around Cole’s shoulders. Cole looked up at him, and Grady kissed him. Yeah, best goddamn feeling in the world, Grady thought as Cole broke away and smiled at him, and Grady had to wonder, as he looked into Cole’s deep black eyes, the crinkles in the corners and the vulnerability in the depths Cole hid from everyone else, who’d have thought this was here, in the world.
Epilogue
A
s soon as Gradysaw her, he knew why Cole loved her. She was, on the face of it, a magnificent horse. Excellent breeding, a Thoroughbred but with the stronger hindquarters suggesting some warmblood in there, a lustrous dark bay coat, flowing black mane and tail—textbook. But that wasn’t it. It was in her eyes. As she looked over at Grady walking up to the fence, she stared right through him, crazier and saner than anyone else all at once. She tossed her head, kicked her rear hooves up, and the girl on her back scolded her and held on. Grady smiled.
“Grady?” Stewart’s missus came up behind him.
Grady touched the brim of his hat.
“What can I do for you?” She sounded downright surprised, and rightly so. Grady’d never had no cause to come to the riding school, and he wasn’t friends with her husband, either. Always found him to be too soft for his woman, whipped by her.
As Grady glanced back at the ring, at the horse doing everything she could to dislodge the rider, he smiled to himselfand thought he might have to re-evaluate those charges. Wasn’t only a woman could be making a man soft, whipping him.
“How much for that there horse?”
She scoffed, surprised and bemused. “That horse ain’t for sale.”
The horse went to make a jump and balked. She backed up, turned sharply and tossed the rider with a sudden flick of her back legs, bringing her hindquarters into the air. The girl hit the ground with a shriek. Leaping back up, she charged at the horse, fist raised, profanity spewing from her mouth.
“But if it were, how much?” Grady watched as she cantered around the ring, shaking her head from side to side, celebrating being free of her rider.
He glanced sidelong at Stewart’s missus as she came to rest her arms on the fence beside him and smiled wryly at him.
“You can’t afford a horse like that.”
“How much.”
She continued to smile at him, calculating, and named a figure Grady reckoned no man had paid for a horse in these parts ever. It was a little more than Grady had on the redraw, but he reckoned it’d be worth it to redraw a little more and get this done. With Cole now a permanent fixture in his home and his bed and on his land, they’d make that back in a few years, no problem.
“I reckon you got a deal.”
“I was joking.” She gave him a look like he was stupid.
“Well, I wasn’t.” He turned to face her, rested his forearm on the fence, and spat to the side. “Reckon I’ll be takin’ her now and wire the money tonight.” He put his hand out.
“Have you lost your mind? Stewart said you were cracked, but ain’t no way you’re bein’ serious.”
“We got a deal here or not?”
She shook her head but extended her hand. “I’d have to be crazy not to take it.”
He shook it. “I reckon I done you a favor,” he said as he released her hand. “Only one man can ride that horse.”
