Page 20 of Caleb's Salvation
“You two think I need a teacher?”
“Yes,” I said before Ty could agree.
“Fine. Sam’s okay in his pack and play for a few minutes. Let’s go out back, and you two big strong men can show me what I don’t know.”
We walked outside a fair distance away so the gun shots wouldn’t be too loud for the kid. Ty had gotten a small caliber handgun. Nothing that would deafen anyone, but still, he had brought safety earphones for Vivienne.
He lined up some fairly large rocks on a log as targets only about ten feet away.
I shook my head. “She’s not going to be able to hit rocks, Ty. She needs to know how to hit something the size of bear. Aim for those trees over there,” I said pointing to a cluster of Western hemlocks.
Ty put his hand out for the gun, and after I told myself it was his job to do, I gave it to him.
“Now, here is how you hold it,” he said, showing Vivienne how to grip the handle. He used both his hands to do it. Then he came around behind her and lifted her arms to a certain height, his hands over hers, holding the gun.
“Like this?” Vivienne asked.
“Yes,” Ty answered, still with his body plastered against her back. “Now what you want to do is make sure your feet are planted and just gently squeeze the trigger.”
Was there innuendo in what he was saying? Was he really talking about his dick that he wanted gently squeezed?
“I think I got it. Now, you back off, Ty, and let me try,” she said.
Yeah, Ty. Back the fuck off.
I crossed my arms over my chest as Ty came to stand next to me. Just far enough so we weren’t on top of her while she was shooting.
“There’s going to be kickback when that gun fires in your hand,” I told her. “Don’t let that scare you.”
She looked over her shoulder at me. “Okay, Caleb. I’ll try not to be scared.”
Somehow in that moment, with the twinkle in her eye, I knew both Ty and I had been played.
She fired off two shots, knocking the first two rocks Ty had laid out clean off the log. Then she turned to both of us and smiled. “Why, that wasn’t hard at all.”
“Holy crap, did you see that, Cal?” Ty asked me, his mouth open. “I barely had to teach her anything.”
I shook my head. The idiot.
Then she turned her back completely to the target, looked over her shoulder once, then aimed gun—her back still to the target—and fired off two more shots. Each shot knocking off another rock.
“Why, my goodness. This is easy pickins’.”
Ty looked dumbstruck. He still wasn’t getting it.
She took out the ammo cartridge, checked it, snapped it back then put the safety on. Then she handed me the gun, butt first, a smug expression on her face.
“You know what we do for fun in Texas, boys?”
“I’m guessing you shoot,” I said, feeling like an idiot.
She smiled. “Got a rifle and a full clip of ammo. Zeke hooked me up. He’s like a gun enthusiast, I think. You should see his collection. I keep the rifle in a case that’s locked so that Sam can’t open it. I’m covered. Sorry, Ty, I wasn’t sure what you meant when you said you wanted to come over to help me with bears. I thought it was some kind of trick with the trash or something. I could have told you not to bother.”
He shrugged harmlessly, but clearly his thunder had been stolen. “That’s okay. Still got to see you and Sam.”
Lovesick puppy.
But wasn’t that what I’d wanted when I told him to watch over Vivienne? Wouldn’t it be easier to think Vivienne was with Ty and they were hitting it off like any normal young couple might?
