Page 149 of Hell Bent

Fifteen minutes later, I was tossing deodorant and bodywash into a duffel, pausing every thirty seconds to shake a hand, when Harlan loped in. He had Nick by the hand, and when he saw us, he came straight over, gave me a one-armed hug and slapped my back, then stepped back and said, “Hey, Ben. How you doing? Oh. This is Nick.”

“I know him,” Ben said. “I mean, I’ve seen him a bunch. At the games. He recognizes you on the field. It’s kind of amazing. That a little kid could do that, I mean, with your helmet on and everything.” And turned red from the neckline of his T-shirt to the roots of his curly hair.

Harlan said, “Yeah? Jennifer always says so, but I figured she was just massaging my ego.”

“She do a lot of that, does she?” I asked.

“Not so much,” Harlan said. “Why is that?”

“Maybe because your ego’s big enough already?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s the one.” He grinned, then said, “Hey, Ben. Sebastian said he’ll give Annabelle some soccer workouts later on, once he’s taken time off, gone on vacation or whatever. It’d be good if you came along for that, if you’re interested. You can probably do a lot more with two people. I could join you myself. Cross-training’s always good.”

“Uh … you mean at your house?” Ben asked.

“Why,” Harlan said, “did he get something other than that high-rise apartment while I wasn’t looking?”

“No,” Ben said, “but we might. I’ve been kind of looking at houses.” Then turned red again and glanced at me.

I thought about those possible contract offers and said, “At some point, we’ll do that. Want to do the soccer thing with us? It’d be good. Fun to use my skills a little, especially since nobody will be there to tell me that I suck.” Trying to be light, trying to make Ben’s new life work for him. At the moment, it was feeling like a heavy lift.

“Sure,” Ben said. “That’d be good, I guess.” He’d stuck his hands in his pockets, trying desperately to be cool.

“Great,” Harlan said. “Where are you off to now?” he asked me. “Or do you hang out in Canada during the offseason?”

I’d opened my mouth to answer, but Owen was there. More bone-crushing hugs, more thumps on the back that practically took Ben to his knees, and when Nick tried to pull away from his dad to get to Owen, Owen grabbed him and threw him overhead as Harlan said, “Careful. You could end up on diaper duty.”

“I’m a rancher,” Owen said. “Diaper duty’s not a problem.” He held Nick in one big arm, grinned at Ben, as relaxed as he hadn’t been yesterday, and told him, “Got to be prepared to wade in the manure. Folks start out trying to walk around it, but by the end of the first day, you realize it can’t be done. That’s why they call the boots shitkickers. And speaking of that?—”

“Speaking of manure?” I asked. “Were we doing that?”

“Nope,” Harlan said. “We were trading vacation plans, though, and Owen’s plan is to go back to the ranch and pull calves out of cows all day in the freezing cold. No accounting for taste. I helped once, and all I can say is, no thanks. I’m taking Jennifer to Paris, myself. She wants to see Scotland, too, but Scotland in February? I live in Portland. I get enough rain in my life. We’ll do the Scotland deal this summer, before training camp. Give me something good to remember, take my mind off the torture.”

“Which is what I was talking about,” Owen said. “You’re going to help me with my camp again, right?”

“You bet,” Harlan said, then explained, “Football camp for kids. It’s a whole deal. It’s amazing nobody’s written a song about Wyoming in June, it’s so romantic.”

“Seriously?” Ben asked.

“No,” Owen said. “But I thought I’d see if I can rope you in, too, Sebastian. Some of the guys come out for a few days—the camp’s a week long, so whenever it works—and give me a hand. Never had a kicker, and that’d be real good, especially for the older kids. You’re welcome to stay at the ranch. I’ve got a couple of guest rooms, and so do my folks. It’s a family compound.”

I thought about uncertainty, about Ben and school, about football. Man, life got complex. “Pretty sure I can do that,” I said.

Owen grinned all over his bearded face, and this time, he slappedmyback so hard I about fell over. “Well, good,” he said. “Great. If you want to come along, Ben, you’re welcome. I can always use another hand with the kids, especially the little guys, and you seem like you’ve got a good heart.”

“Uh … sure,” Ben said, turning red again. “That’d be great.”

“It won’t be all work,” Owen said. “Got some mighty nice horses you can ride, for one thing. Dyma’ll be there, and she’ll show you how. She’s turning into a real nice little rider. I’m sure looking forward to June.” He focused on me again, then. “Forgot to ask where you’re heading off to. Not Wyoming, and probably not Paris.”

“No,” I said, feeling clumsy. Feeling stuck. “Haven’t decided. Alix is, uh, working.” I glanced at Ben. “And Ben and I have some stuff to do in Vancouver.”

Owen’s face softened. “I didn’t think of that. Yeah, I don’t imagine that’s going to be much of a vacation. You’ll be having a service for your sister, I guess.” He looked at Ben again. “For your mom.”

I should have talked to Ben about this. Too many things to focus on, but that was no excuse. “Yeah,” I said. “That’s one of the things we have to figure out.”

“Well, hey,” Owen said. “When you get that set up, let me know, and I’ll come up. It’s good to have friends around, times like that.”

My chest tightened, and there was a lump in my throat. Beside me, Ben was frozen. Harlan said, “You bet. We’ll both be there.”