Page 13 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight

W

hen Grady came into the kitchen the next morning, Cole was already at the table, dressed and fed by the looks of the empty plate, a steaming cup of coffee beside him and a book open in front of him.

“Mornin’,” Grady said and went to the cupboard for his mug, but it was already out and waiting for him beside the kettle. He cleared his throat and turned around.

“Mornin’,” Cole replied and closed his book. “We gonna move the other ones today?”

Grady cracked a smile. “You just wanna go ridin’ again.”

Cole blushed and looked down. He shrugged.

“Just messin’.” Grady sat down at the little table with his coffee, Cole to his left. Their legs were close enough to knock together at the knees when Grady kicked his leg out and drank his coffee.

“Yeah. I reckon we should do that,” Grady said after a while. “You’re not gonna like Chloe as much after you try and get her on the trailer, I reckon.”

Cole tilted his head to the side and studied Grady. For a kid that was barely twenty, he had an unsettling way of watching people. Then he smiled.

“She’ll be all right.”

“Hmmm.”

Grady had only ever got her in the horse trailer once, and he could say for certain she would not be all right, but what did he know? Kid seemed to have a way with her.

He went to say something about Cole’s horse and found himself swallowing it down. He wasn’t sure why. He sipped his coffee, gave Cole a smile when Cole looked at him, and Cole returned it before hastily dropping his gaze back to his closed book.

There wasn’t any sunlight when they went out to load the horses, just the cool washed-out blue of a morning that felt like a mirage. Cole got the lead rope on all right, walked Chloe over to the trailer all right. Grady got to thinking maybe it was just him. And the missus. And the previous owner.

Chloe walked up the ramp. But just before her head entered the trailer, she took a sharp left and clattered off, almost bowling Cole over.

Maybe not.

Cole took her in a wide arc and tried again. She balked again. Grady settled in against the fence, kicked his boot up to rest it on the lowest rung. Red nudged him from behind, and Grady stroked his nose as he watched.

She kept on doing it and Grady reckoned Cole would snap any second now, but he didn’t. He just kept on trying, talking to her, saying words in that soft voice Grady couldn’t make out.

It took him an hour, give or take, but on a pass that looked like it’d be like the others, she went up and in as if she’d been doing it all her life. As if she hadn’t just spent an hour doing otherwise.

Grady shook his head. He got the lead rope on Red. The old beauty swished his tail back and forth to get the flies off before following Grady up to the trailer and walking up the ramp and inside.

Cole was on the other side of the chest rail, stroking Chloe’s nose and feeding her pieces of carrot and telling her she was a “good girl, such a good girl.”

Grady snorted. He whacked Red on the neck, a few friendly slaps, then hopped out the front and waited for Cole to follow before securing the door, then going around the back and lifting and locking the ramp.

“Better than usual,” Grady said as he went over to the driver’s side and whistled Lady into the back, told Dog to stay. He hopped in and turned the key.

“Better,” Cole scoffed as he got in the passenger seat.

“Yeah.” Grady accelerated slowly up the hill and away from the house. “Last time it took me, hmmm…” He thought on it. “Probably a good three hours.”

“Nooo.” Cole dragged it out before laughing in disbelief. “And you kept at it?”

“’Course, what else could I do?”

“I dunno. Leave her?”

Grady cracked a smile. “You ain’t met my missus. I could not be leavin’ that horse.”

Cole looked out the window and didn’t say anything to that. The silence felt less relaxed than it usually did between them, and Grady didn’t know why. He turned on the radio.

Cole hopped out and did the gates at each one they passed from the main farm as they headed out onto the dirt road to the other farm. He hopped back in after securing the last gate and looked up at the massive trees flanking the pasture, bordering the lake that sat on the Floyd property.

Grady knew he’d seen the eagles when he heard him say, “Whoa.”

“Yep. Been nestin’ there since I was a boy, I reckon. Maybe before.”

“God, they’re massive, huh?”

“Yep.”

Grady pulled up alongside the trees, put it in Park and hopped out. Cole’s boots crunched in the gravel as he made his way around the other side, and once Grady had unlocked the back, they lowered it together.

Cole slipped in and moved alongside Chloe, patting her flank and keeping a hand on her all the way to the front.

Grady stepped aside as Cole shuffled her back. She came on out easy enough, but then she made her feelings known, rearing up and cutting the air with her hooves. Cole just kept a loose hold on her lead rope and spoke softly to her.

Red came out with no theatrics, and they saddled up and set out at a nice canter across the pasture to get to the flock.

Chloe had to nudge her head so she was just in front, and Grady could see it was making Cole smile at her, so he just shook his head at them with a smile of his own and enjoyed the ride.

And it was nice riding. Lady kept a steady clip at Red’s front, and she saw the flock as they went over the rise, the sheep trying to make something out of nothing in the sticks that were left of the feed.

She accelerated like a greyhound that’d just busted out of the starting gate and got to work.

Grady didn’t have to say anything. Cole was sitting up in the saddle, nudging Chloe with his boot heel, and they peeled off to take the left. Grady nudged Red to head for the right, and between the three of them they had the flock in a huddle, had them moving like one in the direction of the gate.

Cole was holding the back corner steady, and Lady was streaking up and down the back line, so Grady was able to creep around the front and open the gate.

Just before he did so, he looked over to Cole and was about to shout at him to push them to the northern part of the road while he held them from bolting for the south when Cole sat up in his saddle and shouted, “Yeah, boss!”

Grady laughed under his breath. This damn kid.

Grady could hear him laughing, still talking and talking to Chloe, and he watched as she responded with another gear for him.

Grady went through and took up point on the road while Lady and Cole got the sheep through.

The flock swarmed onto the road and spread across every inch of it, right up to the fences on either side, turning the road into a mile of white that stretched and walked in that clipped way, that hustle that said, Yeah, we walkin’ here, but we ain’t gonna go any faster than a walk .

Once Cole cantered through and took up the rear, Grady refastened the gate and slung himself back up onto Red. He set off at a canter until he was pulling up beside Cole and settling in for the easy pacing along the road.

“God, she loves it,” Cole said, his voice breathless and his smile blinding.

“Yeah, I guess she does.” Grady looked at her. Head high and haughty. “If she got the right rider.”

“Nah.” Cole patted her on the neck, a few gentle slaps. “Just gotta handle her right, be honest with her, ’cause she’s honest and she don’t trust nothin’ else in return. And some horses, you have to be real gentle with ’em. Meet ’em where they’re at, you know?”

Grady nodded. “Guess so.”

“Sorry,” Cole said.

“What for?”

“I’m just talking shit. My brothers always said that. ‘Here goes Jesse, talkin’ all this book shit.’ But I never even got it from books, you know? I just got it from ridin’.”

Grady didn’t quite know what to say to that. Cole was animated in a way he normally wasn’t.

Before he got a chance to respond, Grady heard a truck coming up behind them. He and Cole glanced back as one before peeling off to let the driver through.

The truck slowed as he came up between them.

“Grady,” Joel said at the same time as Grady noticed it was him.

“Joel.” Grady leaned down to nod his head before straightening up and walking Red alongside the cabin.

“You ridin’ it?”

“You reckon?”

Joel laughed and looked out the windshield at Cole on the other side, a little bit ahead of him. Grady followed his gaze to where Cole had moved as far off the road as he could without putting Chloe in the ditch or up onto the shoulder.

“That one of the Cole boys?” Joel asked.

“Yep.”

Grady knew Cole could hear them. Joel had both windows down, and he’d said it at a volume that carried the expectation for Cole to turn around and say hello. Cole didn’t. He kept his eyes front, his posture stiff.

“Didn’t know you were hirin’ hands.”

“I ain’t.”

Joel laughed again and rested his arm outside the window.

“Chris said you were askin’ about horses.”

Grady grunted. The flock were moving nice and easy in front of them, Lady trotting along behind them and occasionally moving out to get some stragglers to pick up the pace.

“Thought maybe you were lookin’ to buy, and I said to Chris, if he’s buyin’, he ain’t mentioned nothin’ to me. But now I see why you were askin’ after the Cole horses.” Joel waved his hand at Cole.

Cole glanced back as Joel finished. He gave an awkward tip of his hat before nudging Chloe to a trot to get farther ahead of them.

“That the youngest one?” Joel asked.

“Yep.”

“Huh,” Joel replied and then said nothing more, the silence heavy like he was thinking on it.

Grady normally didn’t mind settling in for a chat with Joel, but he could see the man’s presence was bothering Cole for whatever reason, and so he decided to try to get him moving.

“You goin’ somewhere, or you just gonna sit here and talk all day.”

Joel snorted and tapped the steering wheel. “I’m headin’ out. Ain’t no need to get your panties in a twist.”