Page 22 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight

I

t was a week later, and Grady had to head into town to pick up cutters and combs for the shearing. He’d said he was heading in and Cole set his sights on sulking again, slamming the back door as he whistled up the dogs and went out.

Grady was bewildered. He shook it off and went into town. He got the parts he’d ordered for shearing from the garage and was heading over to the grocery when he ran into Old Man Willy on the street.

“Grady.”

“Will.”

Willy was getting out of his truck and coming up the sidewalk. Grady waited while he stepped in beside him, and they walked together to the grocer.

“Watchya got there?”

Grady told him.

“Late for shearin’.”

“I know it.”

Willy laughed—it had a mocking edge to it, like he was enjoying the fact Grady was shearing too late in the year, when he would’ve damn well known the reason was Grady waiting on the good team.

“Don’t reckon your daddy ever woulda been late like that.”

Willy opened the door and let Grady through. He stepped in behind him like he was planning to follow and continue the conversation.

“Good thing he’s dead then.”

Grady headed for the back to the freezers.

Willy didn’t follow. He might’ve been muttering something behind him, but Grady had already forgotten about him.

He was going to see if they had some of those popsicles that came in the plastic sleeves.

There’d been some in the house Grady wasn’t even aware of until he saw Cole sitting on the front porch sucking on one, his mouth and lips green.

He’d been sucking them down every day all week until Grady asked why he wasn’t yesterday and Cole said they’d run out.

Cole never asked for anything in town. Grady was going to see if they had some anyways. The freezer had none. Grady got everything else he needed, went up to the counter and said to put it on his account.

“Sure, hon,” Mavis said and smiled at him. She got to packing everything in the box, careful to make sure it all sat in there just so.

“You got any of them frozen ice things comin’ in again.”

“Gonna have to give me more than that, Grady,” Mavis teased. She’d known him since he was born and treated him like it too.

“They come in the plastic and ain’t got no writing.”

Mavis nodded. “Fla-Vor-Ice. They won’t be in the freezer. You freeze ’em yourself. Go on down that aisle.” She pointed. “Next to the chocolate.”

He found them easily enough, the packet so big they’d last a good month. Grady added them, thanked Mavis and headed out.

Grady pulled up and saw Cole sitting on the steps on the porch, his gaze fixed away like he was too busy to acknowledge Grady driving up.

Grady went up the path and said, “Hey,” as he passed him, but Cole just moved his legs aside and ignored him.

Grady hid his smile. He went inside and unpacked the groceries.

Cole was still ignoring him come dinner.

Cole set Grady’s plate in front of him with a thump, and Grady thought he’d had about enough now.

“Look—” he started.

“Look, what?”

Grady kept the smile in and reminded himself this had to stop.

“I know you hatin’ on town.”

“I ain’t hatin’ on town.”

“Yeah? Wanna come to Harvest Fest?”

Cole went from mad to looking sick so fast Grady almost regretted saying it.

“That’s what I thought.”

Cole picked up his knife and fork and repeated, “I ain’t hatin’ on town.” He clenched his jaw and kept his eyes on his food but didn’t start eating.

Grady ignored that and pushed on. “If I don’t go to town, we ain’t got nothin’ to eat.”

“Go to town!”

Cole sat back and exhaled loud and rough like he was surprised at his outburst.

“Sorry.”

Grady didn’t really know what to say or do with that, so he started in on his steak and decided to drop it.

The clink of his knife and fork on the plate filled the kitchen, Cole’s starting up tentatively when Grady was halfway done.

He tried to focus on reading the paper spread out next to his plate but was distracted by the cautious silence, the feel of Cole straining to be normal beside him.

“Sorry,” Cole repeated, breaking the silence. “I ain’t hatin’ on town, I just—” He stopped. His voice was real quiet.

“You just what.”

Grady pushed his plate away, sat back and drank his coffee. Cole mirrored him and kept his eyes down.

“I just don’t like what you’re gettin’ there is all. It’s none of my business, though. And I’m sorry.”

Cole stood and went to go out, but Grady grabbed his forearm and Cole stopped.

“You always eat it.”

Cole groaned and shook his head but stayed where he was.

“You know what I mean.”

Grady frowned. Cole looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in this conversation. Then Grady got it. He let Cole go and crossed his arms over his chest.

“You reckon I need someone else to help me out when we gettin’ at it every day?”

Cole shrugged.

Grady snorted a laugh.

“I ain’t.”

Cole flicked his eyes to Grady’s and searched him out, eyes flicking back and forth.

“It ain’t none of my business,” he repeated and then sat back down and finished his dinner.

Grady drank his coffee, regarded the little smile playing on Cole’s lips as he looked down at his plate. He shook his head and finished his coffee.

He got up, rinsed his plate and mug and decided he deserved a beer, so he got one and said he was going to sit outside for a bit.

He knew Cole would come out eventually and they’d sit in that quiet way they’d found until it got dark.

He knew they’d then find their way back inside, and Grady would grab for Cole’s waist, and Cole would turn like he’d been waiting for it and drop to his knees.

They might make it to the living room or they might do it in the hall.

One time they got as far as the kitchen, Cole pushing Grady to sit in the chair before he crawled between his spread thighs.

Grady adjusted himself and went out to the porch.

Cole came out a few minutes later, his lips wrapped around a bright red popsicle and his eyes crinkling with a smile as he sat on the step below Grady.

“Thanks,” he said as he pulled the popsicle out.

Grady just nodded and drank his beer. They settled into the quiet of the dusk like usual, with the only difference being that Cole seemed pretty damn happy. Grady snorted to himself and finished his beer.

“You really goin’ to the Harvest Festival?” Cole asked. “I ain’t never seen you there.”

“You lookin’ for me then?”

Cole scoffed, but he was still smiling.

“I ain’t goin’.”

Cole hummed and finished his popsicle. Grady would’ve said he’d go if Cole wanted to, but he got the feeling Cole would rather have all his nails lifted with bamboo shoots than go to that, so he didn’t ask.

He watched as Cole folded up the plastic wrapper, leaned over and wedged it into the rim of the empty beer bottle, and then stayed leaned over as he slid both hands up Grady’s thighs.

“Inside,” Grady said as Cole reached his dick.

“Why?” Cole replied and looked up.

His hands were working Grady’s belt undone and then his buttons, his eyes up on Grady’s while his hands worked.

Grady didn’t actually have an answer as to why. Not like there was anyone around and if anyone drove up, they’d hear it for miles. Cole broke eye contact as he pulled Grady’s dick out and jerked him tight and steady, just the way Grady liked before he slid his mouth down in one go.

“Fuck, cold.”

Grady heard Cole laughing around his dick, felt the vibrations on his skin. He grabbed a fistful of his hair and tugged. Cole flicked his eyes up, made them wide as if to act the innocent and then sucked hard, going all the way down and then up. Grady groaned.

“Little shit,” Grady said, but it was undermined by the way he was thrusting his hips into Cole’s face and guiding his head down with the hand in his hair.

Cole smiled around his dick like he knew it too.

Grady gave himself over to the feeling and once he got off, he hit Cole back, sucking him off right there on the step.

When he went to bed that night, he guessed he could check the porch off the places he’d fucked in his house now.

Only places they hadn’t done it were the bedrooms and the bathroom.

As Grady fell asleep, he reckoned it was just a matter of time.