Page 25 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight

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n unseasonal hot wind blew in the next day, and driving the sheep through it was like riding through a dust bowl.

Headwind, too. The kind of hot wind that makes you feel crazy.

Grady had seen men really lose their minds working in wind like this, and he had a shit dog like Dog who decided halfway through the day to charge at the rear of the flock and start snapping at ankles.

“Damn it, Dog,” Grady said, and rode up to startle him back, but it was too late, and the sheep had scattered.

Lady was racing along the back of them like a fisherman with a net stretched too thin—going all out, but losing them all over the place.

Cole took off in the direction they’d just walked for a good half of the day.

The sheep were at full pelt as Cole charged Chloe into a gallop to get them back under control.

Dog raced for the cottonwoods at the other end of the pasture, the stretch of trees that separated Grady’s place from the Jacobs’ land. And Grady reckoned he might not see Dog for a while, but he bet he’d be getting a call from Jacobs to come collect him in a few days.

Cole was attempting to guide the front sheep back around at a gallop.

The young ewe pounding the dirt at top speed out front looked like she was thinking about ignoring him, the rest of the flock keen to follow whatever lead she took.

Cole spurred Chloe in front of her and she was forced to make a sharp turn, spin and follow a new leader from the other end.

By the time they got them back to the point they’d started from, it was near noon and too windy to keep going.

“Let’s leave ’em in there for the night,” Grady said as he cantered up around the back of Cole.

Cole nodded and nudged Chloe to a canter for the gate. They got them through and the gate shut, some of the ewes at the rear of the flock glancing over their shoulders as if to say And fuck you before trotting to the dam for a drink.

Cole blew out a breath, wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his forearm. He looked at Grady and laughed, his eyes dancing, chest heaving.

“It ain’t funny,” Grady said. Well, shouted. Fucking wind.

“It kinda is!”

Grady shook his head, turned Red and got him moving out fast. He knew Cole would follow.

Grady led them through the pasture and then into the next one until they were riding on the top of the hill, getting the full blast of the wind before descending down into the valley below.

The wind disappeared as soon as they dropped to the lower ground.

They slowed the horses and made for the stream, the cottonwoods thick amidst the rocks down here; Grady’s daddy had liked it so much, he refused to clear it. Good thing, too; it was a cool reprieve that lasted all year round in an otherwise cleared and barren landscape.

“This is nice,” Cole said as he came alongside Grady, horses at a walk.

“Good campin’ down there.” Grady nodded at the thicker trees a good mile away.

“Nice.”

Red knew what was what and he was making his way through the trees to the stream, Chloe on his tail.

They walked the rest of the way with their hooves splashing in the water.

It rose at some points so Grady’s boots skimmed the top.

He turned in his saddle to look back at Cole and saw him with the stirrups pulled up and swung crisscross over Chloe’s neck, his booted feet crossed-legged over the saddle.

He had one hand resting on an ankle, the other resting on the top of the saddle, reins loose.

Grady shook his head and snorted softly to himself; no one else could take liberties like that with that horse.

The air was degrees cooler, and the wind a faint memory whistling high above them. Grady urged Red out of the water, into the shade near the rocks, and dismounted. Chloe came up behind them, and Cole slid down.

“Just gonna take her for a quick swim.”

Grady nodded and looked down the stream to where it widened and got deeper. He figured Cole had figured that and left him to it.

When Cole came back, holding the lead rope loose, once again naked, Grady was sitting back and drinking his coffee.

His eyes were drawn to that impressive dick.

He took his hat off, set his coffee aside and got up as Cole finished tying Chloe on and came over.

Cole was about to reach for his pants when Grady stopped him with a hand on his hip.

He dropped to his knees and took him in his mouth.

Cole slid his hands into Grady’s hair and held on.

That night, after they’d eaten and fucked and turned in for the night, Grady asked the question that’d been bugging him.

“Why didn’t you go to the city?”

“Huh?”

Grady kept his eyes on the clear night sky between the canopy of trees and asked again.

“Why didn’t you go to the city?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“When you left the farm. Why’d you stay?”

Cole blew out a breath. Grady felt the air between them change with it, as if the temperature had dropped and a cold wind gusted over them.

“I shouldn’t have asked.”

Grady listened as Cole’s bedding rustled around.

Cole sat up, brought his knees up and rested his arms there so his palms dangled.

His gaze was fixed on the stream trickling over polished stones, on the horses tied on to the closest tree, their hooves lifting and touching the earth softly, the brush of Red’s tail swishing, Chloe’s head nodding up and down.

Cole was a dark outline in profile against the night blue of the sky, the fire nothing but glowing red embers between them.

“It ain’t that,” Cole said after a while.

“It ain’t what?”

“You askin’.”

“All right.”

Cole shook his head and looked over his shoulder. “I can’t talk about it.”

“All right.”

“No, you don’t get it. I can’t .”

Grady studied him as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Cole’s black eyes were wide in his face, begging Grady for something he couldn’t begin to understand.

“Okay.”

“Not like I can’t, like someone said I can’t. I mean I can’t… I can’t get the words out.” Cole’s voice cracked, and Grady really wished he hadn’t asked.

“But if I could…”

Grady brought his arm behind his head and rested back. He kept his eyes on Cole and waited.

“If I could, I would. With you.”

Grady felt a twinge of something. He wasn’t sure what it was—affection? Concern?—whatever it was, he’d never felt it before and thought it was better left alone.

“All right.”

Cole nodded and Grady couldn’t see him to be sure, but he got the same feeling he got last time Cole acted like they’d settled something important between them.

Cole lay back, and Grady listened to him breathing—deliberate and deep, the kind of breaths you make when you’re working real hard to keep them that way.

Grady lay awake a long time listening to those breaths, his eyes fixed on the sky. He didn’t let himself go to sleep until he heard Cole’s breathing shift to the quiet, even breaths that meant he was finally asleep.