Page 35 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight

D

riving to the warehouses took about three hours. It made sense to cut through the town, place the order, go back into town and have lunch, then head back out again. But Grady could actually sense Cole hyperventilating as they approached the turnoff that’d take them that way.

Grady accelerated and drove the old cattle trail, adding a good thirty minutes to the drive, approaching the warehouses from the back. As the town sign whipped by them, Cole blew out a shaky breath.

“Thanks,” he said after a while.

Grady grunted. He sure as hell didn’t know what the kid had against town, but he knew spooked when he saw it, and this was spooked.

Once they got to the warehouses, and some city boys Grady never saw before met them at the front and went through the process for ordering, Cole settled down.

He took a clipboard and went around making suggestions, and Grady adjusted things here and there but mostly left him to it.

Kid had a good eye for the whole thing and only ever insisted when it came to feed for the horses.

Grady reckoned penning them and using the cheaper feed was the better option.

Cole said it was much better to let them out to feed and top them up with good stuff.

And well, that’d work too, cost the same, and, as Cole put it, “Besides, they get ridden enough, they won’t get fat. ”

Grady shrugged and acquiesced.

The city boys took the order and said it’d be a few hours.

They left the trailer, and Grady walked with Cole back to the truck, the winter sky a clear, frigid blue above them.

They got in and Grady spun them out and back onto the main road.

Cole looked around with a raised eyebrow when Grady headed in the opposite direction from town.

Grady hadn’t been to this spot since he was a boy and he went with his granddaddy to cart water before their town got a pump, but he hoped it was still the same.

He drove off the main road, down a dirt track past the pump, and kept going until the river came into view in front of them. A secluded spot with lush trees and old picnic tables flanked the wider part of the water.

“Wow,” Cole said.

“Yep,” Grady said and parked. “Used to come here with my granddaddy.”

“I never knew this was here.” Cole got out and stood with his hand resting on the door, looking around.

Grady grabbed the backpack and the thermos of coffee and got out. It was cool, but warm in the sun, the picnic table dappled in light, birds all around singing and screeching.

Grady’s boots crunched in the gravel as he went over to the table. He got out their sandwiches and found some biscuits Cole must’ve put in there.

“Shame we can’t go swimmin’,” Cole said as he sat.

“Probably can.” Grady sat across from him and handed over a sandwich. “Just freeze your balls off. It’s deeper than it looks.”

Cole straddled the bench, slouched, and unwrapped his sandwich, gaze fixed on the water rushing in and curling in the wider part before rushing on down the river.

Grady watched those brooding eyes staring out, the quiet way he chewed his food, the thoughtfulness settling on his shoulders in a way Grady was getting used to.

He turned to look out and see what might’ve changed since he last came here.

Not a whole lot. The water was lower than it used to be, and the trees might’ve gotten older and smaller, but then maybe he’d just gotten bigger.

“I reckon it was always stupid that the farm was gonna go to Chris,” Cole said.

Grady looked at him, Cole was still studying the water.

“He’s the eldest,” Grady said.

“But he weren’t the best fit.”

Grady thought about Chris in the year above him at school; he’d been serious like Cole, but from what Grady could remember, not in the thoughtful way.

Just in the serious way. Like he thought he was important, and he carried the weight of that without having any real weight to carry.

Grady never got a bad vibe from him, but then, he never really paid him much attention.

“Neither was Jack or Tommy or Kyle or Danny. And Carter…” Cole snorted. “Fuckin’ forget about it.”

Cole finished his sandwich, his mind far away, his face set in bitter lines. And that explained who JP had been referring to—Carter, his brother, nearest to him in age by the sounds of it. And the boy had been back here looking for him.

“I was the best for it, and they all woulda thought it was a joke if I’da even said it,” Cole finished.

Grady thought about it. He didn’t know the Cole boys very well, reckoned he wouldn’t even been able to name them all laid out like that, but he did know this Cole. And Cole would’ve made one hell of a landholder.

“Just the way of it, I guess.”

“You’re lucky,” Cole turned to face him. “Bein’ the only kid.”

Grady shrugged. “Reckon my mama would disagree.”

Cole raised an eyebrow. Grady was always impressed when he did that, got the one up in a high arch and looked all serious and clever.

“She never wanted this for me,” Grady said. He’d never talked about it, never given it much thought, either. “She always said I woulda been better off if I had a choice.”

“What do you think?”

Grady shrugged again. “I never thought about it. Daddy trained me for it, and that was that.”

“Do you like it?”

“Like what?”

“Workin’ the land.”

Grady poured a coffee, slid it to Cole and poured his own.

“Yeah,” he said slowly after a while. “I reckon I do.”

Cole nodded like that was the right answer. Grady smiled at him.

“Could always get your own place,” Grady said.

Cole snorted. “Yeah, with all my millions.”

Grady kept on smiling. “Ain’t done yet, son.”

Cole laughed. “You’re a real riot.”

They lapsed into silence, and the birds and the rush of water filled it.

Cole drained his coffee and got up. He made his way down to the river. His lithe body cut a fine gait as he moved, his hair past his shoulders now and catching the breeze, the jet-black strands whipping to part and reveal his pale neck.

“You comin’?” Cole glanced over his shoulder at Grady as he said it, a serious look on his face. But the invitation in his eyes was a lot like the invitations Grady was used to getting in town.

Grady drank the last of his coffee and followed.

Cole leaned back against the trunk of the biggest tree so they were sheltered from the road and pulled Grady in by his belt.

Grady braced his hand on the bark by Cole’s head and leaned down to kiss him.

Cole kissed him back, lazy and slow. He tugged Grady closer until they were pressed together from the hip.

Grady maneuvered so his thigh was between Cole’s legs and rubbed him through the fabric.

Cole started to grind into Grady’s thigh, those little moans and gasps in Grady’s mouth dialing him right up.

Cole pulled back. He slid his hands down Grady’s shirt, reached farther down and unfastened his pants, gaze fixed on his task.

Grady grabbed him by the wrist. Cole looked up.

Grady searched his expression—Cole looked serious, aroused, sure of himself.

Grady let him go. Cole held Grady’s gaze for a moment more before he was dropping to his knees.

He got Grady’s dick out and took him between his lips.

He encouraged Grady to fuck his mouth with his hands on his ass.

Grady got to it. He relished that wet heat, the perfect suction, and he let himself draw it out, even though he was ready to come from simply grinding.

But he held himself on the precipice and lost himself in the feel of Cole sucking him off, in the way Cole had learned everything he liked and brought to the task the same focused intent he seemed to bring to everything.

When Grady came, it was almost a surprise. Cole moaned as he finished him off. He tried to clean him up, but Grady yanked him to his feet and dropped to his knees. He pressed Cole’s hips against the tree, got his dick out, and sucked him off like he had something to prove.

Cole did not last long. His cut-off gasps and moans, his hands gripping Grady’s hair, his come sliding down Grady’s throat was a blur.

Grady tucked him back into his pants, then himself, and left their pants unfastened in his haste to stand again. He slid his hand up into Cole’s hair and huffed a smile-laugh into his mouth as he kissed him. He glimpsed Cole’s eyes crinkle as he caught his breath and kissed him back.