Leland didn’t seem gleeful to destroy the nest, but instead showed Jamie how to soak it with kerosene and then smack it to the ground, where he lit it on fire, killing all the wasps. It was gross, but as Leland stomped out the flames, he sent Jamie to the supply shed to fetch a metal trash can so they could scoop up the remains and dispose of it.
“I’ll assign some hands to clean the area along the wood where the nest was and to paint this side of the barn.” Settling his hat on his head, he nodded at Jamie. Then the cell phone in his pocket rang, and he answered it. When he was done with the call, he looked at Jamie. “I’ve got to sign some paperwork for Bill,” he said. “Can you wait for me at the barn?”
“Sure,” Jamie said, pleased that they weren’t done for the day.
Leland walked down the road to the office, and Jamie headed back up to the barn. There, he helped take care of tack by rubbing neatsfoot oil on the saddles and bridles that weren’t being used that day. When someone asked if he could help groom horses after the trail ride, he shook his head.
“I’m helping Leland deliver salt blocks,” he said, puffing his chest out a little. “If we get back in time, I’ll help.” That’s what Leland would have said, he was sure of it. The response he got to that statement was a pair of raised eyebrows, and he smiled.
When Leland showed up in the barn, he was carrying a small ice chest, which he held out to Jamie.
“Can you carry that?” he asked.
Jamie took it. He hefted it in his hands and nodded, pleased with the task.
“What’s in this?” he asked as he hurried to keep up with Leland as they walked to the truck.
“Lunch and snacks and cold water,” he said. “It’s important to keep hydrated, remember that.”
“Lunch?” Jamie asked, hope rising in his chest.
“Well, we’re running behind, and those salt blocks aren’t getting any younger,” Leland said with a small laugh. “By the time we get back, we’ll have missed lunch at the dining hall.”
Leland strapped the ice chest next to the rows of salt blocks in the truck bed of a new-looking F150 Ford that had four doors and shiny black tires. Jamie got in the passenger side and inhaled the new car smell as he buckled himself in. It was an enormous truck and one of the nicest he’d ever been in.
Leland got in with his long legs, and they placed their straw hats on top of each other in the seat between them, and Leland smiled at Jamie as he started the truck’s engine. Then he drove along the dirt road that led up the hillside to the gate, where Jamie got out and opened and shut it again behind them.
There wasn’t any conversation between them as they drove, but it was nice to look at the wide open sky and to feel the sun on his skin when he opened the window and rested his elbow on the ledge. It was nice to be alone with Leland like this, in the silence, a cool breeze coming down from the low mountains.
The truck bumped from time to time, but the road was well maintained, as everything on the ranch seemed to be. The sky went on forever, and the tall green grasses swayed in the low wind. Everything smelled open and wild, and he took a huge lungful of air.
“Nice, huh?” asked Leland. “The views are amazing out here.”
Jamie looked at Leland, narrowing his focus to the cab of the truck, and realized how alone they were together. Just Jamie and Leland driving along. Two regular guys on a job. Two cowboys delivering salt blocks.
Jamie had new boots on his feet, a decent breakfast in his belly, and he was happier than he could remember being in a good long while. Leland had been so nice about the tip money. He’d seemed to understand about Maddy bringing him the policy papers so late. And now he was giving Jamie a smile that reflected in his grey-blue eyes.
“Yes,” Jamie said, not adding that while the views were amazing and prettier than anyplace he’d ever been, the view inside the cab was pretty nice, too. With his tanned jaw, Leland was handsome, and the sleeves of his plaid cotton shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing the strong cords of his forearms.
“There’s a place up here we can stop and have a drink of water.” Leland pointed ahead of him with one finger, keeping both hands on the wheel.
They’d only been driving about an hour, and it seemed a luxury to stop. But when when Leland parked, and they got out, Jamie understood why.
The truck was alongside some rocks in a little rough-edged parking lot out in the middle of nowhere. Beyond the rocks, the land sloped away and rolled out like a carpet of green and gold and brown and grey, all drenched in sunlight and disappearing to the far blue horizon.
Jamie held his breath as he looked at it, as it was more land with nothing on it than he’d ever seen. Farthingdale Ranch was more than he ever thought it could be, and he closed his eyes and made a wish that it could last, that they could stay there forever.
“Here’s some water,” said Leland, suddenly beside him, holding out a plastic bottle.
Taking the bottle, Jamie unscrewed it and took a nice, long drink while the wind danced around him, pushing his sun-warmed hair against his face. Leland didn’t have his hat on either, and Jamie liked the way his hair turned to gold, and how blue his eyes were as he looked at him.
“Thanks,” Jamie said, gesturing to the view. “I think I could get lost out here, if I was on my own.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Leland took a drink and then pointed at the landscape. “If you look, the mountains run north to south. You can always tell directions on the high plains if you remember that.”
He talked for a bit about the prairie and the mountains, how big the ranch was, how it abutted BLM land. How the horses were pastured in the winter and in the summer. How the ranch provided jobs. How much Farthing had grown over the years.
All the while, Jamie looked at him, drinking it in, everything he had to teach him. Which was what he was doing, teaching him, though why he seemed to enjoy it so much, Jamie had no idea.
