“Can do,” said Brody, as he saw which way the wind was blowing. Then he turned to look at Jamie on his left. “We keep it real simple around here. You’ll get a gentle horse and start learning little by little.”
“Sounds good,” said Jamie, and his smile was bright.
His eyes sparkled as he looked across the table at Leland, as though he’d made a miracle happen. Well, the miracle would be Leland not giving into the expression of hope that seemed to cover Jamie all over. Hope for what? For them to hook up? For Leland to dig out his old paperback of cowboy poetry and read it to Jamie under the moonlight?
No. That’s not what he was going to do. He was going to finish his dinner and then help Maddy gather some hands to pull hay bales close to the fire pit so Bill could tell ghost stories and lead the singalong, that’s what he was going to do. Then he was going to bed, byhimself, and hope that by morning he’d have more sense than he did right that minute.
“Will you come watch me ride, Leland?” asked Jamie, his voice sweet and hopeful.
Brody and Quint gave Leland the side eye, both of them, with expressions a little knowing and a little surprised. The three of them had worked an entire season together, and they knew Leland never went anywhere with any member of staff. Especially not with someone as new and as green as Jamie so obviously was. But nowhere on their faces did Leland see even the remotest amount of recrimination or anything like it. Not even when Quint looked at him and made that face, the one he did when he had opinions but wasn’t going to express them.
“Sure,” Leland said, and what else could he have said with Jamie looking at him like that, like Leland’s attention was his present on Christmas morning.
Leland couldn’t lead Jamie on like this. Couldn’t lead himself on like this. It was foolish, and it was cruel. He needed to put a stop to it, and he would. First thing in the morning.
“Better get at it,” he said as he grabbed his tray and stood up. He pushed in his chair with his leg, Jamie’s eyes on him the whole while. “See you at the campfire.”
And with a nod, he was off to find the coldest setting on his shower.
21
Jamie
When Leland left like that, all sudden and distant, Jamie was sure it was something he had done. Like when they’d been painting, and he’d taken his shirt off to get cool, Leland’s eyes had been on him the whole time. They had been working together, and it had been great, just the two of them in the middle of nowhere, with the sky all to themselves. Jamie had echoed Leland’s movements, painted the way he painted, took breaks when he took breaks.
And then Leland took his shirt off, leaving Jamie hard in his jeans. Not just because Leland was good looking and half naked with a trail of dark gold hair leading from his bellybutton to the brass button on his jeans, no. And not just because he had shoulders that went on for miles and muscles that covered every inch of him and long arms corded with muscle and vein.
No, more, it was him getting half naked with Jamie like he trusted him enough to do that. He had been naked to the skin, nary a pearl-snap button in sight, unabashed, the tan on his shoulders darkened by freckles like he’d taken his shirt off at some point, at many points, and forgotten to put it back on.
When Leland had looked at Jamie, he’d blushed, sweet and rosy. Not that he’d been shy, or ashamed, at least it didn’t seem that way to Jamie. More, that he’d been flustered.
Jamie had seen Leland was hard when he adjusted himself in his jeans with a quick hand. But he never acted on it. Never drew attention to it, and he could have so easily. Or maybe he didn’t know he could have?
Maybe Jamie needed to make sure that he did know. Or maybe he needed to mind his own business and get on with his work. This was the best job he’d ever had, and the best opportunity to take his life away from the direction it had been going, which was straight down the gutter.
Deep in his own thoughts as he finished his ribs and cornbread, he slowly realized the two men, Quint and Brody, had both cast glances his way and then looked at each other as if sharing a secret, coded message. Well, Jamie wasn’t much good at puzzles, and he was out of place. What had he been thinking. asking to sit at the cool kids’ table when he was obviously the new guy, and certainly not one of Leland’s team leads?
“Did you know him from before?” asked Quint. He had such an intense gaze that Jamie almost pulled back. “I mean, how did you get this job if you don’t know how to ride? It’s one of the first things a ranch hand needs to know how to do.”
“Um—” Jamie waved his fork as he swallowed, flinging a bit of beans around, then scrubbed at the table. “I came looking for a job and Leland said no, but then I guess he met with Bill and—”
“I see,” said Quint. “And Leland didn’t object to Bill telling him what to do?”
“You know better than that,” said Brody, slow and careful, like he’d been thinking it over this entire time. “Bill doesn’t tell Leland what to do. Bill suggests what Leland should do, and then Leland does it. It’s Bill’s ranch, after all.”
“I know, but—” said Quint. He leaned forward and looked at Brody sitting across from him. “We’ve got policies in place for a reason, so I don’t see why Leland wouldn’t—”
“It’s because he’s sweet on him, that’s why.” Brody took a long swig of his iced tea and smiled at Jamie. “He’s sweet on you, for sure,” he said. “I’ve never seen him so flustered.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Quint, and he frowned, as if only a moment ago he’d been sure of himself and now, being presented with new information, didn’t quite know anymore. “Though his cheekswerered.”
“And there you have it,” said Brody. He made a motion with his hands, as if that settled the argument, then returned to eating as if the entire conversation had never happened. Or, if it had, was of no special significance.
Jamie squirmed in his seat, horrified and delighted at the same time. He liked it that they thought Leland was sweet on him, but he didn’t like it because Leland had seemed rattled when he left the dining hall. The last thing Jamie wanted to do was cause Leland any trouble.
What he wanted, really wanted, was more of what they’d had that day and the day before, just that, the two of them together. Two men, working hard. Sharing echoed motions, sharing the pauses in between, sharing all of that beneath a blue bowl of sky.
Jamie hung his head and scrubbed at his mouth with a paper napkin and struggled to figure a way to make a hasty exit. Maybe he could find Leland and apologize, and explain what he wanted and what he didn’t want.
