“A word, Clay,” said Leland as he handed the clipboard back to Maddy. “In my office, if you would.”
There was no way Clay was going to say no to the boss who was, and had been from the very beginning, his friend and wise advisor. From the start of their relationship, openness and honesty had been a two-way street, only now, perhaps for the first time, as Clay stood in the doorway to Leland’s office, watching Leland sit and clasp his hands over his belly, he felt a bit tongue tied.
“So,” said Leland in the conversational tone he used when he wanted to get straight to the point but, perhaps, also wanted to make the fellow on the other end of the line wiggle a little before confessing to everything on the planet. “I take it Saturday night was a success?”
“Sure was, boss,” said Clay, smiling to make his dimples show.
Leland was unmoved by the romance of Clay’s smile, his dimples, or anything else. But then, he never had been. Only curly-haired Jamie had shifted Leland from his I’ll-be-forever-alone stance on life, and Clay wished them both all the best.
“And I take it there was an altercation, though whether it was before or after last call is another issue.”
“Way before last call, boss,” said Clay hurriedly, for while he sometimes got sloshed, he was never an embarrassment to the ranch and always would get a ride home, usually from Levi or Brody. “I’m not that kind of guy.”
Leland looked at his felt cowboy hat, now resting on its wooden hook right above Leland’s laptop. That Leland wanted to toss it in his hands while thinking was obvious, but that he didn’t showed Clay how serious Leland was about the as-yet unremarked-upon marks on Clay’s face.
“Take a seat, Clay.”
Clay sighed as he saw Leland’s broad gesture to the other chair in the office, a spindle backed wooden chair that creaked as he sat down in it. True to Leland’s nature, he furnished the ranch with the best that could be afforded while his own office got the leftovers.
“Care to tell me what brought you to this state?” asked Leland. “That eye has got to hurt.”
“It’s going down some,” said Clay. “I put ice on it last night.”
“All of last night, it looks like, from the circles beneath your eyes.”
The expression on Leland’s face was one of concern, of kindness. Clay swallowed hard, absorbing the tenderness coming from Leland, kicking himself at the same time for causing Leland any worry at all.
“Did you sleep any?” asked Leland.
“No, not really,” said Clay. “Look, I’m sorry. It was just Eddie Piggot was—”
“Told you not to mess with him,” said Leland. “If you’re going to go to the Rusty Nail, then you need to be circumspect about it and not go off half cocked when he pisses you off.”
“I was, honest,” said Clay, and when Leland leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, Clay’s body responded in echo.
“So what happened?”
“The swinging doors to the kitchen, right?”
Leland nodded.
“I saw him smacking some kid around in the kitchen, some young kid. Eddie was hitting him hard. Hard enough to draw blood.”
Leland’s eyes narrowed, fury smoking from his eyes.
“Then he said I had a fat ass and then he called the ranch a stupid fake pony farm.”
There was a smile on Leland’s mouth, even as he tried to look stern about it. With a sigh, he straightened in his wooden desk chair and tipped his head back to look at the ceiling before returning his attention to Clay.
“You have a nice ass,” said Leland, the smile moving from his eyes to his mouth. “As you must know.”
Clay nodded. “Told him it was Grade A Prime.”
With a bark of laughter that he perhaps regretted a moment later, Leland’s face grew serious.
“He can say all he wants about the ranch,” said Leland. “It’s just talk and always will be.”
“I punched him over the kid, mostly,” said Clay, as earnestly as he could. “The rest of it came after, and that’s when he clocked me.”
