“Well, it’s—” Blaze paused, as if coming up with another layer to the lie. “You can do it another way, is all. Kurt didn’t like doing lumberjack stuff, so now he’s got a parole officer, and an apartment, and stuff. Checks in every week, gets his paperwork signed. Though I imagine it’s all digital now. Isn’t that how it works, Wayne?”
Wayne nodded as if preparing himself to pick up the baton of the conversation, like he and Blaze had practiced it for weeks.
“That’s right, ma’am,” said Wayne. “I’ve done it that way myself, but this is the best parole I’ve ever served, so I won’t be jumping ship anytime soon.”
“Oh.” Joanna looked at them each in turn, then she settled her shoulders, and placed her hand, quite gently, on Tom’s shoulder. “Tom, why don’t you get these folks something to drink, and then I can take Barbara Lynn out of the seat, as she’s starting to want to move a little.”
Tom leaped to do as she asked, and Gabe enjoyed his glass of freshly brewed iced tea while he watched Joanna hold her baby and fuss with the lace of her bonnet. Then he enjoyed watching easy-going Tom become just about unglued as Joanna offered to let him hold his daughter for the first time.
All three of them leaned in to watch the domesticity, Tom’s strong arms steadfastly cradling his six-month-old baby girl as if it was an energy they could absorb, as if the innocence of the baby, safe in her father’s arms, could be stamped into their collective memories, freezing the moment in its purity, forever. Then Gabe realized that if they all stared any harder, they were going to be gatecrashers at a very private party.
“Hey, fellows,” he said to Wayne and Blaze. “Those horses are coming tomorrow, so why don’t we walk the fence line before dinner to make sure everything’s all set for their arrival.”
Wayne and Blaze both looked at him like he’d just broken them out of a very powerful spell.
“I’ve signed myself up for a nap,” said Wayne. “You said we got the day off and that sounds too much like work to me.”
“That’s true,” said Gabe, thinking all of this over. They did have the day off and weren’t in any way obligated to help out at all, not even to entertain Gabe with the idea that any inch of the fence line needed a single moment of their attention. “You take that nap and we’ll see you at dinner. How about you, Blaze?”
He turned his attention as casually as he could to Blaze who was, as Gabe could plainly see, already wearing his new cowboy boots, polished to shine, a glowingly soft brown—not quite a cowboy, but ready, poised as if waiting for an adventure to begin.
All Blaze needed was to put on his new straw cowboy hat and he’d create an outline that’d be damn difficult for Gabe to ignore. And Blaze was already pretty un-ignorable.
“Sure, boss,” said Blaze, his voice as soft as when he’d been speaking to Joanna. “I’ll get my new hat.”
“I’ll get mine,” said Gabe. “Meet you on the other side of those trees, by the fire pit.”
They could have walked together to get their hats, stopping first at Gabe’s tent and then Blaze’s, but then Gabe wouldn’t have a handful of minutes to himself to pull himself together and ask what the hell he thought he was doing. It was nothing to spend time with one of his team, or at least it hadn’t been. What was the difference now that set his heart to racing?
He knew the answer to that and if he couldn’t admit it to himself, he’d be lying, just as Blaze had been lying to Joanna.
Layer by layer, yard by yard, his attention had gone to Blaze from the very beginning. Now, since he’d seen the image of Blaze looking at himself in the mirror the day before, it was as if he’d just discovered a new version of himself. He could hardly look away, not even when Blaze had caught him looking.
Blaze hadn’t seemed overly annoyed at that moment, but Gabe had felt hot all over, nerves jumping, the back of his neck laced with sweat.
How was he supposed to do right by his team if he played favorites? He didn’t in his assignment of jobs, of that he’d been most careful. But, as he waited by the fire pit, his hat in his hand, his fingers sweaty on the brim, he now was able to time to spend with Blaze alone.
Under the shining sun, afternoon strong, bold as brass, there wasn’t much he would do about it, except look. And then look some more. And maybe discover whether what he’d been imagining in his mind’s eye was even the least bit true.
“Here I am, boss.”
Gabe turned to see Blaze running up to him, hat in place, casting his eyes in shadows that made Gabe want to pull him close and find out what secrets those eyes hid. Blaze had pulled out his shirttails and unbuttoned a few of the bottom so his shirttails furled behind him, and the strong draw of his neck pushed at his white cotton t-shirt.
It was a hot day, growing hotter, so Blaze was folding up his shirtsleeves, lumpy rolls that made Gabe want to push away Blaze’s hands and redo the folds himself. Within a heartbeat, he was unable to stop from doing that very thing.
“Here,” he said, trying to be gruff, as if that would cover the intimacy he’d just created by tugging on Blaze’s wrist and pulling him close. Quickly, he unfolded the length of both of Blaze’s sleeves.
Blaze, like a small obedient child, stood patiently as Gabe did this. His mouth quirked into a bit of a smile, less flirty and more knowing, as if he realized what Gabe was doing and why Gabe couldn’t help himself.
Ignoring this, Gabe folded the sleeve all the way up, as far as it would go, then folded the end of each sleeve over again, leaving a neat edge to the fold that would be hard pressed to come undone. Then, thinking about it, Gabe shook his head.
“It’s going to be sunny,” he said. “Better to have them down and avoid sunburn.”
With a bark of a laugh, Blaze started unfolding his sleeves, and got to one before Gabe did the other, not buttoning the cuffs, letting them linger about his wrists as though diabolically encouraging Gabe to stare even more than he already was.
“Let’s head out along the lake,” said Gabe, settling his hat on his head.
He tried to imagine why he thought this would be a good idea. They’d be alone together in the bright sunshine, walking through the high grasses while looking at the fence line, which was just waiting for horses to be put inside of it.
