Brody and Quint looked at each other. In Brody’s eyes wasmaybe,and in Quint’s eyes washell, no.
Gabe added, “It’d do them a world of good, at this point, to interact with someone besides me.” Still no answer, so he tried again. “The grub is really good, and we eat in a mess tent, with a view of the pine trees where the breeze comes through, so it’s just like eating out of doors. It’s nice.”
Brody shrugged and slouched down when Quint gave a silent nod, and Brody followed suit, nodding with a smile.
“We’ll ride back, get cleaned up, and then come back to the valley,” said Quint.
“I’ll have Blaze drive the truck up so he can carry me back,” said Gabe, not hiding his smile. “Thanks, I appreciate this.”
Logistics for the evening solved, Gabe rode over to the gate, and nodded at Blaze, who turned off the power, and opened the gate for them to ride through, as easily as if he’d practiced at it for weeks. Then he reconnected the fence, and turned it on, turning to watch as Quint and Brody rode directly through the camp, on their way to the ranch.
“I’ve invited them to dinner, and so they’re going to clean up,” said Gabe, before Blaze could voice the question that was clear on his face. “If you could follow me in the truck and bring me back down so I could shower as well, I’d appreciate it.”
It seemed natural to pose this as a question rather than an order, and if anyone had told Gabe a week ago that was how it would go, he wouldn’t have believed him.
The responding pleasure on Blaze’s face at the small errand had Gabe wondering whether it was the idea of having company for dinner or spending ten minutes in the truck with him that had created the pleasure. He didn’t know. The only way to go was forward, doing the best he could.
“Where’s Wayne?” he asked as he rode up the slope, going slow, as they made their way to the truck.
“Uh.” Blaze stopped, his hand on the door handle of the truck. “I think he’s with Tom. They’re marking stumps.”
Blaze looked like he wanted to say more, but wasn’t going to let himself.
“I’ll just follow you up the switchbacks, right?” asked Blaze. He opened the door, pausing, as though waiting for Gabe’s nod.
When Blaze was in the truck, Gabe started off at a steady walk. Going through camp on horseback gave him a sense of pleasure to see the orderliness of it, the expansion of cleared areas between the trees, how it was coming along. The horse, a sweet mare, wanted to canter a bit, so he let her and then made her walk up the switchbacks, which were too steep for more speed than that.
At the top of the hill where the pine trees cleared to open grassland, windy with an evening breeze, he heard the truck growling low behind him. Now he could let the mare canter, though he walked her through the guest ranch, all the way up to the barn.
Quint and Brody had already groomed their horses and stabled them, so Gabe hurried, pleased to hear the truck pull up, even more pleased to see Blaze, a little wide-eyed, coming into the barn amidst the end-of-day bustle where the ranch hands and cowboys and guests were all doing the same thing—grooming, brushing, and getting ready to settle down to their dinners.
Blaze came up to the mare, already tied to a post, just as Gabe was lifting the saddle from her back.
“Anything I can do?” asked Blaze, though it was obvious by the way he looked at the mare that he had very little experience around horses.
“Give her nose a pet and say hello first,” said Gabe, reaching behind him for a body brush. “Then you help me with this. You ever groom a horse before?”
Shaking his head, Blaze came closer, reaching out a tentative hand to the mare’s nose, pulling it back when she huffed at him.
“Take this,” said Gabe. He handed Blaze the body brush and grabbed a hoof pick. “Just start brushing her in the direction of her coat. Go slow. Be gentle. She’s not going to hurt you.”
Working this close with Blaze, enfolded in the scents of the barn, of warm horse and cool, crisp hay, was gratifying in a way he’d not expected. Typically, when he worked in the barn, he was a bit off by himself, and maybe the other ranch hands considered him a loner. But as Blaze brushed the horse while Gabe tended to the mare’s hooves, they were building a small world that contained just the two of them.
He showed Blaze how to comb out a mane and a tail with long, slow strokes, gently, not pulling any more than he had to. How to wipe traces of sweat away with a chamois cloth. How to oil hooves.
“We’ll put her in her halter and then take her to the holding pasture,” said Gabe. “There’s water and hay there for her, and later someone will decide whether she goes in the barn, or to the outer pastures.”
“Got it.”
Gabe turned his head as he latched the gate shut behind the mare and watched her, in her green halter, amble off to the rest of the horses, who were chomping down on hay. Blaze’s eyes were on Gabe, his attention focused, rising on his toes in that way he had, as if in anticipation of something quite special.
But there was nothing special, only the traces of cleaning up after a horse just inside the wide open double doors of the barn. Only ranch hands rushing around to tend to final tasks before they were let go for their dinners. Only the dust rising in the slight breeze outside the barn. Only this.
“Everything all right?” asked Gabe. He wasn’t as uncertain of Blaze’s state as he pretended to be. It was only that he knew, really, that the energy between him and Blaze was an undefined spark, looking for a place to alight. Sometimes unexpected sparks could be dangerous. Other times, they could light up the darkest night.
“Yeah.” Blaze shook his head at the cloth Gabe offered him to wipe his hands, then, perhaps rethinking it, took the cloth, wiped his hands, and gave it back to Gabe. “I’m just not used to—” He paused. “In prison, people don’t work like this, all happy and shit. So many together, I mean. All at once.”
Gabe could not imagine what it would be like to work among grumpy criminals who only longed to be free so they could go where they wanted, but he could see in Blaze’s eyes that it was an adjustment. So he said, “Let’s go back to the valley, get cleaned up, and have some dinner. Sound good?”
