“Are you warm enough?” he asked, reaching for the light stick and the lantern.
“Yeah.” Blaze’s voice was low, his eyes half-lidded as he sprawled on the cot, arms above his head, the bedsheet swirling around his hips and thighs. “And I’m ready. For you, I’m always ready.”
Gabe lit the Coleman lantern and turned it on low, which draped a golden glow over the tent. Then, burying himself in Blaze’s arms, Gabe sank onto the cot and closed his eyes.
He simply held on for a moment, absorbing Blaze’s warmth, the murmur of his heart, the scent of him, salt and warm, surrounding him. He kissed that sweet mouth and swept Blaze’s hair behind his ear, and knew he never wanted morning to come.
But morning did come, bringing with it warm sunshine, and a late breakfast of sausage and eggs, and the report Gabe forgot he was supposed to write. He grabbed his laptop and came back to the mess tent, where the cooks had laid out snacks, crackers and cheese, and cold iced tea.
As he wrote his report, at the other end of the table, he recalled how, on Saturday, though the visiting counselor had done his best to hold his team’s attention, both Blaze and Wayne had looked unenthused, and Blaze’s elbows had been on the table, and he hadn’t even pretended to smile.
Gabe added a note to his report that maybe the counseling sessions were unnecessary. Each team lead could get extra training and stand in as counselors when needed, rather than forcing the parolees to sit through an hour, maybe an hour and a half of over-forced sharing. Leland could make a decision about that, at any rate, so Gabe finished his report and sent it off with a hard slam on the Send button.
Now done with paperwork, Gabe pulled his very small, but very effective, team into a different meeting.
“Help yourselves to iced tea,” he said as he gestured them closer.
Blaze pulled the cheese and crackers closer, and Wayne even jumped up to pour Gabe a glass of iced tea.
“Here you go, boss,” he said. “But we are all out of lemons,” he added, which seemed to crack him up for some reason.
“What’s up?” asked Blaze, looking like he wanted to scoot closer to Gabe on the bench seat but was holding himself back.
“We’ve done so well, these first two weeks of the program, that Leland is treating us to a night out. At the local tavern in Farthing. So.” Gabe paused, smiling, seeing their faces, enjoying the moment. “You guys have the day off, and this afternoon you’ll need to spiff up and get ready to go to town tonight.”
“Does that include free beer?” asked Wayne.
“Yes, it does,” said Gabe and though he wanted to include a lecture about the consequences of over-drinking, as one might be apt to do when offered free libations, he restrained himself.
By now, the men on his team had heard what he had to say about taking responsibility for what they were doing, whether it was being cognizant of how much hot water they were using, and thinking of the other fellow, or demonstrating common manners by bussing their own plate and silverware. So either they’d caught on, or they never would, and one more lecture wouldn’t make a difference.
There was no real work the rest of that day, but considering new parolees were due to arrive in the next day or so, Gabe updated his map, made a list of outstanding projects, and basically caught up with paperwork while Blaze and Wayne lollygagged in the mess tent, playing cards and arguing over who was cheating and who was not. Then Gabe finished up and gave the signal that it was time to get ready for their outing.
Since they were all taking showers at the same time, Gabe could not, as he very much wanted to, share a stall with Blaze. But he could listen to the chatter over the top of the wooden walls between Wayne and Blaze, and join in with a comment of his own, and be well pleased with himself that the first two weeks had gone well.
So instead of having dinner in the mess tent, once dressed, they met in the parking lot and Gabe drove them to the tavern, telling them who used to own the cabin as they drove by it, and pointing out Iron Mountain, to the west.
“The tavern is named after John Henton, you see,” he told them. “Because that’s his cabin.”
It wasn’t very far, only a mile or so to the gate of the ranch and then a mile after that into town. Farthing wasn’t a big place, and as it was early for the normal Sunday night crowd, it was easy to find a parking spot along Second Street.
“You guys go in,” said Gabe as he pulled up and parked the truck.
“We’ll wait,” said Blaze, and so it was as a team that they entered the John Henton’s tavern.
Gabe remembered when the place was called the Rusty Nail, when the owner was good enough at what he did, but had a reputation for coming down hard on his staff. There’d been some accusations of actual abuse, but what mattered in the end was that the guy, Gabe didn’t know his name, had gotten arrested and the bar had been bought by the cook at the guest ranch and a friend of his from back East.
Now the place had a real western flair to it, with wagon wheels and cattle brands, much like the Stampede Saloon in Chugwater, but with a higher-end feel to it. The food was a bit citified for Gabe’s taste, what with salads including fresh figs with honey-balsamic vinegar drizzled over it, and onion rings made with only organic onions. But the beer was top notch, all local brews, so it was with great pleasure that Gabe told the hostess that they needed a table for three.
“You’re Gabe, right?” asked the hostess. “Maddy called. You actually have a reserved table in toward the back, and some of your party is already here.”
“Thank you,” he said as they followed her amidst the circular tables to one of the coveted bench tables along the back wall.
There, to his surprise, sat Jasper and his partner, Ellis. He’d not seen Jasper in a while, so he bent to hug him, and was hugged right back, with Ellis looking on in his typical silent way.
“Did you see?” asked Jasper. He pointed to a small folded card where someone had writtenReserved - Farthingdale Valleyin black Sharpie. “I had no idea you were one of the elite.”
“I’m not,” said Gabe. “But my team is. Jasper, you’ve met is Blaze, and this is Wayne. Guys, this is my friend Jasper and his partner, Ellis.”
