“Yes, or stealing them,” said Galen, laughing again. “Yeah, we never could find any online. Maybe I’ll hit up the diner in Chugwater some day and ask them to sell me a set of four.”
There was no-one in the coffee shop who came around to offer Galen a warmup, but he finished his white mocha just the same, then gathered his team, and led them to the truck.
“Are we going to pick up those hand pumps next?” asked Owen as they all piled in, which was a surprise, as usually Toby seemed to be the mouthpiece of the pair.
“Yes, we are,” said Galen. “Then we can break for lunch and spray this afternoon. And it’s movie night tonight. Does that sound good?”
He did not have to ask for their permission or approval, but just as he’d been able to involve them in the research about what to do with the dug-up knapweed, he realized that getting their feedback engaged their attention and energy. And already the general spirit of the team seemed to be on the rise.
They drove to the ranch in the ever-growing heat, jacked up on caffeine, and laughing as they found bits of knapweed gnarled into the cotton of their shirts, the hems of their blue jeans.
At the ranch, they picked up the pumps from the supply shed, and it was a spray-fest that afternoon in the valley, as his team took turns spraying the ground and each other. They would all need showers before dinner, but what would it hurt, as the spray was only vinegar, water, and liquid Castile soap.
It was toward the end of the afternoon, when he was just about to call a halt to work, that Galen’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it out to view a text message from Maddy that his books from Amazon were due to arrive later that day, and did he want to pick them up or did he want someone to bring them down to the valley?
Galen hadn’t recalled clicking the box for overnight shipping, but maybe he had. Didn’t matter. The main question that popped up in his mind, given his recent trend of involving members of his team, was whether he should put the books away himself, or ask Bede to do it. After all, the books had been selected by Bede.
He texted her back, saying he’d pick them up before dinner, and if she needed to close up early to just leave them on the front porch of her office.
Putting his phone back in his pocket, he told himself he wasn’t making a special effort just so he could see the pleased surprise on Bede’s face, except that was a bald faced lie. He couldn’t wait for Bede to get the books.
Chapter 15
Bede
Maybe Bede should not have taken over corralling Toby and Owen, even if Galen had seemed a little in over his head. But, if there was anything Bede knew how to do, it was control a pack of unruly criminals, ready to shoot first and not give a fuck after.
And even if that pack consisted of only two somewhat lame and not very effective thieves, at least it gave him something to do. Something to think about other than his own woes, though maybe he’d strong-armed them too hard, harder than he should have.
He’d already been thinking about not ordering Toby and Owen around anymore when Galen had stepped up to him and jabbed him in the chest with a stern finger and told him to back off. Like he wasn’t afraid of Bedeat all.
The quarrel had continued to get out of hand when Bede had accidentally clipped Galen in the nose.
He’d fully expected that would get him kicked out of the program, and he would regret that, because he was starting to fall in love with the valley and all of its moods.
Except Galen had just said,Oh, for fuck’s sake,just as his nose began to bleed in earnest. Tipping his head back, clampinghis nose with his hand as he squinted up at the sun, was just about more than Bede could resist.
Sure, with one of his own men, he had always been stern.Walk it off. Bleed somewhere else.
But with Galen, Bede had gathered ice and clasped it to the back of Galen’s neck, almost without thought. Made him rinse and spit. Wiped his face with the cloth that Owen had raced to get, after dampening it first.
Then, hunkered down at Galen’s side, Bede had dispensed sage wisdom, when all the while he wanted to run and fetch a pillow so Galen could lie in the shade and just rest. Wait till his nosebleed had stopped.
Galen would have a hell of a headache come morning, but when Bede had explained he’d not meant to do it, Galen had understood.
I know,he’d said. And then he’d told Bede he was going to put on a clean shirt and that he’d meet Bede in the mess tent.
Once there, Galen had not only failed to mention their tussle from the night before, but when Gabe asked Galen about his nose, Galen out and out lied. He said that he’d lost his grip and that a shovel had whacked him in the face.
Then, in the afternoon, Galen had surpassed himself because instead of telling Toby and Owen what to do, making them feel safe the way Bede would have done, Galen had turned it around.
It happened when Toby raised the question about what they were going to do with the knapweed. Galen had said,That’s a good question, Toby, when surely, surely, he already knew the answer.
Then he’d offered up his own laptop so they could research the best answer.
Back in the day, Bede had owned a top of the line MacBook Pro, and had created dozens of spreadsheets to help him keep track of shipments and the weights of cocaine bundles, and therent on the meth house in a dodgy part of Denver, and utility payments that must never go unpaid, lest drugs stored in a warehouse might be spoiled by heat or cold.
