Turning to see Gabe there, Galen nodded yes and tried to focus.
“Sure, what do you need?”
Galen had to fight to keep his attention focused on what Gabe was saying, something about the riding lessons in the morning, that the three horses he’d need had been selected and would be haltered and tied in the paddock, and that if Galen needed help with the lessons, one of the team leads could step up to make sure things didn’t get out of hand?—
“Or we could call Zeke down here,” said Gabe, startling Galen out of his attempt to see around Gabe’s shoulders at what Bede was doing.
“What?” Galen asked.
It turned out that Zeke,theZeke, was on tap to become a team lead in the coming weeks. Which would have bothered Galen a whole lot more if his whole being wasn’t zeroed in on Bede. Who, evidently, had won the raffle to be the person to select the first movie of the evening. Gordy won the raffle to select the second movie, but all Galen could do was wonder which movie Bede would pick.
Previous movie nights had produced very prison-centric movies that had been more grim than Galen cared for. All the parolees had enjoyed them, however, and would hardly be interested in Galen’s taste.
Both Bede and Gordy came over, DVDs in hand, to give them to Gabe to hold until after dinner.
“Oh,The Sting,” said Gabe. “That’s a good one, Bede. And yes, Gordy,Rocketmanis a good choice, too. I’ll keep them safe.”
Before Bede went to get in line for the buffet, he shared a wink with Galen as if to say,I picked it out because I thought you’d like it. Which was funny and strange at the same time because, while he’d been sick, Galen’s dad had often mentionedThe Stingand that he and Galen should watch it together sometime.
Earl Parnell had passed away too quickly for that to happen, and now Bede unwittingly had brought all kinds of emotions to bear on Galen’s heart. What would Bede say if Galen told him about that part of his past?
“I can manage,” said Galen, his voice coming out faint as he watched Gabe stack the two DVDs on the table by the tent’s opening. “I don’t think we need Zeke, but I’ll let you know if we do.”
He did not want Zeke there for all kinds of reasons, not least of which was Galen’s tragic, semi-desperate, and totally failed flirtation with Zeke.
It wasn’t even that Zeke, the far better horseman no matter how you looked at it, would do a better job than Galen and show him up. No, it was because something had changed for him this week.
Before, it might not have mattered, but now he felt a sense of anticipation about how his team would respond to the lessons.
He knew them as individuals now, and had a better handle on things, and wouldn’t be making assumptions. Plus, he really wanted to see what Bede would look like on horseback.
He did, he really did want to see that, but he shouldn’t be thinking this way. In spite of the fact that, as Beck had described, many in the valley were hooking up, surely it wasn’t ethical.
Feeling a bit desperate, Galen grabbed some dinner and sat next to Royce and Jonah and Beck. The lemon-herb trout, Tuscan beans, and garlic bread were amazing. The only thing missing was a nice cool beer to go with it.
Even better, when the tables were assembled for the movie, and Galen sat down at the long table in the second row, the tables now parallel to the screen, Bede suddenly plopped—there was no other word for it—right down next to him.
So. It wasn’t Galen’s fault that something warm and exciting arced between the two of them. Not his imagination, either, not when it was so bright and fizzing he could almost see it in the air.
Right before the movie started, just as the popcorn bowls were being passed around, Bede flashed him a bright-eyed smile and looked carefully away.
It was as if he knew how Galen’s heart was racing and how he was thinking about the past. About what he and his dad had shared, and all the future laid before him that he would never get to share with his dad. And even though the screen flickered with the golden handsomeness of Robert Redford, while he watched the scene of the first con job being pulled off without a hitch, Galen’s throat ached with tightness, and his eyes grew hot.
Now he was a mess, and though only the darkness knew, and the crunch of popcorn and general sounds of amusement covered the hitch in his breath, he kept still, ever so still, so Bede wouldn’t know that the tears began streaking down his cheeks.
It didn’t matter that he’d witnessed Bede crying out in the woods at midnight. Or that since Galen hadn’t told, and never would, Bede never would, either.
It was too much. Yet to get up and leave would draw more attention than he needed just then, so he kept still and let the sadness ripple through the laughter, because maybe life was just like that. A lesson he’d started learning when his dad hadfirst become sick, and which he was continuing to learn, a long painful lesson that would probably go on forever.
He’d not realized he was half-standing until he felt a warm grip on his forearm.
He looked down to see Bede, his eyes shining in the light from the screen.
“All right?” asked Bede.
His grip was light. Galen could have gotten free, jerked free, even, to express his anger at being touched. But it was the warmth, the weight of those fingers, that stayed him. Allowed him to take a deep breath and sit back down again.
“Chocolate,” Bede said now. “Peanut M&M’s and popcorn go brilliantly together. Here.”
