He paused there, enjoying the slightly astonished expression on Zeke’s face, as if he’d never expected that anyone would make a bear scare for him. And, as well, Cal enjoyed the warm feel of Zeke’s strong wrist in his hands and didn’t want to let go.
“Should I take this off when I shower?” asked Cal, stroking the bracelet, letting his touch linger. “It’s made of leather. It’ll melt if I don’t.”
“No,” said Zeke. He looked down and smoothed the bracelet on his strong wrist, pulling his hand away. Then he looked at Cal. “When it melts, we send the remains to the river fairies and make another.”
“River fairies,” said Cal, unsure whether Zeke was joking or not.
“They’re good fairies. They like trinkets,” said Zeke, utterly solemn. Then he smiled, green eyes sparkling. “My grandma taught me about the fairies,” he said. “Far be it from me to call her a liar.”
“Far be it from me, too,” said Cal, a little breathless to have that smile aimed at him. “But there’s not enough to make one for Bede.”
“Maybe another time.” Zeke slapped his thighs gently and stood up, looming over Cal once more. “Let’s go get some lunch. What do you say?”
“Yeah.”
The trouble with having one-on-one time with Zeke when there was no work to do, no tasks to complete, was that when they returned to work on Monday, it was as if the moment had never happened. Sure, Zeke wore his bracelet and Cal wore his, but it wasn’t like they meant anything. Did it?
Chapter 15
Cal
Cal’s work increased in terms of the second week. Every morning, after the horses had been taken care of and after breakfast, he’d help Zeke groom and saddle around half a dozen horses. Then the parolees would file in to the paddock, bringing with them various levels of focus and attitude.
Cal couldn’t be sure how well the riding lessons went that week, or even how he’d kept up with Zeke’s tireless energy.
It wasn’t that the parolees were cruel to the horses, more that they were careless and easily distracted. They didn’t properly tie the reins or lead to the paddock fence. They moved too quickly, laughed too loudly.
They also didn’t listen to Zeke’s patient instructions when he’d asked the class to circle their horse to the left or right, or to trot or canter.
Never once did Zeke lose his patience, though. When things got out of hand, Cal could see Zeke tug on his shirtsleeve, and then realized that Zeke was tugging on the bear scare, as if touching the circle of leather helped him keep his patience.
“Lean to the left, Owen, and don’t kick like that. All you need to do is tap your horse’s sides with your heels.”
The amount of running Cal did that week, trotting across the paddock to untangle reins or adjust a stirrup, made his legs sore.
One time, when Zeke was busy showing Toby how to properly hold the reins to his horse, Cal saw Jonah and Bede messing around, making their horses go in small circles around each other. He got up the guts to tell them to stop.
“You guys have to stop messing around,” he said, knowing his courage to speak up came from the fact that Zeke would approve of what he was doing. “If you keep being mean to the horses, you’ll be banned from lessons.”
To his surprise, Jonah and Bede stopped. Sure, they each gave him the finger, and snarled in his direction, but they stopped pulling on the reins of their horses, and returned to calming walking around the paddock until Zeke was ready to carry on the lesson.
Cal was sure that Zeke had not noticed, but Zeke had. The way Zeke tapped his finger to the brim of his cowboy hat was all the praise Cal needed.
In the afternoon, after the lessons were over, Zeke would ask Cal if he’d like a private lesson.
Cal never said no to extra time with Zeke, even though the hour of riding every day made him soreallover, and he could barely stumble to take a shower before dinner.
On Friday, Zeke dismissed the lessons early and pulled Cal aside.
“What’s up?” asked Cal, enjoying the quiet of the paddock where it was just the two of them, wiping down tack, and giving green-haltered horses their treats.
“It’s your two-week anniversary,” said Zeke.
“What does that mean?” asked Cal.
“At the end of two weeks, we celebrate your participation in the program,” said Zeke, his smile warm. “You’ve worked hard and deserve a treat.”
Looking at that smile, directed solely at him, felt like a dream. He was hot all over and wondered how he’d ever gotten to this point. And what he’d done to deserve it.
