“Hand me a couple of clips,” Will broke in, wiping sweat from his eyes with his shirt sleeve.
“I really hate workin’ with these things. Staples in wood posts are easier. ‘Course, wood posts rot. I don’t know how such stupid creatures as these cattle can always manage to find the one place they can get through. Seems like—”
“Lonnie, can you shut up for five minutes?”
Lonnie grinned. He had been intent on annoying Will, and he had succeeded. Lonnie did know his brother well. “If you’d like to be rid of me, I’ll just knock off for the day.”
Will straightened. “Okay, you win. You’ll talk me to death if I don’t give in.”
Will was still trying to get his stiff legs to work by the time Lonnie had the tools and supplies stowed in the back of the truck. As far as Lonnie was concerned, cows would always be getting out and fences would always need fixing, and there was no need to get overworked about it.
Soaked with sweat and irritated at leaving a job half done, Will headed the truck toward home on the red sandy road. A quarter of a mile from the drive, they saw Ruby Dee and Sally at the mailbox, getting the mail. Lonnie reached over and tooted the horn. Shielding her eyes with her hand, Ruby Dee stood there and watched them come, her legs apart, clearly outlined by her dress.
Will had come to the conclusion that Ruby Dee never was going to put on a pair of pants. He had never seen that she had any.
“You two ladies are an awful pretty sight,” Lonnie called and went sailing out the door before Will got the truck stopped.
“You want a ride back to the house?” Will asked, but Ruby Dee shook her head.
“We’re a lot cooler out here than squashed in that truck, and the whole purpose of walkin’ down for the mail is for me and Sally to get some exercise.” She held the mail out to him. “You want to look now?”
He shook his head. “Lonnie might.” Then he drove on, careful to go slowly so as not to stir up dust.
He watched them in the rearview mirror. Lonnie took her hand once, briefly. Will didn’t know if Lonnie had let go of her hand or if Ruby Dee had drawn away. She laughed and ran a few feet, and Lonnie chased her...playing like kids. Both of them were like that, with the dog yipping around them in circles.
Then Will looked straight ahead. He felt old and shut out. He had the urge to put his hand through the dusty windshield.
From his bedroom window, Hardy watched his younger son and Ruby Dee. Lonnie was showing off, and for the space of half a minute Hardy felt a deep kinship with his son. It was painful, watching his son, who was a reminder of the man Hardy had once been...a man long dead.
Hardy swiveled the wheelchair and bumped into the bedpost. “Damn!” It seemed the wheelchair was out to kill him. Finally he got it over to the nightstand. Bending, he lifted a colorful tin. It had contained Whitman’s candies about twenty years ago.
He lifted its lid and pulled out a small black folder. He opened it and stared at the portrait inside. Jooney. She wore a coat with fur up around the neck. It had belonged to the photographer. She looked like a lady in it, despite she had only been fifteen at the time.
“Dad?”
Will’s voice startled him. He twisted around to see Will poking his head in the door.
“What’d ya want?”
“I was just checkin’ to see if you needed anything.”
“Privacy. I need privacy. Somebody’s always pokin’ their head in my room.”
“Not because it gives us a lot of pleasure,” Will said sharply.
He went upstairs to beat Lonnie to the shower. More and more he was feeling the need to beat his brother out on a few things. He was getting pretty damn tired of having Lonnie’s charms with women played out right in front of his face. Lonnie wasn’t the only one who could make Ruby Dee light up. Will could, too, and he had an idea about how to make her glow, and all for him.
Chapter 17
Two evenings later, after supper, Will said, “I got a horse for you, Ruby Dee, if you’re still wantin’ to ride.”
Her face lit up like that of a child seeing a Christmas tree. “Oh, you do? Oh, yes, I’d like that a lot. Now?” Then she was up and eagerly clearing the table. “I’ll just stack the dishes and wash them up later.” And she smiled at him, a really bright smile.
Lonnie stared at Will with curiosity—and annoyance, too. He didn’t like having Ruby Dee’s attention stolen from him. Lighting up Ruby Dee and putting a damper on his brother at the same time made Will quite satisfied all the way around.
He felt so satisfied that for a few foolish minutes he harbored the idea that he might have Ruby Dee all to himself. But of course Lonnie and the old man had to go out and take part. Lonnie went and saddled up his paint pony, while Ruby Dee and Will got the old man into the Galaxie and drove him over to the training pen, where Will wanted to start. He was going to make darn certain Ruby Dee really could ride before she struck out into wide open spaces.
The old man’s and Lonnie’s eyebrows went up when they saw the horse Will had for Ruby Dee. It was a twelve-year-old dappled gray Will had sold two years ago to the Millers, who had wanted an older horse for their son to learn on. None of the ranch horses would have been suitable for Ruby Dee to ride, at least not without Will worrying himself to death. They didn’t pay particular attention to getting a ranch horse well-broke. Even the ten-year olds they had could be wild, and Will didn’t keep horses much past that age.
The dappled gray was naturally quiet and had been well trained in during its two years with the Millers.
“Oh, she’s lovely,” Ruby Dee said. “What’s her name?”
Will shrugged. “I don’t recall. Lonnie, do you recall this horse’s name?”
“Oh, somethin’ Smokey. She’s one of those Doc horses.”
“Well, she has to have a name,” Ruby Dee said, as if Will had better produce one.
Will felt he had let her down, but he just couldn’t think of a name. “I guess you could name her whatever you want.” He thought that was saving the day, but she didn’t seem any happier about it. “Are you ready?” he asked, eager to change the subject.
Her expression brightened again, and she nodded, reaching up to grab hold on the saddle.
“Are you gonna ride like that?” the old man demanded, shouting from the front seat of the convertible.
“Like what?” She looked downward. “I’m wearin’ boots.”
“In that dress, dang it. You can’t ride in that dress.”
“Why not? It’s loose, see.” She lifted out the skirt to show it was wide and roomy.
“‘Cause you’re gonna show all the way to yer fanny, that’s why not.”
She gave a little laugh. “Oh, Hardy, you know I don’t ever wear pants...and you’ve seen a girl’s fanny before.”
On occasion Ruby Dee did say embarrassing things like that, but it was a little startling to hear her say it to the old man. Will’s eyes met Lonnie’s, and he saw his brother was also taken aback.
“You hold that horse, Will, until she’s sittin’ good,” the old man called, even while Will had hold of the horse’s bridle. Ruby Dee swung up into the saddle with only a flash of bare thighs. Will had to adjust the stirrup leathers for her, and he made certain the reins were straight before he let her go. Lonnie, sitting on his paint pony outside the fence, was fairly fuming, which added to Will’s enjoyment.
“All set?” he asked.
Her dark eyes eager and just a little nervous, she nodded. He stepped back to watch from the middle of the round pen, to be there in case she should have some trouble. The gray mare was calm and quiet but not unspirited. And any horse was a wild animal and not totally predictable.
She could ride, just as she had said she could. She was nervous and stiff at first, but she had a good seat, and she was firm enough so that the horse didn’t act up. Within minutes she was galloping around the pen, her hair flying back, delight beaming from her face. Standing there and watching her, pleasure spilled al
l over Will. She was awfully pretty, riding in the golden glow of a western sun.
Of course the confines of the training pen weren’t going to contain her for long. Will didn’t wait for her to ask but went over and opened the gates that led into the arena. She shot over in there, and Will flung himself on top of the mustang to join her, leaving Lonnie to answer the old man’s demand to be driven over to a better watching spot.
Ruby Dee acted the same on the mare as she did in the convertible—she wanted to run.
After getting the car parked to the old man’s specifications, Lonnie joined them on his paint pony. He and Will fell to mirroring each other, back and forth on their horses, like football players trying to block each other, each trying to outturn the other. Showing off for Ruby Dee, of course. Will didn’t cut Lonnie any slack at all. Lonnie was younger, but Will never felt his years on the back of a horse. In the saddle, he knew who he was.
Lonnie thought he was the better rider, but Will came off better in this game, Lonnie guessed, because his own horse was trained for calf roping, not turning. He was surprised at how well the scrub mustang could turn, and the way Will was acting annoyed him. He wasn’t used to Will acting so flashy. He let Will be the one to break off to rest.
“What’s wrong, gettin’ old?” Lonnie knew Will’s weakest point.
But Will just said, “Years bring experience, boy.”
The three of them rode until the sun started down behind the hills. They would ride a bit, then sit a bit and talk, letting the horses breathe. Every now and again, Ruby Dee would ride over to the rail and talk with the old man sitting in the car. He’d give her instruction, and she’d practice whatever he said.
Lonnie felt a stab of envy. The old man never had given him riding instruction, not like that, anyway. What the old man gave him was criticism, whenever he bothered to act like Lonnie was alive at all.
Perspiration stuck Ruby Dee’s dress to her skin, but she was having a wonderful time, and could have ridden all night. However, she felt a little guilty that Hardy was getting tired of sitting and watching something he could no longer do. And Lonnie and Will seemed on the verge of wearing themselves out, vying for her attention. She felt a little like a pulley bone from Sunday’s roast chicken, everyone tugging on her at once.
“I’ve really had enough,” she said. “I’m ready to go get a glass of ice tea.” Giving the mare a final caress, Ruby Dee left her in Will’s care and slipped behind the wheel of the Galaxie.
“You know, you were right about this dress not being a good idea,” she told Hardy as she shifted into gear. “Sweat and saddle leather have just about taken the hide off the inside of my thighs.”
Hardy looked as surprised as if she had flashed those bare thighs at him, and then a very rare grin split his face. He actually laughed, a deep, resonant belly laugh, the first she had ever heard out of him. Then he actually lifted his hand to the back of the seat, patted her shoulder, and left his hand there.
Sitting there on the back of the mustang, Will heard the old man’s laugh. It hit him hard. He watched them drive off, Ruby Dee and the old man, and got a sick, sinking feeling. Later, Ruby Dee would be taken up with reading to the old man or playing dominoes.
Here he and Lonnie had been vying for her attention like two cowboys set on proving their manhood, and still the old man was getting Ruby Dee in the end. And there wasn’t a single damn thing Will could do about it.
It all made him so aggravated that soon after Lonnie left for Harney, Will went, too...as if he could drive away from the gnawing inside of him.
He hadn’t really intended to go down to Reeves’s Quick Stop, since that was probably where Georgia would be and where he shouldn’t be at all. But he felt the restlessness churning and bubbling inside him, taking hold of him and edging out good sense. He embraced the restlessness. It was as if he were standing off and watching himself, knowing he was going to get into trouble and knowing that was the entire point of the mood. He could understand trouble.
At Reeves’s, Georgia was behind the check-out counter. She was sure surprised to see him, but Georgia never did stay surprised long.
She said, “Well, hello, Will. Haven’t seen you around in a while,” and with those words and her expression she practically invited Will to come into her bedroom.
“Hello, Georgia.” He stood there for a second, looking at her. “Where’s Frank?”
“Somewhere between here and Fort Worth with a load of cattle.” Something like memories lit her eyes, and he had to smile at her.
Then he walked to the back, got a bottle of Red Dog from the cooler and went over to the pool tables, where Lonnie was already playing with Cletus Unsell. Lonnie was so surprised to see him that he missed his shot. Crystal sat on a stool against the wall, Lonnie’s hat on her head.
Lonnie and Will paired up against Cletus and Roman Torres and played for beers. Will was rusty, but Cletus was half drunk, so Lonnie and Roman being pretty good evened things out. Will and Lonnie would win a game and Cletus and Roman would win a game, and either way the beers kept coming.
It seemed like the more beer Will drank, the better his pool playing got. The beer loosened him up, gave him the feeling he was ready for the world.
Georgia came over and shot a few balls with them. “You’ve gotten good,” Will said, standing aside with her while Lonnie made his play.
She leaned against his arm. “Frank’s gone a lot,” she murmured, and then she reached up, took his beer and had a drink, then gave it back to him.
Realizing that Georgia was unhappy with Frank suddenly made Will feel very low. He felt guilty that he hadn’t missed her, and that she seemed like she missed him.
He walked away from Georgia and over to the table where they were setting their empty beer bottles. The table was loaded with long-neck bottles and aluminum cans, twice as many cans, because Cletus was drinking from them. Cletus never had been known for having good taste. Will felt called on to point this out to him, as he got another round of beers from the cooler.
Cletus said, “And I guess you know all about taste, don’t you, Will? You got a taste of little chicky ass out at your place, don’t ya?”
“You have a nasty mouth, Cletus,” Will said, twisting the cap off his beer and tossing it on the table. “You can shut it now.”
“What’d I say?” Cletus cast Will a lopsided grin, his eyes going like a snake’s between Will and Georgia. “I’m not makin’ anything up...I’m just repeatin’ what everybody’s sayin’. And we all know how it is. It’s envy talkin’, that’s what. The only thing we’re all wonderin’ is, what do you fellas do—draw straws for turns for a piece of pussy?”
“There’s ladies present, Cletus. Am I gonna have to teach you what your mama didn’t?” Will gripped his pool stick. It would have been easy to whip across and catch Cletus upside the head.
“Oh, sure, Will. Okay. All the little chicky does is cook and clean and take care of daddy.” Then he laughed and said something to Roman that Will couldn’t hear but knew was not something he would like.
What it amounted to was that Cletus had a low mind and was envious, and Will had a low mood and wanted to fight. He was all worked up, restless as a stud kept too long next to a mare in heat.
“Aw, Will, it’s not like anyone ever listens to Cletus,” Lonnie said, trying to divert him. “Come on, I’ll bet a ten I can sink these three balls with one shot.”
Lonnie didn’t want to fight. Cletus Unsell wasn’t worth fighting with, and everyone knew it. He was one of those people who plain hated baths and work of any sort. He had never in his life held a job for more than six months, even during the oil boom, when everybody and their half-brain cousin had a job. Even the army had sent him home. In Lonnie’s opinion, Cletus was about as sorry as a man could get and still show his face in public.
Lonnie figured a better way to get Cletus to shut his mouth would be to get him drunk enough to pass out or to get him all involved in the game, either way leavi
ng Lonnie free to keep paying attention to Crystal, rather than getting in a stupid fight and having his lips all busted up. When Lonnie got a few beers inside him, he would rather make love than fight. He considered the trait the high point of his character.
Cletus and Will continued to toss insults at each other, and Lonnie got dragged into the dang argument because he was Will’s brother and had to back him up when Roman stood up for Cletus. Roman had do that because he was staying at Cletus’s house.
“You boys go outside to play,” Georgia ordered, shoving them all outside.
“Oh, Will ain’t got the balls to come outside with me,” Cletus said.
“I’m breathin’ down your neck, Cletus, so don’t look behind you.”
The few other customers in the Quick Stop came out to watch.
As fights went, this one was a medium. Cletus was a real blowhard and got into fights with some regularity. He got Will pinned against a pickup pretty quickly and got a couple of good punches to his face. But Cletus had put away more beers than Will, and he gave out sooner, so Will managed a good blow to his midsection, which doubled him over. Will knocked him to his knees, and then all the way down and sat on him.
Lonnie and Roman really only pretended to fight, and when Will looked up from sitting on Cletus, he saw they were both sitting back watching. Crystal went over, knelt down and took Lonnie in her arms to comfort him.
“You’ve done well, my brother, in defending the honor of women everywhere,” Lonnie said.
Will breathed hard. The burning was gone from inside him, and now all he felt was tired and depressed. And old.
Cletus started hacking and choking, like he was going to vomit. “Get off me, Will.”
Will struggled up. He looked around for his hat. He felt as if he were moving in slow motion. He wasn’t drunk now, not too much anyway. He was just beat numb and depressed as hell.
At least he wasn’t throwing up, which Cletus was doing pretty good.
Then Georgia was there, saying, “Come on back to the house with me, Will, and get cleaned up.”
The Loves of Ruby Dee Page 17