Kitt pulled back on his reins, guiding Bullet back to his designated position of bringing up the rear. And, the irony of it didn’t get lost on him. From this angle, he was forced to cover all sides, helping the kids whose cattle ran astray. It was taxing and Kitt was past exhausted. When he was a kid, he loved doing the cattle drive. He and his buddies took it so seriously. Kylie loved to go every year when she was in school. She was the whole reason why he always volunteered to chaperone. He wanted to be there for her if she needed him. Now, it was different. Outside of Micah’s boys and a few others, Kitt didn’t see too many of these kids truly interested in making agriculture their life after high school.
Besides the immediate fatigue that set in under these kinds of conditions, Kitt hadn’t talked to Austin since he left a day and a half ago. It made him edgy. No matter how he tried, Kitt could never find cell phone signal during breaks, or where they camped for the night. Last night, he’d even gone out and up a small mountain and still couldn’t get high enough for signal coverage. Kitt missed Austin. If they were a normal couple, Austin could be here now. However, if they were an outted couple, no way the school would have either of them here. He couldn’t see two gay men being allowed to escort the kids out like this. Which, at this point, didn’t seem like such a bad thing. Damn, but he was past ready to get home.
“Jonathon, watch ahead!” Kitt yelled. He knew he couldn’t be heard. He kicked Bullet into gear, tugging the reins to the left and galloped after the cows leaving the pack. The teenager never saw it, just kept looking completely dazed and confused out toward the miles of nothing to the side of them.
~~~~~~
With a swipe of his t-shirt sleeve, Austin wiped the sweat from his brow. His breath panted, his chest heaved. Both he and Jose had been working the horses for most of the afternoon, just as Kitt instructed them to do. Jose carried the same ways about him as Kitt did with these animals. They responded to him with a simple gentle touch or voice. They connected on a different level. As for Austin, not so much. Every move, every instruction, was more difficult and caused him to have to do twice the work to get them to do what they were supposed to do.
“We need to let him run. He’s getting antsy,” Jose called out to Austin motioning toward Hooch. They were building a make shift track between their properties. Just dirt and a chain link fence, but something to get the horses familiar with. Hooch was a pistol. The colt was still young, but huge, growing bigger every day. And damn, he could run. He regularly left the others behind.
“Let’s do it then.” Austin pushed away from the fence. He’d do anything to exhaust himself and hopefully, get some sleep tonight. It had been a solid two days without any word from Kitt. And, there had been no sleep because apparently, all of a sudden he couldn’t sleep without knowing Kitt was safe or tucked in beside him.
As he rummaged through the tack room for a stop watch, he heard a noise outside. Austin smiled and busted through the barn hoping Kitt had come home early. It was gonna be hard to contain the nonchalance and not run straight to him. He’d have to force himself not to jump on Kitt right there and kiss him with all the missing in his heart.
He rounded the corner and saw one of Micah’s oldest mounted, dirty, and looking tired. He spoke quickly to Jose before kicking the horse in the direction of his house. “What did he say?”
“They’re a day behind. Its goin’ slower than it should. They’ll be home sometime day after tomorrow.” Jose continued to work the animals and didn’t pay any attention to Austin. That was a good thing. He wasn’t sure he was hiding the emotion he felt from the few simple words said to him. Another day? Really?
“Which one do you wanna clock?” Jose called out from behind Austin. He still stood rooted in the spot, watching the dust settle from the horse.
“You take Hooch.” Austin finally turned, ducked his face and pulled his ball cap down firmly on his head. It was a normal move, but today it was more than that. It was to hide his eyes. Austin honestly felt like he wanted to cry. He had to fight back the tears. In all these months, he hadn’t gone more than a few hours without talking to Kitt. It was such a girly response to missing your mate, but he couldn’t shake it. He climbed on his mount and grabbed Hooch’s reins. Austin managed to head toward the track before the tear slipped down his cheek.
“Damn it! Get a hold of yourself! God, I like it so much better when I’m the one leaving!” He muttered at himself, wiping the tear away.
~~~~~~
“Mom, shut up, I’m working!” Dunc aka Glenda yelled across the basement of her parent’s home.
“I have to do the laundry!” her mother yelled back in a raspy voice. A voice hardened by age and years of smoking. She never stopped smoking the cigarette perched between her lips as she loaded the thirty year old washing machine that sat ten feet from Dunc’s computer equipment.
“God, Mom! You’re such a fucking pain in the ass!” Dunc screamed although her beady little eyes never left one of the three monitors in front of her. Her fingers skimmed over the keyboard like only a person who had spent their entire life on the computer could. Dunc had just about gained entry into the hacked Facebook account of Austin Grainger’s parents. She’d been working on it for hours and finally figured out the password. She’d read on Google that no one ever strayed from the standard birthday format. It was just trying to figure out which birthday it could be. This one was Austin’s himself, not very original of the proud Grainger papa.