Under A Cowboy by Rob Knight (ed)

Author:Rob Knight (ed) [Knight, Rob]
Language: nld
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Spence’s mood didn’t seem much improved when he finally came back to tell Billy he

was done for the night, and despite Billy’s best efforts, he remained distracted throughout

the drive. They passed a couple of restaurants and a handful of bars, but each time Billy

offered to stop, Spence’s reply was noncommittal, and he kept driving.

Billy considered for a moment taking all the fragments and adding two and two together

to make five, whether Spence was miserable for the same reason he was. After all, he’d

never asked Reed who his inside man was, for all he knew that man was sitting across the

pick-up’s cab, staring blankly out of the window.

Under This Cowboy’s Hat - 96

He dismissed that idea as soon as it came. Spence was one of the good guys, as short a

time as Billy had known him, that was still inherently obvious. His job and those horses

meant the world to him, he wouldn’t have jeopardized them for anything.

It was just a shame Billy couldn’t say the same about himself anymore.

He’d almost driven through town, on one long main street that glimmered like a

supernova. At the center were strip-malls, car dealerships, and fast food restaurants, and

the edges petered out into clustered bars and closed-down stores. It was a generic, little

galaxy all its own, and Billy would rather slam his balls in the door than consider staying

for longer than a weekend in a place like this.

The bar that rolled up on Spence’s side of the road seemed lively enough, trucks and

music and cowboy hats. Spence, though, looked a little pensive when they drew up

outside the bar, as though he’d rather be anywhere than here. Billy let the engine idle,

waiting for Spence to notice that he wasn’t asking, wasn’t demanding, just would like to

know at some point whether to turn off the engine.

“Can we go somewhere quieter?”

It wasn’t an invitation to bed, to make love ‘til neither of them could move, but coming

from Spence, even now, it was the next best thing. He even managed to refrain from

reminding Spence they’d passed several places that were quieter.

They ended up on the back roads, with nowhere to stop between the town and the rolling

fields except a gas station. He doubted Spence would appreciate that, and neither would

the gas station staff; hot as it would be, no one wanted to watch him and Spence making

out. If it got that far. Spence’s mood wasn’t exactly an encouraging portent.

He expected the accusations to start flying as soon as he pulled off the deserted highway

onto a wide grassy verge and killed the engine. The night was starry on the flat plains all

around them, and the lights of town glittered just behind them. It felt like being in an

upturned bowl peppered with thousands of pinpricks of light.

“So, are you gonna tell me what’s wrong or do I have to start guessing? And lemme tell

you, I don’t guess well.”

Spence turned, blinking as though he’d never even heard Billy speak before. After a

moment, he asked what was possibly the very last thing

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