Page 85 of Broken Trust
Halfway across the deck, I glance back.
He’s still standing there, waiting for me to slip safely inside.
Our eyes meet for a second, and then I quickly look away and close the door.
But long after I crawl into bed, I can still taste chocolate on my tongue and remember the way Axle looked at me when he asked if I’d wear his shirt.
And God help me …
I liked it.
Axle
The Wyoming sun is already beating down on us by midmorning.
I wipe my forearm across my forehead and lean against a cedar fence post as Royce extends another section of wire fencing along the pasture line. The open field stretches for acres in every direction, with green grass swaying in the breeze beneath a sky so blue that I’d doubt it was real if I wasn’t looking up at it with my own eyes.
A few hundred yards away, the new bison herd grazes behind temporary containment fencing. Massive animals. Dark and shaggy and mean-looking as hell.
Dad and Micah drive another post while Grandpa Earl supervises from the shade of the side-by-side, offering advice nobody asked for and somehow everyone still follows.
“Little to the left,” Grandpa calls.
Dad sighs. “It’s in the ground already, Earl.”
“Then pull it back out and move it left.”
Royce snorts.
Cabe laughs.
I shake my head.
Some things never change.
We work for another fifteen minutes before Cabe hooks his hammer through his belt loop and looks toward me and Royce.
“How’s the teaching going?”
Royce answers quickly, “Fantastic.”
Cabe raises an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Why’d you say it like that?”
Cabe shrugs as he moves away from the fence line so Micah can drive the tractor forward. He guides the auger vertically and signals for Micah to lower the drill for the next post hole.
“I just never figured you two for teachers.”
“Why the hell not?” Royce asks.
“Because you guys have the patience of a gnat.”
“Hey,” I say as I swat his hat off his head. “I taught you how to ride, didn’t I?”
Cabe bends to retrieve it, dusts it off, and places it back on his head. “Yeah, and I barely survived the experience.”
“Well, a teacher can only do so much when the student’s a dipshit.”
