Cowboy Summer - 2. The Smell of Hay and Horse

Rhydian sat on the deep wooden steps outside the kitchen with his boots sitting next to him on the sun bleached planks. One foot on his knee, he rubbed the sole of the other foot with his hand, feeling the places where the skin was hard and rough from pressing against the hard leather. Back home he rode in a pair of old work boots, but his sister had insisted that if he was going to have a real cowboy experience, he was going to need real cowboy boots. And he hadn’t spent long enough wearing them in. He stretched the joints as he massaged his foot, wishing that he had thicker socks and tougher soles.

“Trouble with your shit-kickers?” Sam’s deep southern drawl made Rhydian shiver before he looked up at the blond Texan, grinning down at him.

“Sorry?”

“You English apologise too much.” Sam scooped up the boots and sat heavily next to him, “Shit-kickers are these things.” Sam handled the boots like he handled the horse, strong firm hands, quick in inspecting the joints and seams, “These are good boots. Nice leather.” Sam’s short square fingernails ran over the stitching and the noise made my skin crawl in such a good way, “You’re sister bought them for you right?”

“Yeah. How did you know?” I frowned at him.

“I’ll bet she got them just after she found out that she wasn’t coming with you, huh?” Sam took my foot and pulled it into his lap. I yelped but then his strong warm hands were massaging my foot and I felt the ease of relaxation all the way up my spine. “Better now?”

“Ohh yeah…” Sam had grabbed Rhydian’s other foot, causing the teenager to lean back against the steps lest he slump into a puddle under Sam’s dextrous hands.

“You’ll toughen up in no time bud. Riding every day will make leather of your feet in no time at all.” Sam grabbed the cuffs of his jeans and placed his feet back on the steps gently. “So tell me how you got here Rhydian.”

Rhydian exhaled into the late afternoon sky and clicked his nails together. The soft noise made his nerves shake a little bit less.

“My sister loves horses. All Claudine ever wanted was a horse, so when she was fourteen mum and dad bought her one. He’s called Cloud. Once she was done with riding lessons and when she wanted to hack out, she got the girl who stabled her pony at the yard to lend me little Hopper to ride with her. All I’ve ever done is follow her around before.” Rhydian sighed again, and looked sideways at the big handsome cowboy. Sam had his Stetson in his hands, turning the rim around with his fingers. His eyes were see through blue to the sky, and Rhydian watched him peering at the fields dotted with horses, little tan creases around his eyes, “Mum and dad didn’t want to lose out on the deposits and the flights when Claudine went to uni early, so now it’s just me.” Rhydian gulped and Sam shot him a questioning look, “I don’t know how I’m going to ride Shura by myself tomorrow.”

The big cowboy shot out a hand and rubbed Rhydian’s dirty blond buzz cut.

“Oh you ain’t going out by yourself yet little boy,” Sam smiled wide, “It’s not a bad thing bud. You need a bit more training. You wanna shadow me tomorrow?”

“Yes please?” Rhydian tried not to show just how much he wanted to purr under Sam’s hand, “That would be awesome. But, won’t you be busy?”

“Don’t worry about it kiddo.” Sam slapped the side of his thigh and stood, “Get your boots on and come feed the horses with me.”

Rhydian pulled on his boots, wincing and gritting his teeth at the aches of his protesting muscles as he got up to follow Sam back towards the horse yard.

“Do we have to feed all the horses?” Rhydian knew it must have sounded like a silly question.

“No actually.” Sam started to assemble a host of thick rubber buckets in front of a range of big steel drums, “The horses who aren’t being ridden by guests live out in the big pastures. Horses in the little paddocks get individual dinners.”

“Simple.”

“That’s the way bud.” Sam handed Rhydian a big plastic scoop which would have been about three big handfuls, “Everyone needs an alfalfa chaff, which is this stuff, the green chopped mixture. I’ll put in the molasses and nuts and then you do another big scoop of the combined hay-chaff OK?”

“OK Sam.” Rhydian scooped out a big chunk of the green chaff and sniffed, “Smells sweet.”

“You should try this,” Sam dug both hands into the nuts and oats mixture and held his scooped palms towards Rhydian, “Smell that.”

Rhydian leaned in and sniffed, a heady sweet mix which was hard to describe, like nature dipped in honey, and his brain reeled at him as he glanced up to see Sam smiling at him, big eyes happy and calm and kind, his rough lips so kissable with the scent of the molasses in the air. Rhydian swallowed nervously and leant back, hoping that his blush wasn’t too noticeable to the big farm hand.

They made up the rest of the dinners in what seemed to Sam like an easy silence. Shura’s boy Rhydian was a quick learner, than was for sure, and after Sam had explained to him the dinner needed to be soaked ‘because otherwise it’s like eating a whole bowl of dry cereal bud’ and shown him where the hose was he was perfectly content that Rhydian would get on with it while he scaled the ladder to get the hay down for the horses.

Rhydian’s shadowing of him had been Caleb’s idea, as it was obvious form the get go that the kid wasn’t going to be able to just up and do things like he would have if his sister had been along as well. Caleb hated to be shadowed, and needed the time and space to do his own thing, after all, he had far more horses to look after than the average twenty two year old. So they had decided that Rhydian was going to stick with Sam and learn the ropes of riding that way. Sam took a moment to look at the boy. Rhydian was pretty tall, for all he gave off the feeling of being small and a little bit helpless, and his dirty blond hair and pink complexion couple with his nicely structured face to make him good to look at. And that wasn’t a danger, except that Sam had seen what Caleb hadn’t, and knew that the boy was already smitten with him.

Together they loaded the feed into the low slung pick up and Sam caught himself before throwing the bales of hay for Rhydian to catch. The kid wasn’t weak, but there was no way he was going to happily survive a blow like that without warning. Sam looked at the open air pick up like it was going to eat him alive.

“You wanna drive?”

“Um…” Rhydian turned to the confidant Texan, “You realise I have no idea how right? I mean, I’ve had like six driving lessons bad home.”

“You use a stick?”

“What?”

Sam thought that Rhydian’s confused frown was adorable. The boy wore his emotions like a puppy.

“D’you know how to change gears?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can drive. Get in.”

Rhydian was more nervous on the pick-up than he had been after he’d fallen off of Shura. Sam realised that while it might have been faster and easier to drive himself, getting some confidence into the kid would be worth the hassle. And maybe if Rhydian liked it, then Sam could use the time to ride out with Caleb to the far fields and spend some time alone together like they’d used to do. Sam missed those times; the scent of sun and straw, hay and horse, skin and sweat.

“OK, drop the gas, dump the clutch down,” there was a crunchy noise, “No, your other left. That was the break. OK, shift from second into third,” Rhydian was getting confused fast and Sam placed a hand over his on the gear stick and moved the lever to the correct position. Rhydian shivered at the touch of skin on skin. “That’s it. Now leave the clutch and come back on the gas. You’re good.”

They drove out to the paddocks where the horses were waiting patiently for their feed. Sam had gotten the girls to put their three in together, and then put Shura with Boy Latte and Ikara in the sloping field. There were two other guests in and their horses needed feeding too. They drove around the paddocks, leaving the pick-up idling in the lanes, and Rhydian followed Sam’s instructions about which horses needed to be feed first, how to avoid fights between them by spacing out the dinners and how to move around the big animals in a way that was calm and gentle. Rhydian stood by Shura as he ate. The horse was not possessive over his food and while Rhydian kept his eye out for a lifted hoof, he stroked and petted the horse until Sam called him over.

“Communing with your steed are ya?”

Rhydian looked at him in surprise, because it wasn’t the sort of thing he expected Sam to say in his big rough voice.

“What? I might sound dumb but it don’t mean I’m stupid.” Sam reached out and ruffled Rhydian’s buzz cut again, “No I ain’t mad at ya.”

Rhydian blushed hard as he walked with Sam back over to the little pick up. It felt nice to be touched, even if that touch made him feel like a little kid again. Horses fed, they started back towards the big ranch house which emanated the scents of dinner.

“You look like you wanna ask a question,” Sam needed to direct him less now, and it was clear to see that Rhydian was picking up the hang of driving now he was less scared, “You got a shorta version of your name anyway? Can’t keep calling yer Shura’s boy, although Caleb will I’m sure.”

“Rhyd?” Rhydian shrugged as he shifted gear, “I never had a nickname as such. And yeah, I had a question.”

“Shoot.”

Rhydian snuck a glance over at Sam. The Texan was the perfect classic image of a Southern cowboy; the blond hair, super blue eyes, dark tanned skin. The lines of his body clad in jeans and a rolled sleeve pearl button snap shirt made Rhydian a little breathless. The imagined image of Sam and Caleb burned in his inner vision.

“You and Caleb.”

“Yeah?” There was hard suspicious tone in Sam’s voice and Rhydian was sure that if his next sentence was phrased badly he be looking up at the pick-up from the dust.

“Are and Caleb, like, together? I mean, it’s cool, I just wanted… I mean I heard… but- oh god I wasn’t eavesdropping I swear­-”

“Whoa bud, slow down.” Sam shook the back of his neck gently as they parked up by the yard, “Yes, Caleb and I are together. It’s not exactly a secret.” He huffed gently, blowing hair and hay out of his face, “Like there are any secrets to be kept out here.”

“But you said you came for the summer…” Rhydian started, then hesitated, unsure of himself.

“And I did. Ikara and I were travelling North, going from place to place, doing work and odd jobs. I got hired here as a general ranch hand, work with the horses, fix fences, all the stuff that needs doing. Caleb was just taking over the main duties with the riding school, so I was kind of his replacement and sidekick.”

“What happened?”

Sam smiled and resettled his hat on his head, grinning at something only he could see.

“Well that’s a much longer story. Come on, dinner time Rhyder. Gotta feed you up if you’re gonna spend tomorrow on a saddle with me.”

Rhydian thought of a dozen things to say, questioning his new nickname and imagining being ‘in the saddle’ with Sam chief among those things. He bit his tongue, and followed Sam up to the main house, trying and failing, to keep his eyes away from Sam’s denim hugged behind.