Page 27 of Barry

After putting everything away and cleaning his knife, he led Kathy to the two stalls Buddy occupied. The horse lifted his head as soon as they stopped outside the stall door and walked over, nudging Barry with his nose.

“He’s bigger than I thought a wild horse would be.”

“Sixteen hands. He’s a tall boy, for sure.” Barry rubbed the horse’s nose and handed the plastic bag to Kathy. “Could you open that for me?”

Kathy opened it, and Barry gave the horse a couple of pieces of carrot. “I thought I saw you!” Gen Hollister’s voice carried from the front of the barn. Barry looked over his shoulder and saw the Cap’s wife walking toward them with her egg basket almost overflowing with eggs. Kathy walked over to her, and the two hugged. “What are you doing out here?” Gen asked, smiling knowingly at Barry. And damn it, he felt his face get warm. He turned his attention back to Buddy and gave him another bite of carrot. He heard the woman’s laughter and shook his head.

“Barry has to do some chores, then we’re heading back to my house.”

“Come up to the house with me. I haven’t had a visitor in forever. We can have coffee, and you can see Sev. That boy is growing like a weed.”

“Oh …” The sound of something in Kathy’s voice turned him. “I was going to help Barry.”

“Babe, you don’t want to shovel manure or watch me do it. Go to the house. I’ll finish what I need to do and then come up and get you.”

She looked at him. “Are you sure?”

“I am.” He chuckled. “Go visit.”

Kathy’s smile spread from ear to ear. She almost bounced over to him and cupped his head with both of her hands. “I love you.” She pulled him down for a kiss. He laughed when she spun away, and the girls left the barn. He watched them until Buddy nudged him, looking for more treats, and he turned his attention to his horse. He gave the guy a bite of apple and rubbed his neck as he said, “Who would have thought I’d have someone like her in my life, huh?” Buddy nudged him again. “Oh, you did, did you? Well, I didn’t.” He glanced back to the open doorway of the barn. “But I’m so damn glad she is.”

Barry opened the stall door and got busy working with Buddy. He may have cut the training a bit short, hoping to spend a bit more time with Kathy. Of course, by the time he’d finished cleaning the stall, he smelled just like Buddy. He headed for the bunkhouse to take a quick shower, change clothes, and pack a change of clothes for the morning. He didn’t want to presume, but spending the night with Kathy was something he was looking forward to. He laughed to himself as he entered the bunkhouse. Dusty was sitting at the communal table eating a sandwich. “‘Sup? Where’s Honey? Saved her some roast beef,” Dusty asked before taking another bite of his sandwich.

“She’s at Kathy’s. Her and Mitzi got hit by a skunk last night. So did I.” Barry went to the fridge and pulled out a soda.

“You must have gotten that new wash stuff. Amazing shit.” Dusty laughed. “Better than dousing yourself with tomato juice.”

Barry gulped his soda, and it went down the wrong way. He narrowed his eyes at Dusty. “Say what?”

“Man, growing up, my ma would put me in a metal tub and pour tomato juice all over me. Didn’t work for shit, but she thought it helped.”

“I’m kind of glad I grew up in the city right now.” Barry took another slug of his soda.

“Nah, man, you missed all the good stuff by growing up there. We made our own fishing poles, caught worms after a rain, and spent all day dangling the poor things in lakes with no fish. We had the best time getting dirty and learning about all things outside.” Dusty chuckled. “Hard life living out here, but ain’t no one ever said it wasn’t a good life.”

Barry looked at his friend. “You know what? I agree. Life here is hard, but it’s damn good. Speaking of which, I’m going to shower and then go pick up Kathy from the main house.”

Dusty offered, “Want me to feed and take care of Buddy tomorrow?”

Barry stopped on his way to his room. “If you could feed him, that would be great. I’ll take care of cleaning his stall. Still working with him.”

“Sounds good.” Dusty took another huge bite from his sandwich, and Barry went to his assigned room. Heopened the door and stopped dead in his tracks. Curled on his bed was a rattlesnake. The thing raised its head, and its tail lifted. The very distinct and deadly sound of danger rattled through the room. “Dusty, you got your gun handy?”

The chair in the kitchen area scraped and fell as boot steps ran in his direction. “What … Whoa, shit!”

“Yeah.” Barry pointed to a stained, filthy pillowcase on the floor and kicked to the side of the door, just inside. It was as if someone had opened the door, let the snake out, and shut it quickly. “I don’t think it came here on its own volition.”

“Who the fuck would put a rattlesnake in your room? Shut the door. Dude, we gotta let the bosses and law know about this.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Barry grabbed the doorknob and pulled it shut. “I’ll call Ken.”

“I’m rounding up Senior or Andrew.” Dusty flew out the door as Barry pulled out his phone. He found Ken’s number and called.

“What’s up?” Ken answered without the preliminaries.

“Got a rattlesnake on my bed.”

“Yeah, is that anything like bats in your belfry?” Ken laughed.

---