Page 7 of Older Cowboy

“We need them to last,” they’d say, and every time they did this, she couldn’t help feeling it was just the tiniest bit of a slight against her choice. Her flowers would dwindle and wilt, while theirs wouldn’t. But hers smelled fresh and alive, and she liked to honor his life with them.

Erika would never bring up how she felt about this with them, though. No use causing an unnecessary fuss.

Randomly, the handsome face of Cody Stiers entered her mind, along with his expression when he’d asked her out at Callie and Zeke’s wedding. She didn’t know why, but as she pulled out of the Cantrell’s driveway in the little gold twenty-year-old Toyota Corolla Blake had bought used when they’d first married, the farmer’s image remained. It was as if the recent thought of him was attempting to overwrite the usual memories she kept in her brain.

CHAPTERFOUR

Cody peeredout at the majesty that was the vistas available to him there on some of the property at the Duncan Ranch. He didn’t know if it was the greenery, the purplish gray mountains in the distance, or the sapphire jewel-like peeks of waterways that wove throughout the land here and there, but he found all of it so much more entrancing than Minneapolis.

Not that the city didn’t have its strengths—he missed the convenience of having restaurants and grocery stores that stayed open all hours—but the slower pace and lack of crime there in Rocky Ridge and the county surrounding it was totally worth it. There was just a peacefulness there that he loved, and rather than feeling as if he was ending up somewhere just as he was about to turn fifty, he felt the excitement of starting a crucial part of his life anew.

Since it was his lunch hour, Cody decided to take a minute to text his son. Gabriel had now been at Stanford for two weeks, Stacey having driven them there as soon as the dorms opened up a few days before the start of the semester. Cody himself had offered to go, as well, but maybe knowing that asking off after only having been with new employers for less than six months might not be the precedent he wanted to set.

He would’ve done it regardless, but he couldn’t lie, when Gabe said he was good with his mom alone, Cody felt relieved. He felt disappointed, too, just a little. But the relief outweighed it by a degree or two. That didn’t, however, mean he didn’t want to stay abreast of things. He’d drop everything for his only child in a heartbeat. New job or not.

Dad: How are things going so far, son?

Gabe: It’s intense. Super intense. But it’s good, too. Really good.

Dad: Care to elaborate on “super intense?”

Gabe: The classes here are insane. The profs want everything spelled out with every single detail. My first test in World History came back with a D on it.

What the… Gabriel never received anything lower than a C, and those were rare. Mainly in the heavier subjects like calculus or the higher sciences. But inhistoryof all disciplines? He’d always carried straight-As in that discipline.

Dad: D?!?

Gabe: I know, I know. Calm down. I went to talk to her, and she let me retake it. I just didn’t understand what she wanted. It was an essay test, and she required specifics that I didn’t provide. I got a B on the second go-round.

Dad: I can live with a B.

Gabe: LOL. That’s what Mom said, too.

Cody imagined Stacey’s expression when their son informed her of this teeny-weeny mishap and nearly snorted up a lung.

Dad: Everything else okay?

Gabe: Oh, yeah. Damian, that’s my dorm roommate, plays the same online RPGs that I do. We’ve been having this wicked team-up, and he’s right at my level. We’re having a great time.

Uh-oh.

Dad: Don’t have such a great time that you neglect your studies.

Gabe: Lol. Knew you were going to say that as soon as I typed it out. Don’t worry. That’s only on weekends. The week is for dedication to the classwork.

“Dedication to the classwork” were words straight out of Stacey’s mouth. Cody could hear them rebounding inside his own skull because she used that particular phrase over and over throughout Gabriel’s schooling growing up.

At least that meant their son was listening.

Dad: Good boy.

Gabe: Got a joke for you.

Dad: Shoot.

Gabe: What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college?

Oh, boy. This ought to be interesting.

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