“Are you OK?” Maximus asked me skeptically.
I nodded with some effort. Then realized why they were staring at me so strangely. I looked down. My hands were up around my throat, as if I was choking myself. I delicately removed them, each finger coming off the grooves on my cold neck, my heart pounding in my chest. I was scared shitless. What the f**k was I just doing?
Bird smiled uneasily at me. “Have you got a sore throat?”
I cleared my throat, afraid I was unable to speak, but a meek, “That must be it” came out from my lips. I looked at Dex. He didn’t look as concerned as the others did, he just looked full on mistrustful of me, as if I had the plague or something.
“Well, we’ve got a lot of teas that will fix you up in a second. Isn’t that right, Shan?” Bird asked.
Shan slid the door open and stepped out into the hall. He nodded and smiled at me. In the light (and reality) he looked like your normal rancher. Lean, relaxed, weather-beaten. His eyes were still peculiar and vivid enough though, that I found myself avoiding them.
“We sure do,” Shan spoke with a gregarious, lightly accented voice. “The Navajo have the real medicine. Don’t trust any of that cheap garbage that Will might give you. He’s lost the way.”
“Yeah, he got married.” Bird laughed and Shan joined him. I didn’t feel like laughing yet. In fact, I just wanted to get out of that barn and into the light. I smiled quickly at them. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. It was nice to meet you Shan. I need some fresh air. I think I’m…allergic to hay.”
I coughed a little for effect, turned on my heel and quickly walked out of the barn. I heard Dex mutter something and Shan and Bird laughing along with him. I didn’t care.
Outside, the air was filled with swirling dust and wasn’t exactly fresh but it was dry and the intense sunlight and overexposed landscape immediately made me feel better.
I heard footsteps shuffling towards me from behind. I turned around thinking I’d see Dex but it was Maximus kicking up the dust. He looked down at me, squinting in the light, and put one meaty hand on my shoulder.
“What happened in there?” he drawled.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I really am allergic to hay.”
He squeezed my shoulder. It felt nice. “No. I mean, why were you choking yourself? You picked the wrong place to try and get high.”
I may have smiled. He had the same humor as Dex. And apparently way more concern.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know I was doing that. I was just looking in the stall, I thought I saw something in there-”
“Something?”
I wasn’t about to tell him, then I realized he of all people might understand.
“I thought I saw a pair of eyes. Like, low to the ground.”
He took his hand off of my shoulder and ran it through his shlock of fiery hair and gazed off into the distance.
“What color were they?”
“Yellow,” I said hesitantly. “Then they disappeared, then this Shan guy popped up and then apparently I was choking myself. You know as much as I do.”
He mulled that over. He seemed to be holding something back from me and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out what it was.
“Well,” he said slowly. “Strange things happen here, you can bet your mother.”
“And that’s why we’re here,” I said.
He smiled warily. He really was quite a handsome guy.
“Just…be careful while you’re here. Especially when I’m not here.”
I frowned. “What do you mean by that?”
He shrugged, dust flying off his plaid-clad shoulders. “You’re just going to want someone capable on your side in this crazy land. If you have any doubts, just talk to Bird. I trust him.”
“I trust Dex,” I said stubbornly.
He scratched at his sideburn and looked wistful, “I know you do. I reckon that might be a problem.”
How was that a problem? I opened my mouth to say something in his defense when Bird and Dex came out of the barn.
“There you are,” said Bird. “I was afraid you wandered off somewhere.”
Bird peered at me. On the surface he played the concerned grandfather type but deep in his eyes I sensed an even deeper worry. Sometimes I saw that same thing in my mother’s eyes.
“Feeling better?”
Well, no, not after what Maximus had just told me but I said yes anyway.
Dex was eyeing us suspiciously. He probably knew we were just talking about him. I glanced between the two ex-friends and knew that a phantom choking incident and a volatile rancher were going to be the least of my problems. Something obviously happened between these two guys and the past wasn’t having an easy time being buried. I had a feeling I’d find out by the time the weekend was over, and it wasn’t going to come from Dex’s mouth.
Bird sensed something too. Or he had good timing.
“So, what say we introduce you to Lancasters and get the ball rolling?”
We agreed and walked back to the house. Bird stayed a few feet ahead; I had the boys on either side of me.
“Hey, just remember,” Maximus whispered to us and pointed at his ring finger.
Right, the married thing. Though Sarah was blind, she’d still probably see right through us.
“Play it cool,” he continued. “And don’t take anything she says personally.”
We walked up on to the porch and waited while Bird knocked a few times and waited with baited breath for this mysterious Sarah woman. The door opened and revealed a tiny, tawny-skinned woman in her mid-life, with sunglasses and a cane. She was wearing a very pretty green floral dress that complimented her black, bunned hair. I might have been expecting her to look like a witch.
“Sarah, m’am. I thought you were napping. Where’s Will?” Bird asked apologetically.
She snorted. “How can I nap when I know strangers are snooping around my ranch.”
She looked at us…well, at least in our direction. It felt accusatory.
“Sarah, these are strangers no more. You know Maximus-”
“Unfortunately,” she sniped.
“And the other two people here are Dex and Perry Foray. They’ve come on behalf of your husband.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass why they are here,” she muttered contemptuously, still looking straight at us. “My husband should know better.”