Earth and Sky

cars hooted their horns, but they could easily pass, so Grant didn’t care.

    “I understand if you’re mad at me. It was my fault you had the accident.”

    Grant tried to gauge the honesty in Hunter’s statement. “There was no other truck? This is the truck that hit me?”

    “No!” Hunter replied immediately. “There was another truck. One of those huge long-haul trucks with a trailer. But you didn’t know I was following you, and after you’d left the bar, you were driving so fast, I got worried. I didn’t know how much you’d had to drink, and I thought you were maybe overestimating yourself or underestimating your speed. You were doing about eighty, and I took a chance trying to come alongside you to make you pull over, but then you saw me and you missed seeing that truck and then—”

    Grant stopped Hunter’s rambling by squeezing Hunter’s hand. “It’s okay, Cowboy.”

    “It’s not okay. If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

    Grant shook his head. “The doctors told me that I was saved because I got to the hospital quickly. If I’d been left in that ditch, I might have died, so the fact you were there to call an ambulance actually saved me. You saved me.” In more ways than one , Grant wanted to add.

    “I distracted you.”

    “You said I was speeding. I might have had the accident just because of that. Because of the combined speed of me and that truck traveling in the opposite direction, both above the speed limit. It was a deserted road in the middle of the night. What was a big truck like that doing on that two-lane road anyway? He probably never realized he’d hit me, or maybe he didn’t even hit me at all. The force of him passing might have blown me into you.”

    “But you don’t know that.”

    “And we probably never will. All I know is that I’m happy you were there. That’s all that matters.”

    Hunter nodded, but Grant feared that he hadn’t been able to convince his Cowboy completely. They sat next to each other, holding hands and not talking, for quite a while.

    “Now you think you can drive some more?”

    Hunter started the engine again and silently drove off, carefully maneuvering the truck to avoid as many of the bumps on the shoulder as he could until they were back on the Interstate.

    All during the drive, Grant kept his hand resting lightly on Hunter’s thigh. They didn’t talk again until Grant had to give him directions near the end of their journey.

    Hunter drove into an ordinary-looking suburban area of similar-looking houses with front yards and trees. Grant made him stop near a house that had three kids playing in the yard. One of them was raking up leaves, and the other two were putting them in a large sack, but doing it so playfully they were making more of a mess than the third one managed to clean up. The oldest boy was getting quite annoyed with it all.

    Grant just smiled, even when he noticed Hunter giving him a questioning look.

    “Are these your kids?” Hunter eventually asked in a subdued voice.

    “Yes,” Grant answered calmly. “Not legally, on their part not emotionally either, but biologically, yes. Except for the oldest one, but he thinks I’m his dad. It’s complicated.”

    When Grant glanced sideways, he could see Hunter’s confusion. Then a woman walked into the front yard, scolding the children for making a mess and sending the two youngest inside. She took the rake from the oldest boy and gave him instructions. It didn’t take them long to finish, but before the woman went inside, she looked straight at Grant.

    “Is that your wife?” Hunter asked softly.

    “No,” Grant answered. “I said I didn’t have a wife, and I meant it. She was never my wife, but we used to be friends.”

    “But you had children with her?”

    Grant sighed. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to explain. He also knew he wanted to. He had to try to explain it to Hunter if he ever wanted their relationship to have a chance.

    “I met Christy about ten years ago. I was driving a delivery truck and she worked in town, at a shop. She was a single mom with a little boy and having a hard time making ends meet. She had another job that started after the grocery shop closed, and I looked after her boy every evening so she could go to work. I’ve had relationships with women, but although I wasn’t ready to admit to myself that I was gay back then, I didn’t make a pass at her. She was a good friend, and I’d