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"You and Austin seem to be close. The way you and your family talk about him sure showed that he was very close but there is something special between you and him?" She asked. Hayden hesitated a little and she thought he would divert the question, but he started talking.
"Yes. I don't have any siblings. Didn't have any brothers and I was hanging out a lot with Austin and his brothers. Theywere my brothers. We got into trouble together and got out of it together and… he was the one I looked up to. Literally and figuratively. He was my best friend. At a certain time in my life, he was my only friend. He just…changed all of a sudden," he said.
Lenanee thought about what Austin said about his father and the change she had noticed from him being jovial and relaxed to the tightness and tension that worked into him when he was talking about his father, and she could tell the difference even then. He was like two different people. She could imagine how drastic the change could be like.
"I'm sorry about that," she said. Hayden looked down at her.
"Yeah, sure thing," he said.
"What are you going to do when you find him?" She asked him and he bit his upper lip.
"I don't know yet, but I think I'll leave that to my father," he replied. She didn't know what to say so she was silent for a time.
"Must be hard. I didn't have any siblings," she said.
"You didn't?" He asked her and she shook her head.
"I didn't. I mean, for the most part it wasn't too bad, but it started to get shabby after I became a teenager. I started feeling a bit lonely so there's that as well," she said. He didn't say anything, but she felt his presence beside her, oddly reassuring. She didn't say anything after that, and he didn't ask her about anything but his presence was something that lingered on the edges of her perception.
CHAPTER SIX
Lenanee was starting to think they'd never find Austin and maybe they would eventually give up but that wasn't the case as the longer they were on the road, the more determined Ike seemed to be but on the contrary, Hayden seemed to grow quieter and more conflicted. She noticed that he said little around the fire and when he was asked for his opinion, he seemed to shrug and mumble something vague. It continued until the time his father took him aside to talk to him but that didn't seem to change anything.
"You don't want to find him," she said suddenly. Hayden looked down at her and clenched his jaw.
"That…that's not true," he said.
"You're not interested in it any longer. I mean, I noticed it. I notice the way you seem to care less the longer we ride, she said. He nodded.
"I don't know. It's just…it's just that he has been through a rough patch and he did steal from us but he had done so much for the ranch that I think he shouldn't be hunted down. Maybe we should find a way to talk to him," he said and she nodded, agreeing silently.
"That doesn't seem to be something your father is too interested in," she said, and he shook his head.
"Yeah, that doesn't…" he stopped.
"Hey come here. Lemme show you something," she said. She was suddenly feeling charitable and there was something she had glimpsed that she wasn't sure any of them noticed as well.
"We can't go off the trail," he said.
"Wait, what's going to happen? Daddy's going to yell at you? You don't even want to find him anyway, so let me show you something," she said and he looked around for a while then he looked at her.
"What is it that you want to show me?" He asked her and she pointed at a hill.
"Ride Up that hill with me and I'll show you or you can continue to be moody and gloomy all through the day and trust me when I tell you that it doesn't bother me at all. Just that you're pretty bad company to have when you're like that," she said to him, and he blew breath through puffed cheeks then he shrugged and they changed their course.
If Ike noticed, he didn't make any comment and they continued riding until they came to the top of the hill and looked down. Lee wasn't sure that it would be here, but she was glad that it was. Her breath caught immediately when she saw it.
The lake was reflecting the setting sun and a spread of vibrant and diverse colors cast across the landscape in a way that made it seem almost like they were dreaming. She looked at him and saw the smile on his face and the way his eyes lit up.He nodded and looked down at her and she knew that he was resisting the urge to ride down there and be a part of it.
"It's beautiful," he said.
"It is," she replied.
"How did you know it was here and it would look like this?" He asked.
"I wasn't sure that it would look like this, but I just made a mental bet and decided that perhaps…. Perhaps it will look like it did on the day my Dad decided to show it to me and what do you know? It turned out exactly like that," she said. He chuckled.
"Thank you," he said quietly. I felt something warm wash over me and I nodded slowly.
