great if Gabe wants to teach you. Or, wants to let you ride. But, I want to teach you. Because I’m your brother. Then maybe if...maybe if we weren’t such a dysfunctional mess then I would have taught you a long time ago. So, can I teach you?”
“Sure,” Emmett said, sliding off the couch and looking at him skeptically. He slipped his foot into one boot, then the other. “These are big.”
“Sorry. You ought to grow into them.”
“I’m not ten,” Emmett said.
“Still. Come on, let’s go.”
West clapped his younger brother on the back and led him outside. He had tacked the horses up earlier, and left them so that they would be ready to go when Emmett was.
“All right. Get on.”
“How?” Emmett asked.
“Left foot in the stirrup,” he said. “Grab the horn. Pull yourself up.”
“Like this?” He planted his foot in the stirrup and swung himself up, throwing his leg over the top of the big animal.
“Yep. You’re on the horse, you’re facing the right way and you’re not on the ground. All good indicators that you did everything just right.”
West mounted his own horse, and looked back at Emmett. “All right, now urge him forward. Just a slight nudge with your heels against his flanks. Just like that.”
They continued on with the instruction, moving through the basics as they made their way through the countryside.
They’d been in each other’s company a while now, and this ride felt like a step forward. He’d been treading carefully with Emmett, on account of the kid seemed more than half-feral and West didn’t want to put a foot wrong. Or at least, not too wrong.
But he’d agreed to let West teach him to ride. And West thought maybe that meant...maybe they could talk.
Like he’d done with his other half siblings.
“So, how was camping out?” West asked, as they continued on slowly and steadily.
“Fine,” Emmett said. “I mean, not ideal.”
“No. I wouldn’t think so.”
“I just... I guess maybe I should have tried to call you, West, but I figured that since you were coming out here to meet your other family you wouldn’t want anything to do with...us anymore.”
“Who told you I was doing that?”
“It’s what Mom said.”
West sighed. He’d told his mother he was coming back, and he’d told her up front he was going to get to know the Daltons, but he hadn’t said that.
“That’s not true. I came for you too. But when I got to Oregon you weren’t around and Mom put me off for a couple of months, and then admitted she didn’t know where you were. You weren’t in Gold Valley the whole time, were you?”
Emmett shook his head. “I crashed with friends in Sweet Home for a while. Then when you didn’t come there I... I came here.”
“I’m sorry you thought I didn’t care about you.”
His brother’s shoulders went stiff. “It’s not like it hurt my feelings or anything.”
“It did though,” West said. “And it would have hurt mine too. You’re not weak because it bothered you.”
Emmett scowled. “I just figured you might remember me. All things considered.”
“I did.”
They rode on in silence for a while. It was a minute or two before Emmett spoke again, and when he did his voice was calmer.
“I mean, I get that we don’t know each other very well, but you’re basically all I’ve got. It’s nice for you, that you had this whole other family just waiting to discover that you existed. A dad that’s happy to meet you. But I don’t have that. I don’t have any of that. And if I didn’t have you...well, then all I’ve got is Mom and she doesn’t care. You know that.”
“I know,” West said. “But that was never what I meant to do. I went away for a while, and being in prison gave me a lot of time to think. Which sounds like a cliché, but it’s true.”
He lifted his head up and looked at the wide expanse of blue sky. At the mountains covered with pine trees and the endless green hills spread before him.
“I’ll never take this for granted again,” he continued. “Being able to go for a ride when I choose to. Being able to look at the outdoors and all its glory. But I was... I’ve been lost for a long time. Most of my life. I thought that if I could make money I could find a way to buy myself some kind of normal. And I thought that was what I wanted. What I needed.