While he was in Texas, for the first time in his life, Ennis found he had time on his hands. Back in Riverton, his life had revolved round his job. What free time he had been spent in the mountains with Jack, and any spare time after that was spent with Junior and Jenny, or Cassie. In the mornings he'd drop Jack off Laureen's. She would walk out of the house, not hostile but not friendly either. She never spoke to him but would give him a terse, little smile and a knowing stare. He still felt uneasy that Laureen knew the truth about him and Jack, as it had been something he taken pains to hide for so long, and said as much to Jack.
Jack had replied, "With me and Laureen….over the years we got to understand one another. We didn't really know one another when we got married. She was already pregnant. We become friends in a way. We still got a kid between us. What about you an Alma?"
"I ain't talked to Alma for years," Ennis had said.
Bobby seemed to accept him without question; just another one of Dad's friends. While Jack spent time with Bobby, Ennis would drift round Childress, smoking, drinking endless cups of coffee and chalking up impossibly high scores on an arcade game called Space Invaders that he had never played while he was in Riverton. Once, while he was playing, Jack had bought Bobby over, who was impressed by the scores he had accumulated.
"How did you get up to that level?" Bobby , normally distantly polite, asked incredulously.
"I don't know?"
"I bet I could get that score, if my arm was out of plaster," Jack said.
Bobby shook his head, "I seen you play, Dad. You couldn't play like that when you did have your arm out of plaster."
Jack got a checkup at Doctor's. A small purple scar was left under his ribs and, the doctor said his arm was healing alright. Although they talked more, they never talked about the accident. And perhaps, because he had more time to notice things, Ennis noticed that Jack would often be awake in the middle of the night and sometimes looked far away, as if mulling something over. Being with Jack was at times reassuringly familiar, and at other times like being with a stranger that he was just becoming acquainted with.
Christmas passed and, they were two weeks into the New Year. Ennis missed home and wanted to return to Wyoming. Of course, he could drive back to Riverton anytime he liked but once he had driven from Riverton to Denver to be with Jack, it had somehow altered the course of his life, and going back to the way things were was no longer a choice. So he would content himself by occasionally asking Jack, "When do you think we'll be gettin back to Wyoming." Jack would reply, " I'm workin on it." Maybe because he had so much spare time, a sense foreboding began to grow. So when Jack suggested that they go to a bar instead going straight back to the boarding house it seemed like a good idea to unwind, relax, shoot some pool. Ennis left Jack at a table and went to the bathroom. When he returned he bought himself a beer at the bar.
He overheard two men talking, "There's that faggot that married L.D. Newsome's daughter –the one that used to ride the bulls."
Ennis glanced round and saw Jack talking to another man who'd sat down with him.
"That guy that he's talking to, I'm sure he's one as well – used to work for over for Charlie over at the Double D ."
Jack noticed Ennis at the bar, smiled at gestured for him to come over. The men at the bar turned and stared at Ennis.
Ennis went over to the table, not looking at the other man sitting down, and said to Jack, "Come on, we're goin."
"What are you talkin about? We only just got here."
"We're leavin, I said."
Jack shook his head but followed Ennis out.
Once in the truck Jack said angrily, "What the fuck was that all about?"
"What the fuck do you think you were doin? It's bad enough everyone knowin, but those roughnecks back there, they knew all about you and your friend. You could get yourself killed."
"I ain't seen Gary for years. We used to rodeo together. I don't tell no one, its nobodies fuckin business, but sometimes things get out, it can't be helped. If your not prepared to deal with that you might as well go back to your miserable life. I told you, I had enough of hidin away in the goddamn cold. We done it your way for the last twenty years. I want more than that for us."
They drove back to the boarding house in silence and took turns at using the bathroom in the hallway still not talking. Jack lay on a bed. Ennis came into the room, drying his face on a towel, and said to Jack, "I don't want to go back to the way things were neither, but I still don't like the idea of people finding out."
"After what you seen as a kid, I don't blame you. Hey, come here." Jack said softly as he grabbed Ennis's wrist, pulling him down on the bed beside him. He pulled up Ennis's shirt and playing with the hair on stomach.
Ennis pulled up Jack's shirt out from the waistband of his jeans and undid his belt. Jack tilted his pelvis closer Ennis's face. Ennis's lips grazed over the front of Jack's jeans, and he pulled off his boots running his hand over his calf muscle. He knelt over Jack, pulling off his own shirt and then pulling off Jack's. Jack lightly grasped Ennis's his hair pulling his head down. They kissed and lay facing one another. Jack stared intently at Ennis and said, "I keep thinkin your goin to get tired of this and leave."
"I told you, that ain't goin happen. I mean things are harder than when you asked me to ranch with you all them years back, but its my fault it didn't happen. We just got to ride this one out."
Ennis rolled Jack onto his back, looking down at him. Not knowing what else to say to allay his doubts, Ennis continued to kiss Jack softly on the mouth until he closed his eyes and the tension left his body. He kissed his neck,tugged down his jeans, and slid his hand under his back. He looked at Jack's face again, and satisfied that that he was no longer preoccupied with whatever it was that was troubling him. He unzipped his own jeans and pressed himself close against Jack, making him aware of his need for him.
The next time Ennis picked Jack up from Laureen's house, when Jack got into the truck he said, "We're goin home."
Ennis grinned, "How soon."
"Tomorrow. The money's been paid to the bank."
"But then Laureen wants you back here."
"No, She's tryin to make a go of it again with the guy she split up with. The last thing she wants is me hangin round at the moment. We won't have nothin. Just be workin to pay off Laureen and I can't do much work for couple of weeks, until the plaster comes off my arm."
"What about Bobby?"
"Bobby will be comin up and stayin for a while. It's something we talked about for a long time. Laureen's busy and her mamma's getting too old to keep an eye on him. Hopefully he'll like it. It ain't goin to be nothing like he's used to. You might not want to stay neither, once you meet my old man."
"He can't be any bigger bastard than what my old man was."
In the morning, before they left for Wyoming, Laureen invited him in the house. He stood awkwardly in the living room with his head bowed.
Jack was talking Bobby about taking him to some rough stock events, and Laureen came and stood next to him. She said in a soft Texan voice, "I hope things work out for you two, really I do, but I don't want Bobby knowing nothing 'bout it. You hear what I'm saying?"
"Sorry ma'am?"
"You know what I mean. You're the one that had Jack all along."
Ennis bit his lip, not knowing what to say, but she had moved away, and was straightening up the collar on Bobby's shirt.
As the truck crossed the Wyoming border, Ennis felt a sense of exhilaration at the vast expanse of red infused sky. As they drove, several bruised clouds shook sleet over the road and buffeted the truck. Jack was talking about visiting his uncle in Sheridan, when the wind picked up and an uprooted tree hurtled along the road in front of them.
Jack said, "Did you see that? I forgot what fuckin winters were like back here."
Ennis didn't reply, he had one hand resting on Jack's thigh and the other on the steering wheel. He was thinking about his girls and his horses. He finally said, "I'm goin to have to get a proper trailer this time of year to pick up the horses. It'll be good to see Junior and Jenny again."
Jack said, "Why don't you invite the girls over?"
Ennis said, "I'm not sure about that. I mean, it bein such a long drive and all."
Jack said, "Here it is, this is my home."" They reached a battered, old fence that led up a drive way to gate with a sign that read, 'John C Twist.'