Wounded Read Online Free PDF

the horse to her stall, and walked to the house. My body felt creaky.
    “Who goes there?” Gus called as I stepped into the kitchen.
    “Who does the fancy chariot belong to?” I asked.
    “That would be mine.” It was Morgan Reese from the neighboring ranch. She was a frequent visitor.
    “Hey there, Morgan,” I said. “What’s up with the new wheels?”
    “I got sick of driving a truck to Billings,” she said.
    “How much will it tow?” I asked.
    “Who cares,” she said, “it’s a guy magnet. So where were you? Scaring cougars or kissing elk?”
    “A little of both.” I moved to take a seat at the table across from her, but I remembered and felt how dirty I was. “Are you going to stick around and have some dinner with us?”
    “Gus already asked and I said ‘you bet.’”
    “Well. If you two will excuse me, I’ll go upstairs and try to get cleaned up. It’s one thing to come in after a ride and settle down to chow with a scraggly old geezer, but it’s something else to sit down to a meal with a spiffy cowgirl who drives up in a white convertible.”
    I walked up the stairs, undressed, and left my clothes on the bathroom floor. I stepped into the shower and found myself thinking about Morgan. She was around a lot. I wasn’t stupid or blind and so I knew she had a crush on me. I didn’t mind her presence, in fact, it was sort of nice, and I tried to rationalize that by recognizing her as a good friend for Gus. Susie had been dead for six years and I know that most people would have moved on in that time, but I couldn’t seem to. I missed my wife and I knew that wouldn’t go away; I honestly didn’t want that feeling to pass. But I had trouble imagining myself close to anyone again. My clumsiness around Morgan made me feel tense, uneasy, and my defense was to step away and the step away made me feel bad and so I felt more awkward still. While I dried, staring at my face in the mirror, I was amused by my all too apparent observation that I wasn’t getting any younger.
    “Hey, Hunt!” Morgan called up the stairs.
    “What do you want?”
    “Get your fanny down here!”
    “I’m coming. Just let me put some pants on.” I pulled on a clean pair of khakis and a white shirt and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.
    “You clean up real nice,” Morgan said.
    “Thank you ma’am,” I said.
    Gus shook his head over by the sink. “Don’t lie to the poor bastard. He’ll start to believe it, then he’ll think he can stop trying.”
    “What’s to eat?” I asked.
    “Meat and taters,” Gus said. “And a leek, watercress, and endive salad.”
    I sat down at the table with Morgan. “You’ve been reading the magazines at the doctor’s office again.”
    “What if I have?” he said. “Anyway, this just happened to be one of my favorites when I was in prison.”
    Morgan laughed.
    Gus was not shy about the fact that he’d been locked away for a while. He didn’t broadcast the information, but he never hid it.
    Morgan drank from her water glass. “That Castlebury is going to get more than prison.”
    Gus put the rest of the food on the table and sat down.
    “I guess somebody saw him kill that boy,” Morgan said. “That’s what I heard anyway.”
    “What else did you hear?” Gus asked.
    I took some potatoes from the dish.
    Gus gestured toward me with his fork. “Mr. Above-It-All over there thinks it’s none of our business.”
    “It is now,” Morgan said. “The boy he killed was gay and the word is Castlebury got mad when he made a pass at him. We’re in the news because of all this. It’s awful. Imagine that poor boy.”
    Gus whistled. “It’s a terrible thing, killing somebody.” Gus was quiet and we gave the moment its head.
    Morgan looked at me. “Hunt, how would you feel if a man made a pass at you? Would it get you upset?”
    “Never thought about it.”
    “Well, think about it,” she said.
    “I guess I ought to be flattered,” I said, shrugging.
    “What