What to Read This Weekend?

1/10/2025

When they were finished and packing up, Mal asked Audrey, “Do you mind catching a ride back with the magazine crew?”

Audrey nodded and gave Mal’s forearm a squeeze. “Good luck.”

“Uh-huh.” Mal got closer to Colt, and when the others’ attention was elsewhere, he put one arm around Colt’s shoulders. “I brought a picnic dinner. Stay with me for a while?”

“Sure.” Colt’s face lit up, and Mal pushed away his guilt. Colt was probably expecting a nice romantic evening, and Mal seriously doubted that would happen.

They walked back with the others toward the vehicles. After everyone drove away, Mal pulled a cooler from the back of the truck, and they carried it to the shack. During the entire photo shoot, no one had gone inside, so Mal was surprised to see the remnants of a moonshine still there, scattered across the floor.

“Damn kids. I’ll have to make sure to send someone out here to do checkups more often,” he said, shaking his head. “They’re lucky they didn’t blow themselves up. See how this connects?”

“Yeah,” Colt said and leaned down to look closer.

“Too much heat, and boom.” Mal spread his fingers out. “They must not be from around here since no one sets up a still indoors. Every kid that grew up in this county knows that.”

Colt snorted. “Hell, even I knew that before I came here. How about you set up dinner, and I’ll clear this out?”

“Okay.” Mal picked a spot beside the shack and spread out a blanket. Then he laid out sandwiches, fruit, Colt’s favorite iced fruit tea, cheeses, and hummus.

Colt finished piling up remains of the still beside the shack as the sun was setting. Mal patted the spot beside him. When Colt settled close to him, Mal handed over a glass of tea. “You know, I had a thought about what to call your line of moonshine.”

“Yeah?” Colt bit into a sandwich.

“What do you think of Kensington’s Wild Colt?”

Colt beamed. “I like it.” They were silent for a few moments, watching the final minutes of sunset. “Wow. I didn’t think the view could get better, but wow. One of the things that drew me here was a brochure I found at the bus stop for the distillery. There were photos of the Smokies in the background. I fell asleep on the bus, and when I woke up, we were crossing a bridge, the sun was coming up, and the ‘smoke’ was rising off the mountains. It took my breath away.”

“I’m glad you stopped here,” Mal said. “You’ve been here for months, and I still keep learning new things about you.”

“It goes both ways,” Colt admitted.

Mal leaned over and kissed Colt lightly before saying, “Wait until it gets completely dark.” He waved at the food. “Dig in.”

By the time they finished dinner, the first stars were beginning to pop out. Colt lay back and folded his arms under his head. “You know that song at the beginning of Firefly that says you can’t take the sky from me?”

“Yes.” Mal drew a deep, shaky breath and reached into his coat for the papers.

“I bet whoever wrote that was looking at something like this.”

“You may be right,” Mal said.

Colt pushed onto his elbows. “Are you okay? You’ve been acting funny all day.”

“Yes. No. Colt, there’s something I have to talk to you about, some paperwork.” Mal pulled the papers out and held them against his knees to still the shaking of his hands.

“Geez, I thought for a minute you were breaking up with me.”

“No. That didn’t even cross my mind,” Mal said softly.

Colt sat up and tugged on the rolled-up papers. “Well, are you going to let me see them?”

“I…. Colt, we should talk—”

“Did ya bring a pen? Or do I have to jab my finger and sign in blood?” It was too late. Colt had pulled the document from Mal’s hand, taken out his phone, and was using the flashlight to illuminate the pages while he read.

Mal tried to take the document. “Colt, I need to—”

Colt yanked the papers out of Mal’s reach. He was no longer smiling, and he wasn’t teasing. “What the fuck? You hire me to do public appearances, and now you think I want to steal your company!”

“No, Colt, of course not. But I mentioned before there is a board of directors and stockholders, and that means we have to—”

“Shut up,” Colt shouted and scrambled to his feet, still holding the sheaf of papers. He stormed toward the path, then turned long enough to shout, “You kept telling me you’d take care of the board. This is taking care of it?”

“Where’re you going?”

“Home.” Colt stopped and whirled to face Mal. “Or a hotel since I might try to swipe your house too.” He turned on his heels and started to run.