Then Buddy aimed an upper-cut to Gray’s jaw, I whimpered but, again, lightning fast but still almost casually, Gray lifted a forearm and deflected the blow before his fist even came close.
Then he stepped in, chest-to-chest, nose-to-nose and rumbled quietly and terrifyingly, “You came to my home on my land when my woman was alone and you called her slut?”
“Step back, Cody,” Buddy demanded, tried to slide out from in front of Gray again but Gray just shoved him back.
“Fuckin’ answer me,” Gray ordered.
Buddy finally realized he was going nowhere so his eyes went beyond Gray to the two officers and he asked irritably, “Aren’t you gonna do anything?”
My head turned toward them to see one had his hands to his hips, the other his arms crossed on his chest, both of their eyes were on Gray and Buddy and neither moved nor spoke.
They weren’t going to do anything.
Buddy realized this too and went back to Gray.
“Step back!” he screeched.
“What is the matter with you?” Gray asked.
“Fuck you!” was Buddy’s answer.
Gray kept his face in Buddy’s and thundered, “What is the matter with you?”
“Get off!” Buddy shouted.
“What did I do?” Gray asked.
“Get off!”
“What the fuck did I do?” Gray repeated. “Fuckin’ decades, Bud, decades you played this game. Then you took my fuckin’ woman away from me. Seven years. Seven fuckin’ years, Bud. In that time, you got two girls. What did you take from Ivey and me? I’m marryin’ her next year but that house right behind you should have my kids in it by now and you took that away from her and me.”
At Gray’s words, Hoot Booker’s arms flexed powerfully around me but I kept my eyes glued to Gray and Buddy.
“Step the fuck back,” Buddy hissed.
“You diseased my trees, you poisoned my horses, you burned down my barn, you tried to take my land from me. Why? I don’t get it. Why the fuck would you do this sick, crazy, whacked out shit? What’s the matter with you? Give me one fuckin’ thing in the miserable time I’ve known you and explain to me what the fuck I did to you.”
“Just like you, the Great Grayson Cody, thinkin’ everything is about you,” Buddy sneered.
“You and I been livin’ in the same town at the same time all our lives but I don’t know you and you sure as fuck don’t know me so you don’t know you can say that kinda shit about me,” Gray shot back.
Buddy glared at him a second and then demanded, “Fuck off and let me pass.”
Buddy misinterpreted Gray seemingly calming down (a bit) because at his demand, Gray put his hand in Buddy’s chest and shoved him hard into the house. When Buddy’s body swayed back out, Gray did it again and his head slammed against the side.
Then Gray got nose-to-nose with him again and barked, “Explain this shit to me!”
“It’s not about you! It has not one fuckin’ thing to do with you!” Buddy shouted back. “It’s about the land!”
I stopped straining and stared in shock. Gray moved back three inches and did the same.
Buddy, though, now it was Buddy who was unleashed and he went wild.
Throwing his arms out then slapping his hand against the side of the house, he began.
“Since I could remember, all Granddaddy talked about was Cody land. Then my father went on and on and fuckin’ on about it. ‘Good neighbors but that sure is some damn pretty land.’” His last words, undoubtedly repeating his father, were sarcastic and biting. “And I took Granddaddy’s shit, I took Dad’s shit. Want me up on a horse. Want me muckin’ fuckin’ horseshit. Want me ridin’ the fences with the ranch hands. Want me out herding the cattle. Want me in the pens wrestlin’ fuckin’, filthy, stinkin’ calves. Fuck that. I got no interest in that. Do they care?” He shook his head. “No. ‘You’re a Sharp, Bud, quit pissin’ around and be a fuckin’ Sharp.’” More of Jeb Sharp’s words to his son coming out snide with his face twisted. “So I decided, he wouldn’t let me be me, he only would let me be what he wanted me to be, I’d be what I fuckin’ wanted to be and I’d see about taking what he most wanted. I’d sit in this house on this land with my family. A Sharp would be here but he’d know it would be me, he’d know this was all mine, he’d know I got what he wanted, what his Daddy wanted, what his Daddy’s Daddy wanted, I got. And it would be mine, not his and fuck him. Fuck him.”
“This shit is true, then why the fuck did you take Ivey from me?” Gray asked.