He remembered running outside first thing in the morning, so eager to start the new day that Annie had to threaten him with her wooden spoon to get him to eat breakfast. As soon as he'd wolfed it down, he'd race back out to find the creatures that waited for him: squirrels and raccoons, skunks, possums, and the occasional black bear. Bears weren't as common now. The chestnut blight had wiped out their favorite feed, and the acorns that replaced them weren't nearly as reliable a food source.
He missed them. He missed working with animals. But he couldn't think about that now. He had a drive-in to run.
The thought depressed him. He moved down off the step and gazed toward the old garden. Last summer, his mother and Cal's wife Jane had tended it during the period when they'd both moved out on their husbands. It was overgrown again, although he could see where someone-Rachel, probably, since she didn't seem to know how to relax-had begun tidying it.
A shrill, high-pitched scream broke the morning stillness. It was coming from the front, and he shot around the side of the house, his heart pounding, thinking that this time it would be worse than painted graffiti.
He came to a dead stop as he saw the boy standing alone on the front porch, near the far end. He was still dressed in his pajamas and frozen in fear as he stared down at something that was blocked from Gabe's view.
Gabe ran forward and immediately spotted what had made Edward scream. A small snake coiled against the wall of the house.
He reached it in three swift strides. Shoving his hand through the railing, he snatched up the snake before it could slither away.
Rachel came flying out the front door. 'Edward! What's wrong? What's-' She saw the snake hanging from Gabe's hand.
Gabe regarded the cowering child with impatience. 'It's only a garter snake.' He held the snake toward the boy. 'See that yellow down its back? That's how you know it won't hurt you. Go on. You can touch it.'
Edward shook his head and took a step backward.
'Go on,' Gabe commanded. 'I told you it won't hurt you.'
Edward shrank farther back.
Rachel was at Edward's side in an instant, babying him as usual. 'It's all right, sweetie. Garter snakes are friendly. There used to be lots of them on the farm where Mommy grew up.'
She straightened and gave Gabe a look of cold fury. Reaching down, she snatched the snake from his hand and pitched it over the railing. 'See. We'll let it go so it can find its family.'
Gabe regarded her with reproach. She was never going to make a man out of the boy if she kept protecting him like this. Gabe had exposed Jamie to snakes when he was a toddler, making sure he could tell the good ones from the poisonous ones, and he'd loved touching them. The voice of reason told him there was a big difference between a child who'd grown up with snakes and one who hadn't, but his son was dead, and he couldn't listen to reason.
Edward curled against her. She patted his head. 'How about some breakfast, Mr. Early Bird?'
He nodded against her belly, and Gabe could barely make out his words. 'Pastor Ethan said I was s'posed to come to Sunday school today.'
Rachel looked annoyed. 'Maybe some other time.'
He mentally cursed his brother for planting the idea in the boy's head. Ethan hadn't given a moment's thought to what Rachel would go through if she walked into a church service.
'That's what you said last Sunday,' Edward complained.
'Let's open the new box of Cheerios.'
'I want to go today.'
Gabe couldn't stand listening to the kid argue. 'Do what your mother says.'
Rachel whirled on him. She began to speak, only to clamp her mouth shut and hustle her son inside.
Gabe avoided them both by taking a long walk in the woods until he found the place where he used to keep his animal sanctuary. He'd built some cages when he was. around ten or eleven and used them to doctor whatever wounded animals either he or his friends happened to find. Looking back, he was surprised at how many he'd been able to save.
The memory brought him only sadness. Now he didn't even want to be around animals. He'd been able to heal so many living creatures, but he couldn't heal himself.
He wasn't ready to face either Rachel or the boy, so he headed into town, where he picked up coffee at McDonald's. Afterward, he made his way toward Ethan's church and parked in his accustomed place a block away. He'd been attending services the last few Sundays, always sitting in the back, coming in late and leaving early so he didn't have to talk to anyone.
Rachel had turned her back on God, but he'd never quite been able to do that. His faith wasn't strong like his brother's, and it hadn't helped him. But something was there, and he couldn't let it go.
Despite his recent irritation with Ethan, he liked hearing him preach. Ethan wasn't one of those irritatingly righteous men of God who thundered absolutes and acted as if they had the only pipeline to heaven. Ethan preached tolerance and forgiveness, justice and compassion-everything, Gabe realized, that Ethan wasn't showing to Rachel. His brother had never been a hypocrite, and Gabe couldn't understand it.
He glanced across the congregation and saw that he wasn't the only latecomer. Kristy Brown sneaked into a rear pew long after the Prayer of Confession. She wore a yellow dress with a very short skirt, and her expression practically dared people to make something of it. He smiled to himself. Like everyone else in Salvation, he'd never paid much attention to Kristy unless he'd needed something done. Now she'd become a force to be reckoned with.
After the service, he drove to Gal's house and called his brother to tell him he was moving out for a while. When Cal heard why, he exploded.
'You're moving in with the Widow Snopes? Ethan said you were tangled up with her, but I didn't believe him. Now you're living with her?'
'It's not like that,' Gabe replied, even though that wasn't quite the truth. 'She's become a target around here, and I think she's in danger.'
'Then let Odell take care of it.'
Gabe heard a soft little mouse-like squeal in the background, and realized it was coming from his niece. Rosie was a beautiful baby, full of mischief and already itching to try her wings. A small pain lodged in his chest.
'Look, Gabe, I've talked to Ethan. I know you've always had a weakness for wounded animals, but this wounded animal is a rattlesnake. Anybody who's been with you for five minutes can tell you're an easy mark when it comes to money, and-Hey!'
'Gabe?' His sister-in-law's voice cut in. Although Gabe had only been with Dr. Jane Darlington Bonner a few times, he had immediately taken to her. She was brainy, assertive, and decent, exactly what Cal needed after making a career out of youthful bimbos.
'Gabe, don't listen to him,' Jane said. 'Don't listen to Ethan either. I like the Widow Snopes.'
Gabe felt duty-bound to point out the obvious. 'That's nice to hear, but I don't believe you've ever met her, have you?'
'No,' his sister-in-law replied in her no-nonsense voice. 'But I lived in her awful house. When Cal and I were having all our trouble-I know it sounds silly, but whenever I was in her bedroom or the nursery, I'd feel this funny kinship with her. There was this wickedness about the rest of the house, and a goodness about those two rooms. I always thought it came from her.'
He heard a bark of skeptical laughter from his brother in the background,
Gabe smiled. 'Rachel's the farthest thing I can imagine from a saint, Jane. But you're right. She's a good person, and she's having a tough time. Try to keep big brother off my back for a while, will you?'
'I'll do my best. Good luck, Gabe.'
He made some other calls, including one to Odell Hatcher, then packed up the perishables from the refrigerator and headed back to Heartache Mountain. It was mid-afternoon when he parked next to the garage. The cottage windows were open and the front door unlocked, but Rachel and the boy weren't inside.
He carried the groceries into the kitchen and unloaded them in the refrigerator. When he turned around, he saw the boy standing just inside the back door. He'd entered so quietly that Gabe hadn't heard him.
Gabe remembered the way Jamie had flown into their big old rambling North Georgia farmhouse, door
