The Seal's Second Chance Baby

“The boy needs a firm hand,” Mabel noted.

“I know.” He needs his father.

“Let him sulk for a bit. Might do him good.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I see him through the bedroom window. He’s sitting on the swing. Go ahead and grab the wallet, then get in here and eat before your soup gets cold.”

“Yes, ma’am.” In this heat, Effie doubted anything could get cold, but after swallowing the all-too-familiar knot at the back of her throat, she marched back to the barn.

At the moment, that poor stranger needed her help far more than her smart-mouthed son.

* * *

MARSH DRIFTED IN and out of consciousness.

We tried intubating on the way, but he was too combative. He’s bleeding from the site, so we had to restrain him to keep him from pulling tubes out.

Light. So much light. He squinted against the fluorescent track’s glare. Where was his boy? His wife? The angel who’d found him?

How much Crotalidae was given?

He got the initial six, and we’re hanging another six right now.

“Sir? Could you tell us what kind of snake bit you?”

Were they talking to him?

“Sir? Were you bitten by a rattlesnake?”

Marsh tried nodding but couldn’t be sure if he’d even moved.

“Sir, judging by the severity of your symptoms, we need to double-check you weren’t bitten by something more exotic. Are you sure it was a rattler?”

“Y-yes,” Marsh managed. After having to put down one of his grandfather’s best horses when it broke its leg in a prairie dog hole, Marsh had been out on the range, filling as many of the damned things as he could, when the snake lunged without warning. It clamped onto the webby flesh between his thumb and forefinger for an eternity before Marsh shook him free. He’d done his best to stay calm, drunk as much water as he could, then climbed into his chestnut’s saddle, strapping himself in before aiming the horse for home.

Sounds definitive to me. Look at the poor guy. He’s twitching all over. See the fasciculations? How his muscles look like worms under his skin. It’s bad. One of the worst snakebites I’ve seen in a while.

Chapter Two (#u9158c7d8-4d56-5213-92d8-5a766be00fab)

“Marsh Langtree...” Mabel held up the stranger’s ID to check it with her reading glasses. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Is he a neighbor?” They’d finished lunch, and while Mabel fed Cassidy her baby food pears, Effie cleared the kitchen table. “I mean, think about it. I found him on horseback, so he couldn’t have come from too far away.”

“Hmm...” Mabel wiped drool from the baby’s chin.

Cassidy grinned and blew a raspberry.

Effie’s daughter had her blue eyes, but the twins had Moody’s soulful brown gaze. Every time she looked at her boys, Effie could be bitter, but she was only thankful that her brief marriage had created such blessings.

“Seems to me—” Mabel fed Cassidy another bite “—Wallace Stokes has family out east.”

“Who’s Wallace?”

“Let’s just say he’s a neighbor and leave it at that.”

“Why haven’t you mentioned him before? You had to have known him, right?”

“Girl, leave it alone.”

“I’m intrigued.” Effie fitted the stopper in the sink, turned on hot water, then added a squirt of dish soap. “This sounds like a good story.”

“Ha! He’s got a fresh mouth.”

“This just keeps getting better...” Effie didn’t try hiding her grin. Mabel might be a great-grandma three times over, but that didn’t stop her from flirting up a storm every Saturday night she went square dancing. “What did he do?”

“Poor Dwayne had barely been in his grave a year when Wallace showed up at the Grange Hall for dancing and told me I was shakin’ my behind like a wet dog.”

Effie tried not to laugh—really, she did—but Mabel’s pinched scowl was too funny.

“How’s that funny? The man’s a scoundrel.”

“Grandma, even you have to admit that when you’ve had a few beers—”

“I don’t imbibe in spirits, and shame on you for inferring I do. I might have had cider, but that’s all.”

“If you say so.” Effie winked.

“Girl, you’d better be glad you’re too big for a spanking, or else.”

“Sorry, Grandma. But do you have Wallace’s phone number? If so, I’ll give him a call to save you the trouble.”

“Why would I have the old coot’s number?”

“We could try calling information or looking it up online.”

“Girl, I’ve got no patience for your fancy detective work. Go see him in person. It’s that rock house a fair piece down the road with the leaning barn. Not only is the man foulmouthed, but lazy.”

“I’ve never heard you say a bad word about anyone. Is this Wallace character really so bad?”

As if on cue, Cassidy spit out her last bite of pears.

“See?” Mabel said. “If even hearing about the man left a sour taste in this sweet baby’s mouth, then you know what I say is true.”

* * *

THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Effie had finished cleaning the lunch dishes, gotten the sulking twins started on their afternoon chores and allowed her grandmother to coerce her into visiting this supposedly wretched Wallace who might or might not have kin named Marsh Langtree.

She now stood on the man’s front porch, wishing for even a hint of a breeze to cut the oppressive heat.

At least his yard sported three cottonwoods. She welcomed the shade.