“And the ruler of Mason, from what I hear. I’ve heard ‘Ask Adam’ a dozen times. Doesn’t he have a brother who gets into trouble?” When Cait didn’t answer, he glanced at her. “Did I put my foot in it?”

“No.” Her voice was quiet. “Adam had a younger brother, Robert, called Robbie. He was killed in Vietnam.”

“I’m sorry about that. That war seems so long ago but it still affects people. Did he—?”

“There!” Cait said loudly. “That’s it.”

The sun was up enough that they could see the old house. The pink dawn light looked good on the gray siding. The house was perfectly symmetrical, with tall windows and a wide front door.

“It’s quite beautiful,” he said. “Who owns it?”

“Adam. Or maybe Kelly. Their lands have merged. Or maybe they’re separate, I don’t know. But I do know that Heritage Harvests land butts up against this.”

He parked in front of the house and turned off the engine. “If I asked you to stay in the car, what would you do?”

“Say yes, then stay right here.”

She was so insincerely sincere that he laughed. Then he grabbed blankets from the back. “If you can, throw that over him. Do not try to capture him, hold him, touch him or—”

“Got it!” she said as she stepped down. “Too bad I’m not Kelly. She’d sit down on the grass and the critter would crawl onto her lap.” She was looking at him.

“Nope, not me. I’m not magical. Just a grown-up kid who can’t stand to see an animal in pain. Now, no more talking. Listen and watch.”

They separated, going around the house, each carrying a blanket.

Caitlyn heard the sounds first. She waited until he came to her side, then pointed under the old house. He got down on his stomach, a small flashlight in hand, to look in the crawl space.

He stood up. “She’s under there and I think I see the problem. I’m going under and will get her out.”

“If the animal is rabid, maybe you should call someone.”

“I am the one they’d call.” He was smiling at her. “I’m going to tranquilize her and bring her out. I think she’s injured.”

“But...” Caitlyn began, then stopped. “Tell me what to do.”

“Just wait here and be ready with the blanket.”

She got down on her stomach and watched him snake himself under the old house. The floor was a foot and a half off the ground and there were old cans and bottles, rocks and millions of spiderwebs under there.

He was talking softly, soothingly, to the animal, calming it, reassuring it.

Then suddenly there was a tussle. The animal screeched and Coop moved backward, but he didn’t come out.

Caitlyn waited. It was too dark to see much and she didn’t want to disturb the mood with her questions.

It seemed like a long time before he came back out and in his arms was a blanket-wrapped bundle. He peeled it back to show her the sleeping raccoon.