“Mostly I have work friends and the friends I train with for competitions are co-ed.”
“But not onespecialfriend?”
Could she hear herself? Yes.
Did she like herself? No.
She was on a rescue mission, not a date.
She should shut the hell up.
And yet, “The guy you tell all your innermost secrets to. The one you feel the most comfortable with.”
“My brother fit that bill, but he passed. I still talk to him every day.” He paused and worked his jaw before adding, “He doesn’t answer back, of course. So I talk to Whiskey. Which in the end is how we came into each other’s spheres.”
They walked silently for a while, then Gabriel said, “My brother, Daniel, he’s buried in the graveyard across the street from your house.”
“Oh, dear.” Sommer stopped and turned toward Gabriel, squeezing his hand a little tighter with sympathy. “I knew from reading the article from the Sweet Gum search that he had died.I didn’t realize he was buried at the church.” Then she touched her heart and stopped talking, sending empathy through her glance, not wanting to shift into one of those awkward dances that happen in conversations in the wake of a loss.
Gabriel squeezed her hand back, and they kept walking.
“You said that’s how we came to be in each other’s spheres. And I’m suddenly wondering how it was that you were at my house to see my sister, and why it would be that you would think to stop and help her. Knowing about the time you reached my signal arrows, that had to have been at sunup this morning.”
“It’s a bit of a story.”
“We have hours on the trail. Talking makes it bearable.”
“Agreed, but we could find something else to talk about. I find you easy to talk to.”
“Thank you, but no.” Sommer had felt the tension radiating from Gabriel’s hand into hers. For a moment, she considered pulling free, then she decided their holding hands was too big a help, too kind a gesture, for her to turn away, at least until she figured out what this was about. “No, I think I’d like to hear this.”
As they rounded the trail, they came to the place where Abbie and Marna had fallen in the stream.
Gabriel stopped and considered the place where a bridge had once stood.
“We think this is where Abbie and Marna contracted the Norovirus. They fell in while we were crossing. Whiskey, sweetheart, come away,” she called.
“Here?” Gabriel released Sommer’s hand and pulled the leash back to keep Whiskey from touching the water.
“We walked upstream, where we found some logs. Marna tried to walk across, and the log rolled. Abbie went in to help. I crawled across like a snail.” She looked down at Whiskey. “I’m not sure how this can work.”
Gabriel scratched his cheek, then looked up and down the stream. “Can you show me?”
At the log, Gabriel pushed it from either side. He shucked his backpack, then found sticks and rocks to make blocks to keep the log from shifting.
He tested his work then picked up his bag.
Sommer was going to remember that trick.
Gabriel positioned his bag on the log before climbing up behind it. “I’m going to test the theory. I’ll be right back.” He held the pack against his chest like a baby. With four gallons of water and whatever else he had with him, it had to weigh over fifty pounds.
He was graceful and athletic, moving across the log.
After setting the backpack down, he retraced his steps, asking Sommer to please wait, but reaching for her pack. With that on his back and Whiskey in his arms, over he went again.
“Down, stay,” Gabriel commanded as he put her pack next to his.
Now he made his way back to Sommer’s side of the stream and reached for her hand, keeping her steady all the way across, then putting his hands on her waist to jump her down.
