Page 18

M arco and Gertie were waving me toward them. Another cannon blast hit close to the trees, and they disappeared in a thick cloud. I circled around behind the neck of the woods where I had last seen Caiyan. Thankfully, the shooting had stopped, and the sound of cannons rumbled further into the distance.

I took cover behind a giant spruce and peeked at my pocket watch. Seven thirty. The battle for Culp’s Hill now occupied the attention of the generals—except General Lee, who, because of me, was AWOL.

The air settled into a hot, soupy haze that clung to my clothes and dampened my hair hidden under the dark wig. Keeping a lookout for the Mafusos, and my head down in case the ceasefire decided not to cease, I moved inward.

If what Ace said was true and Caiyan had been to this time before, I wasn’t sure which Caiyan I was dealing with. My heart pained if the Mafusos dropped him here and I was too late. Had his young self appeared and ripped the man I loved from the fabric of time? I pushed the thought aside.

I moved stealthily through the trees. He stood, foot propped up on a boulder, transferring the weight of his pack by leaning with an elbow on his knee. He used a handkerchief to mop his brow. He pocketed the handkerchief, took a drink from his canteen. Replacing the cap, he began to move toward my landing area.

The age seemed right. Certainly, older than the man who took the sword from Mr. Raney in Purley. If the man I saw was my Caiyan, he wouldn’t recognize me in this getup, dressed as a man, and that could be dangerous.

I removed my hat and wig, shaking my hair free.

Caiyan disappeared from my sight.

I hastily manscaped the beard and tucked the disguise into my hat. Securing the hat in the crook of my arm, I hurried after him. At least he’d take a second look before shooting me.

From the looks of things, he’d been busy confiscating gear after he arrived. He didn’t carry the rifled musket, standard issue for a soldier, but instead holstered a handgun in the front of his belt. A far cry from the tuxedo he wore only hours earlier.

The last image of him standing at the altar with Mahlia sent the mercury climbing. When I was a few feet from him, my mouth took over, leaving my brain behind.

“You were going to marry her!” I couldn’t help myself. The words came out before I could stop them.

He whipped around, drawing his Colt Remington revolver, and aimed it my way. His eyes grew wide at my disguise, then sparked with a familiar anger.

“Sunshine, I asked ye to trust me. Yet here ye are.” He waved the gun horizontally in front of him. “This is not jest dangerous, ’tis suicide. These men don’t care tha’ yer a woman, although they willnae be able to tell.” He eyed my uniform. “Is that a mustache?”

My hands flew to my mouth. I had forgotten to remove the furry upper lip. I lifted my chin and puffed out my flattened chest. “Who gives a rat’s ass if I’m a woman? I can defend myself. Besides, you’re the bad guy now, I’m here to arrest you.”

“Arrest me?” He laughed and lowered his weapon. “Go home, Jen. I order ye to go home.”

“You can’t order me around. You’re not my defender anymore.”

His shoulders slumped and the hard muscles in his jaw tightened. “I dinnae want ye here. Thought I took every precaution to keep ye safe.”

“I found the sword.”

His brow furrowed and he pressed his lips tight, pausing from his lecture.

“My shoe closet was a terrible hiding place.” I wafted my hand at him nonchalantly. “It was the first place I looked.” Not entirely true, but whatever.

“Go home!”

“I’m not going home without answers, and…Marco and Gertie. We got separated and I need to find them.”

“Ye brought Gertie here? Has the entire bunch of ye gone mad?”

“Gertie is a competent authority on Gettysburg.” I wagged a finger at him and met his glare.

“You go home now!” he shouted at me.

“I have to complete my mission and find my defender.”

“I’m yer defender, and I order ye to go home!”

“Not anymore. You can’t play that card.” I held my ground.

“Bloody hell. Why did Agent McCoy send ye onto the battlefield?”

“He didn’t. I landed here. I had business.”

“Cripes.”

A branch broke behind me, and Marco stepped into our hidden cluster of brush, his face flush from heavy breathing and his musket pointed in our direction. When he saw Caiyan, he lowered his gun.

“Thank God, I didn’t know what happened to you and I heard you shout.” Marco said, placing his hand against the tree trunk to catch his breath. “I see you found the brigand.”

“Yer supposed to be watching oot fir her.” Caiyan yelled at Marco.

Marco straightened and growled at Caiyan. “I’m keeping her bed warm, isn’t that what you did?”

Caiyan’s face dropped for a moment, then anger replaced the shock.

My mouth hung open. I couldn’t find the words to explain.

Caiyan’s face flushed a savage red. He waved his gun in the air. “Ye take her home now!”

“I can’t—” Marco started, but Caiyan cut him off.

“Ye weel,” he pointed his revolver at Marco and shot him in the leg. Marco fell to the ground, holding his thigh.

“You crazy sonofabitch! You shot me!”

I rushed to Marco’s side.

He held pressure on his thigh with one hand and scrambled for his rifle with the other. I pushed it out of his reach as Gertie stepped into the area.

She gasped when she saw the blood oozing from between Marco’s fingers.

“What happened?” she asked me.

“Caiyan shot Marco,” I answered.

“Why would you do that?” she hollered at Caiyan. She bent down over the two of us.

While I applied pressure to his bleeding leg, Gertie fumbled through the pack Marco had stolen and came up with a tourniquet. “Here, let me use this.” I moved aside, and she knelt to apply the contraption.

“These guns don’t have good aim. You could have killed me,” Marco shouted at Caiyan, following up with a string of profanities.

Caiyan walked over. He tapped Marco with the edge of his boot, “’Tis only a flesh wound. Now she must take ye home. And dinnae come back! I willnae be here much longer.”

“I can’t!” Tears threatened as my anger spewed. “I can’t summon my vessel.”

“Dinnae mess wit’ me, Sunshine.”

“General Lee went inside my outhouse and it left. I tried calling it back, but it won’t come.”

His gaze fixated on me, and for the first time, I noticed his weary, bloodshot eyes.

“She’s telling the truth,” Gertie said.

He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was trying to control his internal beast from strangling me. Removing his hand, he glared at Marco. “For fuck’s sake, don’t die.”

“Now he’s worried about me, or should I say he’s worried about himself. You sack of shit.” Marco scowled at me. “Why can’t you see him for what he really is.”

Gunshots sounded in the distance. The second wave of attack was commencing on Little Round Top.

Caiyan walked away from us, cut through the brush.

I left Marco in Gertie’s care and followed him.

He stood at the edge of the small hill and scanned the trees for soldiers.

My back ached from my gear. I set my hat down, removed the heavy medical bag. The sword dangled at my side, free from the weight of the gear that hung on top of it. I walked up behind him.

“Why are you here?” I asked him.

He spoke without turning around. “The Mafusos have a seer, but no key. I know of a seer, but she doesnae have her key here. The Mafusos think she does.”

“A seer? Like Pickles?”

“Aye, my plan was to get my key and warn the seer the Mafusos will take her. I didnae expect them to force me into marriage, ’twas their safety net.”

“You didn’t have to marry her.”

He turned toward me. His eyes softened when they met mine.

“Hurting you was the hardest part, but my intentions were for the greater good. Unfortunately, Gian-Carlo refused to return my key until after I proved my loyalty to him.”

“Proved your loyalty by marrying Mahlia,” I huffed.

“Toches knows of the seer. He’s using his information of her to win the respect of Gian-Carlo and bargain his way into the Mafuso family. The Mafusos have been trying to find her since I dangled the sword under their noses.”

“You were driven by the Thunder key, you didn’t know it was possessed,” I moved closer wanting to wrap my arms around him but chose to keep my distance.

His shoulders slumped. “Toches found her last cycle, almost snagged her.”

“The girl,” I said. My mind clicked the pieces together. “In Salem.”

“Ye were there?” His eyes widened.

“Yep. My assignment.”

“Gian-Carlo locked me up last moon cycle. Toches said he tried fir her but failed. He dinnae tell me ye were there.”

“He’s sneaky that way.”

“Aye, dinnae go as planned. Gian-Carlo was naugh happy with Toches. The old man realized he wouldn’t find the sword withoot me, and…” He stopped mid-sentence. “Where did ye get that?” He pointed to the sword I had taken off the fallen soldier. The sheathed weapon angled at my side.

“I accidentally landed on a guy,” His brows tightened together, and I cleared up the confusion. “But he was already dead. I thought it was your sword, but there’s no engraving on the blade.”

“Bloody hell, ye shoudnae be here.” His anger flared again.

“You should quit keeping secrets and let me help you,” I said, matching his tone.

“Was the man ye killed—”

“Correction, landed on.”

He moved close to me. So close I wanted to brush a kiss across his lips. I reminded myself not an hour ago this guy was standing at the altar with Satan’s bitch spouting I weel.

“Did he have a scar alongside his cheek like so?” Caiyan ran his finger down my cheek.

“Yes.” My stomach knotted. The direction of our conversation wasn’t sounding good.

“I’m too late.” He dropped his arms to his sides and stepped away from me.

“Too late?”

“The man’s name was Boon. He traveled with the seer I’m looking fir. He was my contact. I believe he scratched the message into the blade and gave Sam Raney the sword.”

I bit my bottom lip. “But I have it.”

“Jest as weel, this trip has gone to shite.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mahlia didnae want to marry me.” He almost looked upset. “At least that’s what I thought.”

“Why didn’t she want to marry you?”

“Sunshine, ye didnae accept my proposal either.”

“You were under the influence of the Thunder key.”

“Ye dinnae know that at the time.” His green eyes cut through me like laser beams.

“You’re changing the subject.”

He shook his head at me in surrender. “The wedding was naugh supposed to go as far as it did.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When Gian-Carlo ordered me to marry Mahlia and find the seer before he would return my key, she offered to help me.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”

Ignoring my sarcasm, he continued. “Mahlia told me she had no interest in marrying me and promised to transport me before we said I do.” He spread his hands and wiggled his fingers. “Smoke and mirrors.”

“I guess you were surprised when she walked down the aisle without her key.”

He paused for a moment, taking in the fact I was at the wedding. He chuckled. “I shouldae known ye wouldn’t miss it.”

“And you didn’t think she would double-cross you?”

“I dinnae know what to think. I went along with the wedding until I could figure oot a plan. After I said my vows, that’s when Toches dropped a smoke bomb and signaled for me to follow him from the house. He transported me here.”

“We should have known he could transport.”

Caiyan thought about my words for a moment, assembling the puzzle pieces. “Toches can transport, but only if he’s wearing a transporter’s key.”

“Like Ace,” I said.

“Aye, I suspected such, but didnae know for certain.” He paused. “They conspired together, Mahlia and Toches.”

And a piece of the puzzle clicked into place. The colorful silk shirts in Caiyan’s apartment, the jealousy I felt when I read Toches in the jail cell at Gitmo, and Mahlia’s panties in my closet. Mahlia and Toches were an item.

“My guess is they’ve been doing more than conspiring.”

Caiyan paused as he connected the dots. “Wouldnae have pegged her to go for the likes of him.”

“And not the likes of you?”

He frowned. “I told Toches the seer doesnae have the key. He said I have three days, and once he has the seer, he’d take me back to our time. I ditched him so I could warn Boon; he’s out there searching for me.”

“He won’t take you back.” I knew if Toches was having an affair with Mahlia, Caiyan stood in the way to his happily ever after. “They’ve been living together in your apartment. She has her things in my closet!”

His face clouded. “I thought it wouldae a good idea for Mahlia to be seen at the apartment, to convince everyone the wedding was the real deal. I dinnae know she moved in, and I dinnae know aboot Toches. I’ve been staying at the Mafusos’ house in Amagansett.”

“Toches was wrong about the three days. You can’t stay, you’ve already been here.” When he raised a questioning eyebrow, I answered. “Jake has your travel dates, and Ace and Brodie confirmed. Why didn’t you tell Toecheese?”

“I hoped to find Boon before he died, save him, and warn the seer. Maybe she would have had a better life.” He released a long, slow breath. “I thought I still had time, but the wedding didnae go as planned, and I guess I’ve arrived too late.”

A silence settled between us over the reality of our situation.

“I didnae know how Toches figured oot it was Gettysburg.”

“Someone stole the sword from my closet. I think it was Toches.”

He paused for a moment. “He knew I wasnae going to bring him the key. He’s using me to gain Gian-Carlo’s respect.”

Gertie exploded through the trees. A branch whipped her across the face, and she stood stupefied. Shaking off the surprise attack, she focused on us. “They’re taking him.”

“Who?”

“The medics. They’re loading Marco on a stretcher.”

“They cannae see us together. They’ll think yer a spy.” Caiyan drew his gun.

I held up a hand at him and nudged Gertie toward the medics. “Go with Marco. You’re a nurse, sort of. Act like you should be there. I’ll come find you when I figure out a way to get us out of here.”

Gertie’s face paled. “I’m not really a nurse.”

I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked firmly into her worried blue eyes. “Gertie you’re a strong woman. Keep Marco safe, and I’ll find you. I promise.”

She gave a shaky nod and headed off in the direction of the medics.

“Don’t let them cut off his leg,” I hollered after her.

Caiyan took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair. When his eyes met mine, they grew glassy. Either due to dust or dignity, I couldn’t be certain. He tossed the hat aside and walked further away from me, collecting his thoughts, then turned back toward me.

“Jen, I’m sorry. I love you and that shouldae been enough fir me. I thought I could fix the problem I created when I was under the influence of the Thunder key and get my key back at the same time.” He dropped his head. “’Tis my fault yer stuck here in this deathtrap.”

“What’s your escape plan?” I asked him. “How are you planning to get home without your key?”

“Now that I know Toches is against me, I’ve no way home.”

“What do you mean, no way home?”

I’d never seen Caiyan without a plan B. He always had a backup plan, a way out.

“Caiyan, you can’t be serious. I’m going to watch you die?”

“I’m not sure what happens, ’tis been told when a traveler rips the thread of time, they no longer exist.”

“Caiyan, there has to be another way.” My palms began to sweat. “How do we find the seer?”

“There’s no time. In the past, after I arrived and found Boon dead, I met Sam Raney and went to Longstreet’s camp. We found the seer. She traveled with Pickett’s division. They havenae arrived yet. She willnae be there now.”

General George Pickett. He led the attack on the center of the Union line in what was referred to as Pickett’s charge. It was the worst of all the battles at Gettysburg.

“We have to find the seer.”

“Jen, there’s soldiers camped throughout these woods. I willnae be able to find her withoot being shot, or captured, and there’s no time.” He placed a hand on my arm. “If ye interact wit’ the young me, it could change things.” His eyes held steady with mine. “But I’ll be keepin’ my memories of us as they stand.” He pulled me in, and I breathed in the heady scent of earth and the familiar pinch of cinnamon. He lowered his lips and kissed me.

With my anger at him forgotten, I clung to him, unable to remove my arms. A tear spilled down my cheek.

He chuckled. “You’re mustache tickles. I’ve never been hugged by a man in such a way. If the Rebels find us like this, weel…it wouldnae be good.”

Releasing him, I stepped back. There had to be another solution. “You damaged the sword in Purley. What did it say?”

He turned toward me. The sun low on the horizon silhouetted his solid frame. My pocket watch ticked. Minutes, an hour at the most.

“When I was younger, and not working for the WTF, I found the sword at the museum. I saw the message and knew it was from Boon. ’Twas code to meet him. Ye see, the seer, she’s a bit of a crusader. Often finds herself into wee troubles.” A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “When I saw the markings on the sword, I traveled back to the original owner to find out how he came aboot it. Next moon cycle, I came here. Dinnae realize until I was at the Raney house that I was the one who put it in the museum.”

The loop made my head spin.

“If ye wait oot the moon cycle, Ace can come get ye next cycle.”

I nodded and brushed away the tears.

“That’s if Mortas doesn’t find us first.”

“Mortas?”

“Yeah, he’s the reason we jumped here. Pickles saw him on the travel screen. Mortas and Toches. Two brigands in one place, General Potts ordered Jake to send us.”

“I wasnae sure, but this is it.”

“This is what?”

“Toches takes the seer back to our time. I wasnae sure which time he was from, but it makes sense.”

It didn’t make sense to me.

“You need to find the seer, warn her Mortas is here. She must leave this place.”

“You said the seer doesn’t have a key.”

“She doesnae have one, naugh exactly.” His voice ratcheted up a notch.

When I looked confused, he drug his hand through his hair at an agitated rate.

“I don’t have much time to explain the details. I arrive there by the giant oak at sundown. After I discover Boon, follow me. I weel locate her.”

Could this be happening? I refused to believe it. Caiyan moved toward the edge of the woods, looked out over the field of dead and wounded.

My brain worked overtime trying to figure out a safe way home, for all of us. I tried to summon my outhouse. Again, a futile attempt and the ground only rumbled with the madness beyond the woods.

“I can’t leave you,” I said and gathered my things. I reapplied the beard and tucked my hair under the wig. Good enough. I slung the medical bag on my shoulder and looped the haversack over my head. Plopping my medical corps hat on my head, I walked over and stood behind him. “Let’s go soldier, we have a mission.”

He turned toward me, and his eyes widened. “You’re the doc—”

A gunshot sounded behind Caiyan and he jerked forward. I caught him as he stumbled, and we fell to the ground, his body on top of mine.

“What—” I lifted my head and saw the boy I had saved from the fence. He had hobbled to the edge of the battlefield, swayed from his injury, but stood proudly as he lowered his musket.

“I got him. I killed a damn Yankee!” As the words left his mouth, a bullet pierced the side of his head, and he fell to the ground. The boy lay still fifty feet from me. His mother would get the letter after all.

A bullet tore bark off a nearby tree, and I flinched. A division of Union sharpshooters were stationed on the small hill above the battlefield and were steadily picking off any stray Confederates that dared leave the open field.

My pack and Caiyan’s weight pinned me to the ground, but he was breathing. Good.

Obscured from the sharpshooters by the undergrowth and brush, I surveyed the damage. Running my hand over his back, blood dampened the back of his jacket. I ran my fingers under the wet material and across his back to find the entry point. Right lower flank.

When I jostled him, he moaned, and his eyes fluttered open. We had lain in each other’s arms like this many times before. His green eyes searched deep into my soul, finding my secrets, and keeping a lock on his.

“What happened?” he asked me.

“You were shot.”

“Who?”

“A mistake.”

“It doesnae matter, Sunshine.”

I cursed the air around me. I saved the boy and changed history, and now the past was setting things right.

He started to close his eyes.

“Stay with me,” I tucked a finger under his chin. “Can you move?”

He gave an effort, then collapsed.

“I’m pretty sure the bullet went straight through, that’s good right?”

“Naugh so good when yer the one it went through.” He ran a hand over my cheek. “Dinnae let them take the seer.”

“Caiyan, I—”

He covered my mouth with his and kissed me long, deep. A kiss I would remember forever.

He fumbled in the pack on his side. “Show her this.” He pressed a small box into my hand.

“What is it?”

“A way home, but dinnae try to break it open, ’tis booby trapped.” He gave a lopsided grin. “The maker was wickedly wise.”

His face changed from a quirky smile to a hard grimace as he fought against a wave of pain. Closing his eyes, he passed out.

I secured the box in my pocket and tried to shake him awake.

His breathing labored. The warm spreading over my front as the blood leaked from his body confirmed there was an exit wound. He was losing too much blood, too fast.

“Please let him live.” I placed my hand on my key and begged for my outhouse to return. When nothing happened, I wished for any of the transporters to come. Hadn’t anyone returned to Gitmo?

Tears stained my face as the leaves began to swirl in the stifling heat, and a flash of lightning blinded me.

Ace’s vessel appeared twenty feet from me, in a sparse patch of brush. He peeked out from the purple velvet drape. When he gained the coast was clear, he moved out into the clearing.

“Ace,” I shouted from my hidden spot under Caiyan, and waved my free arm frantically at him.

“What in the Queen’s name have you done, calling me ’ere?” he stomped from his vessel dressed in the short open-fronted jacket and baggy trousers of the Zouave uniform I’d seen pictures of in the books I studied. His plumed hat bobbed as he scolded me.

“You’re cutting things pretty close ’ere, sister. I told you, I’ve already been to Gettysburg,” he griped steadily as he moved toward me.

“Caiyan’s been shot. Can you help me get him in your vessel?”

His face ashened when he saw Caiyan on the ground. “Damn gurl, you could have given him a piece of your mind. You didn’t have to shoot ’im?”

“I didn’t shoot him. He’s hurt bad, please, hurry.” Ace helped me lift Caiyan. I slid out from under him and stood. His blood soaked dark into my trousers. I dropped my packs on the ground.

“Holy Mother Theresa, you’re not supposed to be here. You’re on the battlefield.” Ace’s voice raised a few octaves when he realized my location. “And you’re dressed like a Confederate soldier.”

“Ace! Focus! Help me move him!”

Ace sprang into action and together we pulled an unconscious Caiyan toward the photo booth.

“I can’t believe you came.” Another tear leaked and dropped into my mustache.

“Of course, doll. You summoned me, and I don’t get to this hell hole until tomorrow morning. Remember, I don’t travel with my defender.”

The benefit of the transporters waiting at base slapped me in the face.

“Ace, if we don’t get him back to base, he’s going to bleed to death.”

“Where’s your outhouse, hon?”

“It’s a long story, but General Lee accidentally went inside my vessel, and then it vanished. I can’t get it to return.”

“THE General Lee?”

“Yes. I can’t leave until he comes back with my vessel and I find Marco and Gertie.”

Ace glanced around, and I answered his unasked question. “They’re not here. Marco was shot in the leg. He was taken to a field hospital and Gertie went with him.”

“Oh, my heavens, the boss is going to flip his lid. How do you get yourself into these situations?”

I frowned at Ace as we heaved Caiyan closer to the photo booth.

“Al is tracking Mortas on the travel screen. He’s somewhere near the Confederate headquarters and that can’t be good news.”

Caiyan groaned. “Come on, lover, Ace has you.”

Ace’s words caused Caiyan to groan louder, but he didn’t regain consciousness.

“Agent Hot Buns isn’t going to like me leaving you.”

“Give me some time. Caiyan told me about a seer. That’s who the Mafusos are searching for.”

“A seer?” he paused. “There was a girl, way back. Got herself in trouble with the boss. Didn’t see ’er after that.”

Jeez. That wasn’t reassuring at all.

“I’m going to find her. Where did you arrest Caiyan?”

Ace thought for a moment. “I believe it was close to the Thompson farm near General Lee’s headquarters, end of the third day, after the big battle.”

I had time.

We hauled Caiyan into the photo booth. His six-three frame of solid muscle had both of us breathing heavy after we placed him in the vessel. A trail of blood dripped onto Ace’s fuzzy velvet cushion.

“Bloody ’ell, that’s going to leave a stain.”

I huffed at Ace. “See if you can locate my outhouse.”

“Will do. Good luck, doll. But remember, at sunrise even I can’t come back.”

“If I don’t find a way home, I’ll summon you next moon cycle.”

Ace gave a visible shiver. “That’s a long time to be stuck ’ere.”

“Promise me, when you get back to base, if the doctors can’t help Caiyan, you’ll get Eli.”

“You want me to transport the chiropractor to headquarters?” Ace’s eyebrows rose.

“Just promise me, OK?”

“Cross my heart,” Ace said.

I laid my hand against Caiyan’s cheek, and kissed him lightly on the lips, hoping it wasn’t the last time.

He moaned again, and I stepped away from the vessel, allowing Ace to enter.

Ace left in a cloud of dust and a crack of lightning I barely heard over the cannon fire. The battle in the Peach Orchard was over, but the battle for Culp’s Hill was only beginning.

A rustle in the brush started me, and I caught a movement of gray out of the corner of my eye. The young soldier Marco had knocked unconscious stood slack-jawed in the mouth of the clearing. He clutched General Lee’s uniform like a safety blanket.

I moved toward him and he took a step backward.

“What was that?”

“What?

“I saw a box and it took that wounded Federal soldier away.”

“You fell earlier and hit your head. You’re hallucinating.”

“The tall man hit me.”

“No, he reached to grab you when you fainted.”

The boy cursed, then looked guilty that he had. “I never fainted.”

He was shrewd. It would be hard to convince him otherwise.

“I could use your help,”

“I have to find the general. He was under my protection.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well, he sent…” he stuttered. “He sent his scouts to deliver orders, and I was all that was left. Did you put him in the box?”

“No. Are you one of the general’s aide-de-camp?”

“Yes, sir.”

Even faced with the possibility that I might be the enemy, he was polite.

“Look, I promise I didn’t hurt General Lee.” Using Ace’s oath, I began, “Cross my heart and…” Maybe not that one. I switched tactics. “How about if you help me find my friends, I’ll help you find the general.”

The boy paused, considered, then accepted. He held his hand out to me. “Sam Raney.”

I hoped my face didn’t reveal the shock over the recognition of his name.

I shook his hand and said the first name that came to mind.

“Dr. Seuss.”