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Logan stands perfectly still next to the ATV he dismounted and waits for the man to continue.

“Bobbi didn’t make it.”

I never heard of Logan’s wife until this morning, so I have no idea of her name. But it’s got to be Bobbi from thereaction of the others. Burgundy gasps out, “Oh no!” Deck tenses up in front of me.

Logan hasn’t moved a muscle—not even a flicker on his face. “What happened?” he asks quietly.

“She got pregnant. She was over forty, and with no doctors or hospital, she had a real hard time of it. Didn’t make it through the birth.”

“She was pregnant?” For the first time, emotion is evident in Logan’s expression. Shock more than anything else. “When did she die?”

The man makes another one of those reluctant faces. “Happened five months ago. She was full term. Never said who the dad was, but we all figured…”

He doesn’t finish the sentence, but he doesn’t need to. The town must have assumed what I’m assuming as well.

Logan was the father.

“Did the…” Logan’s voice sounds rough, so he clears it before he continues. “Did the baby make it?”

“Yeah. Sure did. Healthy little girl. Bobbi’s folks—you remember Gary and Mary—they took the baby when they left.”

“They left?”

“Yeah. With the little one, they wanted to head back to their kinfolk. Never really felt at home here. They’re from farther west. Ozark territory.”

“Do you know specifically where they went?”

“Nope. Real sorry. But they didn’t think you’d ever show up here again. None of us did.”

Logan is still standing motionless, but he’s breathing loud enough for me to hear from several feet away.

I can’t even imagine how he’s processing it. To hear that his ex-wife died and he has a baby in the span of five minutes.

Talk about a couple of hard blows.

After a minute, he gives himself a little shake and says coolly, “Okay. Thank you for letting me know.”

“Y’all want to come in and stay for a while? After the help you gave us last year, we’d be happy to have you.”

“No. Thank you. We’ve got to keep going.”

“All right. Glad you stopped back. Where’bouts are you headed?”

Logan turns back toward the ATV. “We’re headed west.”

If Logan has anything to say about the change in his circumstances—that’s he’s a father after all this time—he certainly doesn’t share it with us. He and Burgundy take the lead on their ATV, and Deck and I follow.

I feel weird and off-balance and confused—like my understanding of the people around me doesn’t quite hold together the way I believed it did even yesterday.

After a while, I finally ask Deck as we drive, “So he and his wife got back together last time when you were here?”

Deck shrugs and uses the fingers of one hand to spell outGuess so.

“You didn’t know they were together again?”

He shakes his head.

“It must not have been serious if she didn’t come with him and he didn’t stay there. Maybe they just hooked up a time or two?”

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