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thinks the fate of the nation rests on him making a decision in the next fifteen minutes.”

Chapter Three
    When TJ and Catherine pulled up to the boat dock, Jeremy was waiting at the end of the pier. Beside him pranced their youngest granddaughter, five-year-old Macon. She was waving her one free hand wildly over her head and struggling to break free, as though she wanted to jump in the water and rush out to greet them. Which was probably why Jeremy held her other hand in a death-grip.
    â€œHer mother went home an hour ago” were his first words. “Said it was either drown her or leave her with me.”
    â€œDid not,” Macon corrected. “Daddy got a ‘mergency and Uncle Jeremy said he’d wait and come back with y’all.” Macon’s daddy was a surgeon in Raleigh, and her mother was TJ and Catherine’s eldest daughter.
    â€œIf I let go your hand, do you promise to behave yourself?” Jeremy asked.
    â€œDon’t try squeezing blood from a stone,” Catherine warned knowingly. To Macon she said, “Honey, run take this to the car.”
    Jeremy watched Macon struggle down the pier with a suitcase slightly smaller than she was, then turned back and said, “Everything okay?”
    She glanced toward the cabin of the boat, where TJ was busy shutting down all systems. “Yes and no.”
    â€œI didn’t loan you my boat for y’all to go out there and fight.”
    Catherine did not smile. “Let’s wait till we’re home, Jem. There’s a lot to talk about.”
    TJ chose that moment to come out of the cabin. He reached across the rail to grip Jeremy’s hand. “Hello, Jem.”
    Searching his friend’s face, Jeremy spotted something he’d never seen there before. A calm strength—and something else. There was a mighty peculiar light to his eyes.
    â€œY’all haven’t been fightin’,” Jeremy said. It was not a question.
    â€œNo,” Catherine answered, still subdued, her eyes on her husband. “It’s not that.”
    â€œYou look all lit up like a Christmas tree,” Jeremy remarked to TJ.
    â€œEverything’s fine, Jem,” TJ replied quietly.
    â€œLet it wait till we’re home,” Catherine repeated, handing up the cooler. “Here comes little Miss Hurricane again.”
    When they were packed and ready to roll, Jeremy elected to let Catherine drive so he could sit in back with Macon. That way, he told the girl, he wouldn’t have to reach over anyone when it came time to feed her to the bears. He was gruffer with her than with the other four grandchildren because she was his favorite, and he was embarrassed by how much he cared for her. With her child’s perception, she sensed the truth and answered with a love as strong as his own.
    Jeremy divided his attention between Macon, who was giving her doll a detailed account of the weekend, and his two friends in the front seat. As he watched, he listened to his own inner voice, an old habit he relied on constantly.
    Once a business associate asked him how on earth he had figured that a deal was going to come down as it did. It was plain as day, Jeremy replied; there for all the world to see. Maybe for you, the man said. You know, it just amazes me how much people don’t see, Jeremy told him. It’s like they’re so afraid of seein’ something that’ll rock their little boat that they go through life with blinders on. All they hear is the storm inside their heads. Then when somethin’ happens they coulda seen a mile off if they’d wanted to, they go screamin’ around the place like chickens with their heads cut off. What did I do to deserve this? Why is life so cruel to me? Jeremy shook his head. I don’t know what’s worse—watchin’ it happen, or tryin’ to tell somebody about it and listen to ’em call me a fool.
    So he observed the pair in front as carefully as