While he was aware that he was before the judge on drunk and disorderly with vagrancy thrown in for good measure, since whoever it was who had kicked the shit out of him also lifted his wallet along with what little money he had left, and all his I.D. as well, he couldn’t bring himself to respond to the charges. Although he was thousands of miles away when it happened, Skinner felt responsible for his stepfather’s suicide. Instead of helping Luke through the grieving process, he’d run off on a half-baked search for his natural parents the moment they threw the last shovel of dirt on his adopted mother’s grave. He hadn’t been there when the old farmer had needed him most. He’d thought only of himself—of the promise held at the core of this most personal of mysteries. He hadn’t given his stepfather a single thought until he landed in trouble. But, as it turned out, good old big-hearted Luke couldn’t stand being by himself in that empty house, widowed and lonelier than he’d ever been before.
