Free Heaven Should Fall by Rebecca Coleman Page A

is?”
    “In the den. Same as always.”
    Cade circled around the back of the recliner and led me into the room behind it. The space was larger and airier—an addition that encompassed a modern-looking kitchen-and-dining-room combination, as well as a nook that contained another TV and a couple of chairs. In one of these sat Elias, whom I recognized by his features and haircut but who was otherwise strikingly changed. Gone were the hard stomach and muscled chest that had flaunted themselves even from beneath his sandy-beige T-shirt. In their place were a significant gut and soft pectorals, and he carried the weight in his face, as well. When I had met him in the fall, his forearms were notable only because of their strength and deep golden tan. Now both were covered in tattoos. I blinked at him and tried to match the image I remembered with the one in front of me.
    Cade took my hand and guided me to follow him. He stepped directly into Elias’s line of vision before he spoke. “Hey, bro,” he said. “How’s it hanging?”
    Elias looked up from the television. “Hey,” he grunted. He met my eye and said, “Hi, Jill.”
    I threw him a warm smile. “Hey, Elias. Great to see you again.”
    “Did Mom and Dad tell you?” asked Cade.
    “Yep. You knocked her up.” He half grinned and flicked a glance toward Cade. “Good job there, buddy. You ever heard of Trojans?”
    “Yeah. They don’t work if you leave ’em in the box.”
    “They sure don’t. Jill, hope to God it doesn’t come out looking like me or acting like Candy’s kids. If it has to be an Olmstead, at least its dad came from the deep end of the gene pool.”
    “If you say so,” I said, and Cade threw me a joking scowl that made Elias snicker. “He’s got endurance, that’s for sure. I can’t believe he makes that drive all the time. It’s long .”
    “Not long enough,” Cade said under his breath, and his brother chuckled again. I followed Cade up the stairs to a bedroom sandwiched between two others. He closed the door, then lay down on the full-size mattress and rubbed his eyes. “I’d like to go home now,” he said.
    “You are home.”
    He groaned and threw both arms over his face. I glanced around the room, taking in the white walls decorated only with a large American flag, the plain childish furniture, the windows shaded by artlessly stitched homemade curtains. I peeked out between them and saw the three little boys running around in the yard. “So those are Candy’s hellions, huh?”
    “Yep. Wait till you meet their dad. Hoo boy.”
    “They look pretty wound up. Bet she’ll be glad to get them off to school on Monday.”
    “They don’t go to school. They’re homeschooled. By Candy, no less. The girl who spells religion with a d in it.”
    “At least it’s not part of the curriculum.”
    “If you’re Candy, it is the curriculum. Wait and see.”
    I let the curtain drop. “Where’s your parents’ room?”
    He tapped the wall beside the bed.
    “Wonderful.”
    “You’re telling me. Elias sleeps on the other side, but he isn’t going to care, so we can move the bed to the opposite wall. Of course, that would probably scandalize my mother. But it’s not like she can pretend otherwise, with you pregnant and all.”
    “True. Hey, what’s happened to Elias?”
    “What do you mean, what’s happened to him?”
    “He’s gained a lot of weight. And the tattoos.”
    Cade shrugged. “Yeah, he’s gotten pretty chunky. But to tell the truth, that’s what he looked like before he joined the army, more or less. The shape he was in when you saw him before—that’s not normal for him. Hey, speaking of food—follow me. You’ve got to see this.”
    I followed him back down to the first floor where he pulled open a hallway door that led to the basement stairs. Candy peered over from the kitchen and called, “Hey, Cade, you going down cellar? You want to bring me up a can of black beans? I need ’em for