"Astrid."
"I'm choosing again."
"Yeah?"
"With the whole story."
He lifted his hand off Moose.
He brought it up to the side of my face, his thumb at the corner of my mouth. His other hand came to the back of my neck.
He leaned in across the dog between us.
He kissed me.
His mouth was cold from the wood. His stubble caught at the side of my mouth. I got both hands in the front of his jacket and held on.
Moose pressed against our legs.
Duke came through the brush thirty seconds later.
He had Moose's name in his mouth already, and he stopped when he came through the tree line and saw the three of us in the clearing. He took it in. Easton in his jacket. Me with my hands still in the front of it. Moose at our knees.
His face split.
"Ford."
Easton lifted his head from mine.
"Rhodes."
"You took your time."
"Yeah."
Duke keyed his radio.
"Lou. Got him. Got the dog. South end of the clearing. Call 'em in."
The radio crackled back. Lou's voice was dry."Copy. Calling 'em in."
Duke clipped it back to his hip. He looked at the two of us. He looked at Moose. He shook his head once at the ground.
"I'm gonna give you a minute. You take it. I'll meet you at the road."
He turned and went back through the brush.
Easton stood first.
He brushed the dirt off the knees of his jeans, slowly and carefully, after being on his knees for a while. He held a hand down to me. I took it. He pulled me up and didn't let go.
Moose got up between us and shook the leaves off his coat.
We walked down the trail to the road with Moose ahead of us.
Easton's hand was in mine. His thumb was moving on the back of my hand, the slow circle his thumb made when he was thinking.
I came back to Hartsdale to be no one's.
