"She's somethin'."
"I know."
"I told you on the phone in September that I had a name. You said,put my name in. I'm gonna tell you somethin' now I've been waiting to tell you."
"Yeah."
"That was the worst yes I've ever taken from you."
I laughed.
Brian laughed, too. Garrett did the half-smile he did instead of a laugh.
"I'm glad I came down," Shane said. "I'm glad you came back. I'm glad the slot went to Petrov. I'm glad my line is short one of the best men I ever ran with. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you, Shane."
"Don't make me say it twice."
"I won't."
Brian punched my shoulder. Garrett shook my hand. Shane finished his beer.
They went back to the patio to find their wives.
I found Astrid at the side of the yard near the rose bed at ten minutes to midnight.
She had her shoes off in one hand, and she was standing in her dress with her bouquet on the grass beside her, looking at the rose where Penny was. The string lights in the trees over her head were the small warm yellow they'd been all night, and her hair had come a little loose at the side where her mother had pinned it.
I came up beside her.
"Hey."
"Hey, yourself."
"You're crying."
"A little."
I put my arm around her shoulders. She tucked herself in against my side. She smelled like the gardenia in her bouquet and the powder she'd put on that morning and the small clean of her own skin underneath both.
"She would have liked this," I said.
"I know."
"All of it."
"I know."
"The roses came in pink."
"I noticed."
We stood there a beat.
I'd thought, at the beginning of the night, that this part would be hard—the part where I noticed who wasn't here. I'd budgeted for it, same as I budgeted for a hard call I knew was coming on a long shift.
The hard part hadn't come.
