“If it’s a comfort then there’s nothing wrong with it.”

His gaze dropped and he nodded. “Yeah. It’s like he’s always with us, you know?”

“Yeah.” We were quiet for a moment. “So how’s school going?” I asked.

A genuine smile lit his face. “She’s great. She’s wicked smart, man. The only way I’m going to pass those classes is because she’s studying with me.”

“Do the professors object to you two being in the same classes?”

“No. I doubt most of them realize we’re even freaking married. Half of them are clueless.”

“Does she like school?”

“She loves it. I’m so glad Kade asked her to take classes with me. She didn’t want to, at first. She wanted to stay home. I was afraid she’d start getting depressed again. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

“What happens after school?”

“Ed’s working with us, teaching us the ropes.” He stopped, then laughed. “Well, you know what I mean. We should be managing the properties without him in the next year or so. We’ve got our eye on another one on Bahia Vista, east of US 41. We might buy if we can get the terms the way we like them. Ed told us to hold out a while longer. As bad as the market is, we can set our own price if we wait.”

“That’s good. You don’t regret changing from nursing?”

He shrugged. “Not that I don’t want to do it but…” He paused. “Flashbacks, man,” he whispered, glancing at the door. Leah couldn’t hear us through the closed sliders. “It hurts to think about those last months. I don’t think I could deal with that all the time. I’d see his face every time I was working with someone. At least this way we can work together. It’s fun. I get to be with her all the time.” He paused, smiled. “It’s what he wanted anyway. For us to be together.”

We had a great dinner. Seth accidentally dumped wine on his shirt and went to change. To make conversation more than anything, I said to Leah, “You two looked good the other night.”

She blushed a little, but smiled. “It’s been an adjustment for both of us.”

“He’s really standing up to you.”

She grinned. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Well, the way you led Kaden around. He let you get away with murder. You and I both know that.”

She dropped her voice. “Seth put his foot down. He told me if I wanted to get naked in public, other than teaching classes, then I would have to wear a chastity belt for a month first.”

I laughed. “He’s territorial.”

She blushed again. “It’s okay though. I mean, he’s so different than Kade, but he’s not jealous in a bad way. He’s protective in a different way. I just wish the three of us had had more time together. I feel bad for him. I sort of get a second chance. He doesn’t get another best friend.”

“He’s got you.”

“Yeah, but I’m just his wife. I can never be for him what Kaden was. I don’t think anyone can.”

Seth returned. After we finished eating, Leah cleared the table and shooed us into the living room. I noticed Seth walked by the bookcase next to the TV, reached out, and gently stroked Kaden’s urn before taking his seat. It looked like an automatic action, something he probably wasn’t even aware he did anymore.

We shot the shit for a while, then I reached into my back pocket and handed him the envelope. I’d put off doing this for a couple of weeks, considered mailing it to them, but it was as if seeing them at the club the other night was my nudge from the hereafter to make sure I kept my promise to my old friend.

He stared at it for a long moment without speaking before he finally, carefully slipped his thumb under the flap and opened it. Inside, an index card and six small, silver ID tags. Slave collar tags, I suspected.

I never asked Kaden what was in the envelope. It wasn’t my business.

Seth wiped his eyes as he read the index card, then laughed and fingered the tags. Then he looked at me, shook his head, and smiled. “I wonder how many more of these he’s salted all over the place.”

I shrugged. “That’s the last one I had.”

He rubbed his thumb over the tags. “Kaden the control freak strikes again. How the hell did he know?” he mused.

“Know what?”

He handed me one of the tags. Two sets of initials, Kaden’s, and… but Seth’s wasn’t right. I handed it back to him. Seth smiled. “I changed my last name when Leah and I got married. I wouldn’t let her change hers. I added Kade’s last name to mine, hyphenated it so it wouldn’t fuck up my VA benefits.” He shook his head, rubbed his thumb over the tags again.

That explained it. How had he known? Kaden gave me the sealed envelope months before his death.

Leah walked in, her fingers also brushing the urn before she sat across Seth’s lap. “What’s that?”

He handed her the card, and she read it. She laid her face on his shoulder, silent tears running down her face. Then he showed her the tags, and she laughed until she cried again.

“He’s still looking out for us,” she softly said.

“Yeah.” He clipped one of the tags to her collar, adding it to the two already there. “I don’t have the heart to take the old ones off, babe. Not yet. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay. Let’s leave them on.” She flicked them with her finger, and they made a cheerful tinkling noise as they brushed together. “You can always hear me coming.”

All three of us laughed.

I glanced at my watch. “Well, I need to head home. Thank you for dinner, guys. It was great. Really.”

“Thank you for all you’ve done for us,” Seth said.

“You both look good together. I mean that. I can’t claim to understand what you’ve been through. I’m sure you’re sick of people telling you how sorry they are. Frankly, I don’t know how you made it through it. You’re both stronger than I am.”

Seth patted Leah’s thigh. She slung her arm around his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

Lucky bastard.

Seth smiled, never taking his gaze from Leah’s face. “It just took the right woman, that’s all.”


THE END


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