Ellie knelt in front of his grave marker, the grass cool and damp against her bare knees. She ran her hand over the smooth marble and traced his name with her finger, tears blurring her vision. The headstone hadn’t been there on the day of his funeral service. She had never seen it in person.
How strange it was to think that his body had been here every day since then, under sun, stars, rain, and snow, while the world had moved on without him.
“Daniel and Daisy, look,” she said when she could talk. “This is your daddy’s grave. When his spirit went up to become an angel, his body was buried here. Can you tell your daddy hello so he knows you’re here?”
Daisy reached out and patted the marble as if to comfort it. “Hello.”
Daniel followed his sister’s lead, doing the same. “Hello.”
“Dan, here they are—your twins. They’re three now. You wouldn’t believe how sweet and smart they are. Daniel looks just like you. Everyone says so. I named him Daniel Otis. I just couldn’t name him Otis Henry. Sorry. Daisy has the name you picked for her—Daisy Mae.”
“I’m Daisy Mae,” Daisy said.
“Yes, sweetie, you are.” Ellie reached into her handbag and took out the bag of things that people in Scarlet Springs had put together for Dan. “I brought some things—a little care package from home.”
And for a moment it was too much, tears spilling down her cheeks.
A big hand came to rest on her shoulder, gave her a gentle squeeze, Jesse standing behind her now, giving her his support.
She wiped the tears off her face, reached into the bag, and pulled out a photo of Denver’s football team. “Austin and Eric wanted you to have this photo from our last Super Bowl win. They’re both married now. Austin married Lexi like we always thought he would. They have an adorable baby girl. She has Lexi’s red hair.”
Ellie reached into the bag again, pulled out a tiny bottle of scotch. “Caribou Joe from Knockers sent a shot. Remember him? Joe Moffat? He tells me I have to pour it out like they did in the old days, so get ready.”
She opened the little bottle and poured the amber liquid onto the grass where it met the marble, a libation for a fallen warrior.
“Rose sent a sage candle.” She pulled it together with matches out of the bag and lit it, the breeze making the flame flutter, the faint scent of sage rising in the air. “She said something about it purifying this space and freeing your soul.”
Ellie laughed at that, then took out her gift to him. “I brought pictures of Daisy and Daniel. I wanted you to be able to keep these.”
She put double-sided tape on the back of the photos, which were laminated to protect them from the weather. Then she let the kids stick their pictures on the back of the headstone one at a time. “Good job. Now your daddy can keep pictures of you with him.”
“Can my daddy see me?” Daisy asked.
Ellie didn’t know for certain, but what could she say? “Yes, sweetie.”
Daniel stepped up. “Can he see me, too?”
“Yes, honey, he sees you, too. He loves you both very much.”
But Ellie had more to say to Dan. “Dan, you made me promise I would move on if anything happened to you. I wanted you to know that I’m engaged. I’m marrying Jesse Moretti. He was an Army Ranger. You flew him and his men in your Black Hawk a bunch of times. He says you even saved his life. I love him, Dan. He’s so good to me. He’s good to the kids, too. He made me feel alive again, and we’re happy together. We haven’t set a date yet, but I wanted you to know.”
Talking to Dan like this was harder than Ellie had imagined, tears filling her eyes again, happiness and grief tangled inside her. “We’ve started the adoption process so that Jesse can adopt the kids. It makes a lot of things easier and helps protect them. But Daniel and Daisy will always know that you are their father. We’ve decided that they’ll keep your last name. I don’t want to take that from you.”
She lay the rest of the flowers on his grave. “We will never forget you.”
She stood, smoothed her dress. “Kids, can you say goodbye?”
Daniel waved. “Bye, Daddy.”
Daisy hugged the marble stone, an angelic smile on her face. “Bye-bye, Daddy.”
Ellie turned to Jesse.
He wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs, kissed her. “Can I have a moment alone with him?”
“Sure.” Ellie took the kids by the hand and went to sit on a nearby bench, emotionally drained.
She watched while Jesse knelt down. He looked so handsome in his dress blues with all of his medals and that tan beret, though it had cost him emotionally to put on the uniform again. She tried to make out what he was saying but caught only bits of it.
“Thanks for keeping my men and me alive… I love her with everything I am… really does look just like you… sweetest little girl in the world… promise to take care of them… all I can to make her happy.”
He got to his feet, stepped back, and saluted, holding the salute for a solid few minutes. Then he reached down. “Rest in peace, Crash. I’ll take it from here.”
Ellie’s throat went tight, a bittersweet ache in her chest.
Somewhere in the distance, rifles fired a salute.