“I know how many years.”
“Then why not?”
I had to think about how to say it. Because I hadn’t said it to myself yet.
“Because that’s his signature,” I said. “He’s three weeks in the ground. He can’t tell me what he meant. I’m not going to stand up in a courtroom and argue with a man who can’t answer back. Not him.”
She looked at me for a long time.
Then she reached up and pulled my coat collar up against the wind. That’s what she does when she’s lost an argument and loves me anyway.
Phil came out the street door behind us.
He stood on the sidewalk with his glasses still in his hand.
“Wade.”
I waited.
“I never asked him for this. I want you to know that. I didn’t know a thing about it till Don called me.”
