“Of course! Of course. Where are you staying? When did you get here?”
Red came back in, wiped up Josh’s footprints and the splatter of rain and dog hair he’d let fly as he’d begun to shake. Then she put coasters under Bobby’s and Ty’s beer cans. Finally she joined them as they began recapping surface details of the overlap time to their tours, and Ty told Bobby about a few of the guys who left country after Bobby DEROSed, and about a few more who’d been wounded. They drank more beers. Red played the attentive mate, finished making dinner, served the two men, listened without much comment, smiled often, finally yawned a long gape-mouthed yawn. “Oh, excuse me,” she said.
“I gotta be goin,” Ty said. There were a dozen empty beer cans on the table before them (a half-full one before Red) and
