I have no idea what Sylvia and Ed are writing to each other about, but I do know that every other day she's either getting a letter from him or she's sending one out for him to receive. I tried to intercept them from Joe as much as I could; if I found the letter from Ed, I'd put it right on Sylvia's bed so that she could find it. But Joe was extremely smart, and it took him about a week to figure out that I was being possessive over getting the mail.

"D'you have some secret lover you write to?" Joe asked one night, smirking in a way that said he was joking but there was a light in his eyes that looked like he was stressed. He had been driving his cab around lately, along with his usual job of barber. "Anyway to help out 'round the house," Joe said when I asked him about it.

For a moment, I was tempted to tell him about Sylvia and Ed, but I wouldn't unless Sylvia let me know that it was okay. I stood up and walked up to Joe from behind and wrapped my arms around him. His body relaxed the second I tightened my arms around him, and I could literally feel the tense stress that was in his shoulders.

"You got nothing to worry about, Joe." I said into his shoulders. Joe glanced behind to look down at me, a faint smile on his face.

Sylvia actually started coming to me for advice on what to say to Ed about dealing with the war. "He tells me about what it's like being a medic." She said. "Ed said that it's really hard, yet at the same time, it's startin' to become natural to him."

I nodded a bit. "Yeah, I can relate to that. When you first start off as a medic, it's hard to fall into but then, after a while, it's second nature to put others in front of yourself." Sylvia nodded at that, looking like she was thinking really hard about what Ed's role in the war added up to.

On the news, the anchorman started to put out lists of local Vietnam soldiers of died in action or who went missing in action. Every evening, he'd get that sad expression and list out the men who were missing, most likely in prisoner-of-war camps being ran by the enemy. And then he'd list out the list of local Vietnam dead. Every night, Joe and I would watch the news and listen intently to those lists, straining our ears for any familiar names.

But so far, we don't hear the names we've been dreading to hear.

In July of nineteen-seventy-two, Warren and Nancy get married. A few members of Easy showed up, bringing their own wives and children. On several times, I spotted Vicky checking out Perconte's son, even though she thought she was being discreet. Before the ceremony even started, my brothers were teasing Warren.

"It's not too late to go jumpin' outta planes, kiddo!" Luz said, slapping Warren on the shoulder. Warren had grown taller than Luz, so this sight in itself was amusing.

When it's actually time for the ceremony to begin, I'm swelling with pride when I see my son stand at the alter, waiting for his bride to come to him. And then, with Bob right beside her, Nancy comes out wearing all white. Hana started to cry, dabbing at her dark eyes with a handkerchief. Nancy's younger brother, Peter, has replaced his usual scowl for a look of happiness for his big sister.

After the ceremony, the reception takes place in the same hotel common room where Easy had met up when Joe and I got married. Warren and Nancy shared their first dance, and they looked at each other like there was no one else in the world.

I desperately wanted Jason and Ed to be here too, so they could see this too. If Jason was here, he'd be flirting with any bridesmaid he could, or even with some of Easy's daughters, seeing how he already knew all of them. As for Ed, I had a strong feeling he'd be with Sylvia all night. My younger daughter dances whenever a boy asks her, but even I can see that she's not into any of them.

"You feelin' old yet?" Joe asked me at some point. I laughed at him and nudged his arm.

"You're seven years older than me; you're the one who should be feelin' old." I pointed out.

Joe snorted loudly. "I'm not gonna feel old until my hair turns white." I didn't point out how his dark black hair had gotten considerably lighter. His roots were turning dark gray and he had the beginnings of wrinkles edging around his eyes. Physically, he had changed a lot from the snarky boy I had met in Toccoa. But he was still the man who'd drop the word "fuck" without thinking about it, the man who had woken me up from too many nightmares, the man who had loved me enough to come back for me after we should've gone our separate ways.

I reached over and grabbed Joe's hand and squeezed it. Joe narrowed his hazel eyes slightly and smirked, but didn't pull away.

Warren and Nancy end up going to Florida for their honeymoon. Vicky disappeared for a while after the wedding and she didn't come home until eleven at night. I raised an eyebrow at her but she didn't say where she was. I was sitting on the couch with Sylvia right beside me. Bennett had fallen asleep on the way home, so Joe was tucking him into bed. Sylvia was writing a letter out, and I didn't have to ask because I knew it was for Ed.

"I'm telling him about the wedding," Sylvia said. "He said he wants a lot of details about it, because he couldn't be here."

"D'you have any idea where he is right now?" I asked.

Sylvia sighed and shook her head. "He usually writes the address as 'somewhere in the jungle', or 'on some damn island'." She gave me a side glance when she said the word "damn". When I don't reprimand her, she looked back down to the piece of paper, her handwriting already all over it. She paused for a long time before looking over to me, nervousness all over her face. "Hey, Mama, can I ask you something?"

"Yes ma'am," I said, not letting it show how much my nerves went up when Sylvia asked that question.

Sylvia opened her mouth and then closed it again. She looked to be really struggling with what she was about to say. I offered her a small smile, trying to coax her out. Sylvia nodded, almost to herself and said, "How did you know you loved Daddy?"

Oh.

The question stumped me for a moment, and I found myself frowning and really thinking hard about it. I then started to talk, picking my words carefully. "For the longest time, I don't think I knew it. Your dad and I were good friends going into the war; we joked around and picked on each other occasionally, but so did everyone else. Uncle George was probably the first one who figured out that Joe and I were more than just friends." I paused, thinking about how Luz had once told me that it was only himself and Skip who knew about me and Joe.

My daughter is listening with wide eyes, taking in every word. I smiled softly and out of the corner of my eye, I see Vicky at the top of the stairs, holding very still and listening as well. I looked back to Sylvia, knowing that she wouldn't like it if she knew that Vicky was listening in too.

"I don't think it was until Dad got hit in the neck, you know that scar right here?" I rubbed my finger on the side of my neck, around the same area where Joe's old scar was. Sylvia's eyes tracked my movement and nodded. "I was so scared that he was gonna die. We got the bleeding to stop, but he still needed to leave back for England so that he could get it fixed. The moment he left, I realized that I missed him so damn much.

"We were sent to a forest called Bastogne after that, and for the first few days, it was just me and the rest of the uncles." I said. "And the second I saw Dad get off the jeep to rejoin Easy, I knew just how much I missed him and how much pain I would've felt if he died. His absence made me feel that; his life on the line twenty-four-seven made me realize that he was the particular soldier that I just couldn't lose."