Page 59 of Part & Parcel

“Berry fucked up,” Eli added, almost giggling.

“Next person who says berry is getting hit,” Kelly warned.

Owen put the paper down, trying not to smile.

Nick put a finger on it and slid it toward himself. It was some sort of fun facts of Valentine’s Day gift-giving page that Eli had picked up at some weird café in Wyoming. Why he’d held on to it, Nick didn’t know. He scanned it, shaking his head and grinning. “This says honeysuckle is a berry,” he announced.

Kelly stood and threw his napkin at Nick. It didn’t even make it to the end of the table, and they both watched it flutter onto Nick’s plate.

“What the hell is honeysuckle?” Owen asked.

Digger gasped. “You don’t know what honeysuckle is?”

“Goddamn Yankee,” Ty muttered into his glass.

“It’s a vine,” Kelly explained. “Little flowers you can suck the juice out of.”

Nick glanced up, grinning. “It’s not a vine, it’s a berry.”

“No!” Kelly cried. “No, no, no! Oranges are fruit, honeysuckle is yummy, cranberries are berries, vegetables are real, and that’s it!”

The table fell silent, all of them waiting for someone else to break the silence.

“So,” Digger finally said. “Does this make guacamole a fruit dip?”

The table erupted yet again, and Nick sat back with a grin, watching them fondly. His friends . . . his brothers. A sense of melancholy swamped him as he realized that these moments were waning, that every night was bringing them closer to the end. Suddenly he needed air, and silence.

Nick set the pamphlet down and took a gulp of his Guinness as Digger waxed poetic about guacamole. When Nick put his glass down, it made a louder sound than he’d intended, and the table vibrated. It drew the attention of the others, and they all watched him as he stood up. “Going to bed,” he grunted.

“Hey Irish, you okay?” Ty asked him, and he was scowling when Nick looked back at him.

Nick gave him a curt nod and tried to smile. He flicked the thousand-dollar chip to Eli, who caught it deftly. “Just need some good sleep. Night.”

He turned and headed for the door. Their hotel was just across the street from the casino, but Nick hesitated when he got to the sidewalk. It was freezing. Snow drifted in lazy flurries around him. But still, the urge to stroll under the moonlight was overwhelming. Deadwood, South Dakota, wasn’t exactly a huge town; he could probably lap it before the others left the casino bar and had a chance to miss him.

He wasn’t really paying much attention, so it startled him when Kelly appeared at his side. Kelly laughed at him when he jumped and cursed.

“What the hell, Doc?”

“You going for a walk?” Kelly asked.

Nick cleared his throat.

“You had that look.” Kelly unzipped his coat and pulled the lapel, turning to show Nick a lighter and two blunts, hidden in the lining. “Mind if I join?”

Nick rolled his eyes and smirked, jutting his chin toward the street. “We’ll probably freeze, you know.”

“I’ll keep you warm,” Kelly crooned, and he slipped his arm into the crook of Nick’s elbow.

They spent an hour wandering around Deadwood, looking at the historic markers without the crowds of the day, Nick barely keeping the excitement out of his voice when he started telling Kelly the bits and pieces of Deadwood’s history he knew. Kelly let him ramble, actually listening and asking questions. They wandered out of the historic main street area and into the residential streets, climbing the steep, winding road that led to the cemetery.

They had to scale the gates to get in, but once they were inside, they had an incomparable view of the town and the mountains that surrounded the gulch the town had been built in.

They hunched together under the flagpole on the overlook, sharing the blunt Kelly had lit, the graves of Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Calamity Jane as their backdrop.

“I think, when this is over, I’m going back to Colorado,” Kelly said. His words formed wisps in the cold, floating away with the snow.

“That little town we passed through?” Nick asked, and he wondered why his heart was sinking, why his chest felt tighter as they talked about it. Sidewinder was no more. There was no team to go back to, there was nothing left. Of course they’d each need to find somewhere to go, something to do. Of course they’d each be leaving to make a new home. And that little town with its friendly main street and its quirky shops and cottages nestled amongst the Rockies where Kelly could build himself a cabin in wide open spaces, that was the perfect place for Kelly.

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