Paderborn
The Cathedral of Saint Mary, Saint Kilian and Saint Liborius
Rolf, the natty young man who’d made the viral video on the cathedral’s website, gave a private tour from one end of the nave to the other, across, up, down, beneath, and finally outside to the Drei-Hasen-Fenster.
“Is it me,” Liko murmured, “or can young Rolf not take his eyes off Ethan?”
“Right?” Saskia whispered. “He’s about to sing ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen.’”
Dane didn’t know what calls had been made or strings pulled, but the cloisters’ inner courtyard had been roped off for half an hour.
He, Ethan and Saskia stood in front of the window together, undisturbed by visitors.
Saskia held the little box with the last of Nomi’s ashes, while Ethan and Dane held up their hands as a screen so the cold winter wind wouldn’t crash the ceremony.
“Love you, Mammu,” Saskia said, pinching a bit of the fine, gray dust and rubbing her fingers to release it beneath the window. She said it again in Latvian, “Es tevi mīlu.”
Ethan took the next bit and scattered it with no words. He’d done this fifty-one times before and all he needed to say to Nomi had been said.
Dane went last, running a fingertip around the inside of the box to corral enough to pinch. He stepped a little away from his family, looking up at the Three Hares.
“Katherine Jones,” he whispered, “this is Danelaw Strong with a message for Ms. Nomi Hasen. The message is, I love you. And please will she call me back?”
He let go his fingers and the ashes dispersed, floating up across the window. Saskia put arms around him from behind, and Ethan put an arm around them both.
Dane looked down at the box still in his palm, and the little bits of ash left. He looked over his shoulder and kissed Saskia’s head. “Baby, give me a minute with Ethan?”
Her eyes were bright and liquid, her fine freckles like copper magic in the thin sunshine. She kissed each of their faces, then went over to stand with Liko, who was talking with Rolf by the fountain.
Dane motioned with his head toward the buttress next to the window.
Ethan smiled, and they walked toward it together.
They slid their fingertips around the inside of the box, getting every last bit, then rubbed the ashes on the buttress, in the approximate place of the loose stone in the Three Hares game.
A stone memorializing a loose brick in a chimney, where a girl called Silver had hidden treasure.
“I miss you so much,” Dane said.
“All day every day,” Ethan said.
They stood, their hands on the ashy brick. Their free arms came up to drape on shoulders. Their heads rested together as they made their peace, remembering all they did for a woman they loved.
Ethan’s hand moved and his fingers slid in Dane’s hair.
“You are the friend of my life,” he said.
“My soulmate. A Great Dane who knocked me over and gave me peace. I’m not in love with you.
I am beside love with you.” His caress in Dane’s hair became a hold, and he turned Dane’s head to face him.
“Understand? I am beside love with you.”
Ethan’s chin tilted one way, indicating the buttress. Then toward Liko, who was ambling along the cloisters alone. “Beside love.”
Dane’s eyes flooded warm, turning cold crisp on his cheeks.
“Beside love,” he said. “Because your autobiography is called The Sider House Laws.”
“Oh, my man,” Ethan laughed, and he kissed Dane’s wet face.
“Apparently giving average schmucks a chance at romantic gestures is beyond your capabilities.” Dane rubbed one cheek, then the other on his forearm. “Thanks for nothing.”
Ethan hugged him hard. “Thanks for everything.”
From the cathedral, the little party made their way to St?dtische Galerie, Paderborn’s art museum, where Ethan donated the beautiful painting from the end of the game.
A long time spent viewing their story in its new home.
Then another private, exclusive tour behind the scenes, of the kind only Ethan could arrange.
Outside, there were suggestions of an early dinner, but Dane felt his emotional and social tanks running on fumes, and Saskia looked a little tired and pale. Possibly she was relieved all had gone so well. They hugged goodbye in front of the Schloss Neuhaus and parted to their separate hotels.
“That went well,” Liko said. “Splendid, as the Brits say. What do you think?”
“I thought splendid.”
Liko put an arm around him and bussed a kiss on Dane’s crown. “It was beautiful. I legit got choked up watching you three. And I saw Rolf slipping Ethan his digits.”
Dane laughed but said nothing.
“You guys all right?”
“More than all right,” Dane said, sliding his hand into Liko’s back pocket. “We’re beside ourselves.”