One Last Thing Before I Go

the man coming up on his fiftieth anniversary.”
    Silver grins. “That only means you understand one woman.”
    “And that’s one more than you. So put on that ridiculous tux of yours and let’s get moving. I’m on the clock here.”
    * * *
    And then he is standing outside Renni’s, a large restaurant with an enclosed courtyard. The restaurant has been rented out for the affair, and he can see the guests through the windows, milling about inside. Casey steps outside, wearing a rust-colored gown and heels, looking so much like a woman that when, after a moment, he registers that it’s her, there’s no choice but to feel old.
    “You came!” she says with delight. She takes his arm to lead him inside, but he remains fixed where he is.
    “I’m not sure about this.”
    She turns to look at him, then gives him a quick kiss on his cheek. “Be sure,” she says.

CHAPTER 52
    T hey’re doing a cocktail hour before the ceremony. Rich, in tails and a white bow tie, stands in a cluster of men near the bar. Silver watches him joking around with his friends. He assumes they’re all doctors, but maybe not. Maybe some are bankers, or run hedge funds or technology companies. Either way, they all look scrubbed and polished, every hair in place, every tuxedo perfectly fitted. He instinctively moves in the opposite direction.
    “Where are you going?” Casey says.
    “I don’t think he wants to see me.”
    But Rich does see him, just then, and while the good cheer that’s animating his face definitely falters, he doesn’t seem terribly angry. He excuses himself from his golf buddies—Silver has no idea if they even play golf, but that’s how he thinks of them—and makes his way across the room to Silver and Casey.
    “OK,” Silver says. “Be cool.”
    “I am cool.”
    “I meant me.”
    “It’s OK, Dad. He’s not going to get into it at his own wedding.”
    “I play about sixty or seventy weddings a year. Trust me, I have seen some shit go down.”
    Casey takes his arm. “Well, you have me to protect you. Just try not to say anything stupid.”
    “Have you met me?”
    Casey laughs just as Rich comes over to them, still carrying his glass of scotch. “Hey, honey,” he says, kissing Casey. “You look magnificent.”
    “Why, thank you.”
    Silver extends his hand. “Congratulations, Rich.”
    Rich hesitates just long enough to make him anxious, then he takes the hand and shakes it. “How’s the nose?”
    “It’s OK. How’s your hand?”
    “It’s fine.”
    Rich looks at Casey. “I’m sure your mom would love your help getting ready,” he says.
    Casey looks unsure. “We’ll check on her in a few minutes.”
    Rich smiles. “It’s OK, honey. Silver and I will be just fine, won’t we, Silver?”
    “You’d know better than me,” Silver says.
    Casey looks torn, but then nods. “OK. But you two behave, OK? No drama.”
    “No drama,” Rich says.
    Casey casts a last anxious look in Silver’s direction, then turns and leaves. Silver turns to Rich. “So, I’ll let you get back to your guests.”
    “You are my guest,” Rich says. “You may have crashed, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t expecting you.”
    “If you don’t want me to be here, I can go.”
    “I don’t want you to be here. What man in his right mind would want you to be here? But Casey wants you to be here. And she may be your family, but she’s mine too, and I won’t be the one who disappoints her.”
    “You’re a better man than me,” Silver says. “They’re both lucky to have you.”
    “You’re damn right I am,” Rich says, more angrily than he’d intended to. He takes a breath and checks himself. “The thing is, Silver, I can get past that bullshit with you and Denise—some last, crazy impulse—she’s getting married, you may be dying . . . I recognize that there’s a lifetime of unresolved issues that were there before I came along. I don’t like it—believe me, I don’t like it—but I can’t change it, and I’m smart enough to know that.”
    Silver nods. Rich leans in and looks him square in the eye. “Now you have to be smart too, and I know that runs contrary to your general MO, but you have to know what it is that you can’t change.”
    “I do.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yeah. And I know it’s kind of late for this, but I’m very sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.”
    Rich looks at him for a moment, then takes a long swallow of scotch. “I used to like you, Silver. I don’t