Love, Mason, Caleb, Asher, and Liam.

I asked if they wanted to sign it with “Love.”

Liam shrugged.

“That’s how people end letters.

It doesn’t mean we have to love him all at once.”

I almost laughed.

Tristan wrote back that afternoon with a story about growing up in Idaho, learning to skate badly, and a dog named Ranger who used to steal his father’s socks.

He included a photograph of the dog, not of himself in uniform.