Thus had started a painful period of Samson’s life, and Ivan’s as well, with the rest of the fall proceeding into the holidays and Christmas vacation, and then the spring dragged forward into preparation for graduation.
After surgery and physical therapy, his knee had been declared as healed as it was going to be, which meant no sports, and so no football scholarship for college, and he certainly hadn’t been able to follow Samson into the Army.
“Ivan?” Cassie laid her hand on his arm, bringing him back to their conversation in the present. “Are you okay?”
Nodding, he said, “Just remembering how it was back then.” Why avoid the truth, at least a small part of it, any longer? “I could blame the day-in-and-day-out routine of work and life, and that it made me feel better to believe you were okay, off pursuing your dreams. But I did Google you a few years ago and found out you were married to a guy you were way too good for, and then I had to stay away. If I’d known you were single again, I would’ve…” Don’t scare her off. “I thought you wanted out of here as much as we did after graduation.”
Her knuckles popped softly as she twisted her hands together. “At first I did. But it wasn’t the town so much as certain people, Ivan. I know you hated Divine back then because everyone seemed to turn on your family, and mine. But the friends like Hank and Jack, who remained, and all the good people in Divine make up for a few bad apples.” She breathed softly for a moment and then turned in her seat to look directly at him. “And what would you have done if I’d been available when you looked me up?”
I had to crack open this can of worms. “I’d have done everything I could to make you happy.”
“What…what about Samson?”
He turned into the crowded parking lot at the Dancing Pony, and Samson parked beside him.
“Let’s ask him.”
Cassie’s eyebrows popped up, but she turned to the door when Samson opened it, stepped back, and held out his hand to her. She paused, looking back and forth between the two of them. Ivan smiled, trying to encourage her.
“I won’t bite, Cassandra, unless you ask me to,” Samson said with a hint of a chuckle in his voice. “If you’ll come inside with us, we can talk.” Ivan couldn’t see Samson’s face above the door, but he appreciated his brother’s intuitiveness and her trust in them as she allowed Samson to help her to her feet.
“You’ve never been in the Dancing Pony, guys,” she said with a chuckle. “It can get noisy sometimes.”
“That’ll be fine cover for our conversation, then,” Ivan said.
Two giant-sized bouncers greeted Cassie at the door like a friend and nodded to him and Samson.
“Mike, Rogelio, this is Samson and Ivan Cutter. We’ve just come from our high school reunion .”
Mike, the more gregarious of the two, said, “Ethan mentioned it to us earlier, and Hank called and reserved some tables for your group from the reunion in the area you usually sit in. Violet and Bunny are also here with their men.”
She grinned and said, “Fantastic! I haven’t seen Bunny and Joseph since their wedding.” Ivan knew from talking to her that Violet’s wedding was the following weekend.
They entered the dimly lit interior of the nightclub and guided her to the reserved group of tables, close to the dance floor. They helped her into one of the tall chairs and then maneuvered their seats so she could see them both at once without craning her neck or having to look back and forth between them.
“Thank you, guys,” she said, tenderness in her voice. “Things have been bumpy the last few weeks, especially between you and me, Samson, but it’s nice to sit and talk, like we used to before everything went south in high school, without worrying I’d get in trouble. I think one of the worst things about that time was not being able to talk to you.”
“I missed it, too.” Ivan sat back and rested his arm on the table. “The time gets away from you, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. Nowadays it’s unimaginable, but back then he controlled everything in our family, either directly or indirectly. I’m sorry that’s how it was for us.”
“That’s not an apology you have to make, chiquita.” Samson said and then smoothly changed the subject. “Remember the three of us sitting together in the corner booth at Rudy’s, years ago, when it was run by your grandfather?”
Her cheeks flushed, recalling the way her grandfather, the original Rudy, had kept his eagle eyes on her anytime he saw her with them, as if expecting her to do wrong. “Of course. My Uncle Rudy is running the family restaurant now. He bought out my dad and all the other uncles and runs it his way now. I was glad to see him take charge of it. I think customers liked the change, too. Do you remember how my dad used to yell at the waitresses and hostesses when we were too slow or made mistakes? Even the customers would get embarrassed for us.”