Rolling Thunder

Chapter 28

This time around, Jake was just full of surprises. Evan’s phone beeped a text.

Jake: Can you meet me at the Barnyard?

It was a favorite local restaurant. A lovely riverside place with cool breezes, plenty of shaded outdoor seating, a great little outdoor tiki bar with a dance floor and small stage for local bands on Friday and Saturday nights. That set Evan at ease. It was a family-type establishment, not likely to involve any of Jake’s outlaw biker friends.

“Be right over,” Evan replied.

Evan hopped on his bike and took the leisurely cruise down Highway 41 and over the blue Caloosahatchee River on the swooping Edison Bridge to the Barnyard in downtown Fort Myers’s River District. He looked forward to a relaxed lunch with his brother. Just a nice, drama-free meal in a beautiful setting.

He cruised casually through the parking lot, letting the engine idle as he swung the bike into an out-of-the-way spot on the front sidewalk, killed the engine and eased the bike over on its kickstand in one fluid motion. Standing up to remove his leather shorty helmet, he scanned the waiting area for Jake. He took off his shades to make sure he was seeing correctly.

He swung off the bike, took a few steps toward the entrance, and stopped, dumbfounded, about ten feet from the benches outside the door.

Evan clenched his teeth, bulging the muscles in his temples. He’d been tricked, and now he’d stumbled into the most unwanted surprise reunion he could imagine.

Sitting there across from Jake were the last two people he might have expected: Bev and Hank Flint—his parents.

Shocked and confused, Evan wrinkled his brow. He shot a probing gaze squarely at Jake, demanding an explanation.

Jake’s face bore an expression Evan couldn’t immediately identify. It was a mix of guilt, hope, shame, and, oddly, compassion, all rolled into one… A look that conveyed there were things Evan didn’t know, and that Jake was trying to right the wrongs of the past.

There they all were: Jake, accompanied by Bev and Hank, in the awning-shaded waiting area at the front of the restaurant among the potted mini-palms and bird-of-paradise plants.

Bev sat on a bench, wearing her airy white summer dress with the little rose-pattern that she so loved. She stood up immediately when she saw Evan. She stepped forward—at first hastily, but then stopping as if to catch herself. She looked like she wanted to rush in and hug him.

He held open his arms to her. He wasn’t a man who could steel his heart to his own mother. At this signal, she ran forward and threw her arms around him in a powerful embrace.

Hank Flint, ever the epitome of the small-town Southern man, stood up, looked Evan in the eye for the first time in years, and reached out a hand to shake.

“It’s good to see you, son,” he said stoically.

Those simple words hung in the air, filling Evan’s heart and knocking down years of resentments, harsh words, disappointments, and shame in an instant like an earthquake. Evan gripped his father’s weathered hand and shook it firmly.

Returning his direct gaze, he said, “It’s good to see you too, Dad.”

Gathering himself from his unexpected emotions, Evan visibly relaxed.

“What are you doing in Fort Myers?” Evan asked. It was a three-hour drive from their home in Myakka City.

“Jake told us he was here with you. It seemed like a chance…” Hank trailed off, seeming at a loss for words.

“Would you have lunch with us, Evan?” Bev interjected.

His mom was a follower. Even now. When his dad had scornfully washed his hands of him after the drug arrest, his mom had been too easily convinced to follow suit.

Now his dad was taking the lead, apparently holding out an olive branch.

The hostess appeared and said their table was ready. All eyes turned to Evan.

He hesitated. After all these years of total isolation, betrayal, and abandonment, did he really want to rip the scab off that old wound?

“All right,” Evan finally said. If they wanted to make things right, he’d let them.

Jake glanced back at Evan as they followed their parents out to their riverside tiki table. There again was that mysterious look in Jake’s eyes. Obviously, Jake had orchestrated this, but why? And why now?

At first, the anger simmered in Evan. They only came to see him now because Jake had asked them to. They hadn’t come when he’d been released from prison. That had been Dan.

As they all took their seats, Evan looked at his mother’s aging face and asked himself how much it really mattered. They were here now. He thought of Canyon Bill’s complicated relationship with Kayla and how he’d come back after all these years to try to make things right, come what may. Was Evan really willing to die on this hill?

“Jake says you’ve got a girl in your life,” Bev said, and he could hear the tentativeness in her lilting voice. She was just trying to break the ice. If they never apologized, could he just move on?

“Yeah. Kayla. She runs a horse farm down the road from my place.”

He saw the glint in his mother’s eyes. “I’d love to meet her,” she said.

Evan glanced at his father, tense, unsure. He didn’t understand how this little reunion had come to be, and he sure as hell wasn’t ready to bring Kayla into it.

A long moment passed as the two men shared an uncomfortable gaze.

Finally, Hank spoke.

“I haven’t known how to reach you, Evan. If it weren’t for your brother here inviting us out today, we still wouldn’t know.”

Jake shifted uncomfortably in his chair as Evan shot him a glance.

“Hell, till your ma saw you on TV, we didn’t know that you’d changed your name… We didn’t even know where to find you.”

Evan sat, stone-faced.

That much was true. After Amber ran roughshod over his new life, he changed his name and disappeared into the swamp. Though Holton was his mother’s maiden name, they would never have thought to look for him under that name.

“Out in front of the prison, the day I got exonerated might have been a safe bet,” Evan quipped. “Besides, I didn’t get the impression you wanted to know where to find me.”

To Evan’s dismay, his mother let out a stifled whimper and started to cry.

Once again, the emotional walls he’d built around himself tumbled.

Hank looked at Bev’s crumpled face. Evan could see the pain and regret in his father’s expression as plain as his mother’s tears. Except this man would never cry. He furrowed his brow and looked down at the table.

“I didn’t have a playbook for this, son,” Hank said.

That was the closest thing to accountability or an apology that Evan had ever heard come out of his father’s mouth. Could things be different?

From the corner of his eye, Evan saw the waitress size up their table and shy away, obviously realizing that it wasn’t a good time to ask if they wanted to hear the daily specials.

“I just never imagined my oldest son would go to prison.”

There it was. That blaming, remorseful tone. It was all about him, his feelings, his reputation, his standing in the community. How embarrassed he felt every two weeks down at the local barber shop. He never cared a whit about Evan’s feelings in all this.

Evan’s anger roared back.

“Since I wasn’t a criminal, I just never imagined I’d be going to prison, either,” he shot back. Hank was an electrician, and Evan had apprenticed with him as a young man. He’d just intended to take over his dad’s business. Instead, he’d gone to prison.

Hank straightened, recovering from his momentary lapse of total emotional control. He leaned forward slightly, placing his forearm like a shield on the table in front of him and returned his son’s gaze.

“Well then, what the hell wereyou thinking about, poking at the Iron Pirates like that?” he retorted. Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw Jake twitch and grimace at the mention of the Pirates. It wasn’t wise to throw that name around in public at full volume. Evan glanced at Jake, who had sat silent through the whole exchange. There was a sad, wistful look on his face that Evan couldn’t understand.

“He was only trying to save my sorry ass,” Jake intervened. Everyone looked at him, shocked.

Jake leaned forward, lowering his voice. “I was the one messing around with the Pirates,” Jake said, jabbing a finger at his own chest angrily. “Evan was just trying to watch my back because I wouldn’t listen when he told me to get out.”

Bev looked at Hank. Her face was an exclamation point with trembling lips. She moaned as if she was going to cry again. Evan dragged a hand over his face, trying to rub out the tension. So far, this was hell.

For the moment, Hank’s anger was rightly directed at Jake.

“Well, what in God’s name were you doing running around with those dirtbags?” Hank demanded in a gruff voice. Evan didn’t think Hank wanted an answer as much as he wanted to buy time because he just realized how he had misjudged his eldest son. Jake just shook his head.

Hank looked at Evan again and opened and closed his mouth a few times under a thick black mustache before he finally said, “Well, I’ll be goddamned.”

“I never had anything to do with them, Dad. I was a convenient fall guy for that dirty cop. You can read his confession in the court docs.”

They’d never remained calm long enough to get to these details. Jake’s idea to meet in public at the restaurant was a stroke of genius. In private, this would have yet again escalated into yelling and storming off before anyone could make their point, like it had a half dozen times before.

Jake sat staring at the table. Evan watched his father expectantly. He wasn’t going to browbeat his dad with the fact that he’d spent three years in prison, or that it had been another three since he’d been out, or especially that his father had never apologized for his only response to Evan’s sentencing: a disgusted head shake. Hank never apologized for the wall of silence that had finally replaced the fighting.

“Evan,” Hank said. His voice was pained.

Evan lifted his chin and looked his dad squarely in the eye.

“I didn’t know.”

“Well. I guess I didn’t tell you,” Evan said, his voice turning gravelly.

“And neither did I. And I was the one who really should have,” Jake said.

Evan considered him. Jake had weathered lines on his face that made him look older than he was, and the obvious distress of knowing his wrongdoing made them seem deeper. The bright point of anger Evan had lived with for so long dulled.

“Why did you change your name?” Hank asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Because I was all over the news and people knew that I got a payout from the state. I had gold diggers trying to get with me. I wasted six months with that girl Amber. She only wanted the money, Dad. It seemed like every single person in my life screwed me over. I wanted a fresh start.”

“Guess I was one of those people, son,” Hank said, his voice thick with emotion.

“Yeah, you were.”

“And so was I,” Jake said.

While Evan had done hard time, Jake had partied in the Keys and started a successful business. That had eaten away at Evan. This was the first time forgiveness was truly an option.

Now Evan understood that odd look on Jake’s face. He was falling on his sword to make things right between Evan and their parents. Jake had nothing to gain from this. It was a completely selfless act. There was something else that Jake wasn’t telling him even now, but he would have to wait until they were alone to try to find out what.

Despite sometimes wanting to punch his lights out, he loved his brother fiercely. That love was the only reason he’d sacrificed himself to save him from the Pirates.

“Suppose you’d let me make it up to you?” Hank asked finally. “I’d sure like to see the work you’re doing on these houses.”

It was as close to an apology or an olive branch as Evan ever thought he’d ever get from the tough old man. So he nodded.

“Waitress!” Hank called out, straightening up and waving his hand in the air.

“Let me buy you a beer?” he asked Evan.

“Make it a whiskey,” Evan corrected.

Bev reached across the table and grasped Evan’s hand. She’d stopped crying, but her eyes were still red.

“We’d love to meet your new girl, Evan,” Bev interjected, squeezing her husband’s hand so tight, her knuckles were white.

“Yeah, I’ll ask her.” Evan replied hesitantly.