Page 69 of Rolling Thunder

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 were you 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.

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