Page 35 of A Constant Love

I flipped through the radio stations but was unable to find anything but country, which wasn’t really my cup of tea, so I was thankful when it was a fairly short drive to the diner.

The town of Armstrong was cute and quaint…something you’d see in a painting. Sam had told me most people lived on the outskirts rather than in the center of town itself.

When we got out of the car, a man came walking up and grabbed Sam by the arm. I was ready to knock the dude’s head off before she turned around and smiled, playfully smacking his shoulder.

“Well, well, well, look at little Miss Sammie Flemming. You grew up, girl!” He said with a thick accent.

“Benny Johnson! How are you?” She asked giving him a hug.

“Just still here in little old Armstrong. I’ve been working over at the paper mill a couple towns over. How about you? I can’t believe you left town and never looked back.”

“Left to go to school,” she shrugged.

He nodded, but his eyes showed that he knew she left for much more than that.

She held out her arm to me. “Benny, this is Tyler, my boyfriend. Benny and I used to be best friends back in the day.”

I shook the man’s hand, “Nice to meet you.”

“You too! Better watch out for this one…she’s meaner than the dickens. You ever seen her ride a mechanical bull?”

She playfully smacked his shoulder again. “Shut up, Benny!”

Making a mental note, I vowed I would have to see Sam on a mechanical bull at some point.

He laughed before his face went serious again. “In all seriousness, Sammie, it’s good to see you. I know shit got rough, but there are people around here who still miss you. Don’t be a stranger.”

With a final wave, he walked away.

“He seemed nice,” I said as he walked toward the restaurant.

“He is. The nicest. We used to be thick as thieves, but he was one of the people James forbid me to hang around with anymore. It was a terrible thing to do…but what I did was worse.”

“What did you do?”

“I obeyed.”

I stopped for a brief moment seeing if she’d say anything else on the matter, but she didn’t. So, we walked in and found the table where her dad and brothers sat.

Eyes stared as us from all around the restaurant. With the shock on their faces, you would have thought we were aliens.

Sam was doing her best to ignore it, but I could feel her unease rising.

“Let’s just order,” her dad said, addressing the situation.

Without looking up from her menu, she said, “Kind of hard to pick what I want to eat with everyone STARING AT ME.” Her voice raised a few octaves on the last words, and remarkably, everyone turned their attention elsewhere.

Jessie chuckled under his breath. “Maybe the old Sammie is coming back.”

Before I got a chance to delve into what all that statement meant, the waitress came over to get our order.

When she had walked back off, Sam piped up with, “Did you guys all like your letters from Mom?”

They nodded in unison.

“I just wish we had gotten more time with her,” Luke said.

John put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “We all do, son. But it’s just best to remember the good times that we did have.”

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