His hand rested against the frame.
Cassie recognized that hesitation.
She had felt the same thing before entering for the first time.
He pushed inside.
Saw her.
“You’re Cassie.”
It was not a question.
She removed her headphones.
“You’re Tommy.”
His mouth twisted.
“Word travels.”
“My father told me.”
“Nothing good, probably.”
“Mostly complicated.”
Tommy laughed.
“That sounds like Graham.”
He looked around the room.
His eyes moved across photographs.
The bar.
The pool table.
An old dent in the wall.
Cassie watched his face change as every object returned fifteen years at once.
“How long since you’ve been inside?”
“Fifteen years, three months.”
“You counted?”
“First few years.”
His smile did not reach his eyes.
“Then stopped.”
Cassie closed the laptop.
“Why come now?”
Tommy looked at her.
“Because apparently a seventeen-year-old girl had to start asking questions the rest of us were too proud to answer.”
A truck entered the parking lot.
Tommy turned.
Graham climbed out.
He froze.
Even through the window Cassie saw it.
Tommy stayed inside.
Graham walked toward the door slowly.
When he entered, the two men stood roughly three feet apart.
Neither smiled.
“Graham.”
“Tommy.”
Fifteen years sat between them.
Cassie quietly moved her recorder into her bag.
No permission.
No recording.
Graham looked toward the coffee machine.
“You want coffee?”
Tommy exhaled.
“Yeah.”
“Coffee would be good.”
That was how it started.
Not with an apology.
Coffee.
Within an hour Rusty’s filled.
Hank arrived first.
When he saw Tommy, his entire face changed.
“You miserable bastard.”
Tommy barely had time to stand before Hank wrapped both arms around him.
Tommy held on.
Hard.
Maria arrived next.
She stopped several feet away.
Tommy looked nervous.
“Maria.”
“You look old.”
“So do you.”
“Wrong answer.”
Then she hugged him.
People kept arriving.
Men Cassie knew.
Others she did not.
Some shook Tommy’s hand.
Some embraced him.
A few only nodded.
Derek arrived last.
He entered.
Saw Tommy.
Stopped.
The temperature in the room changed.
Tommy looked toward him.
“You look like Bull.”
Derek’s face hardened.
“Don’t.”
Tommy nodded.
“Fair.”
Derek stepped farther in.
“Didn’t think you’d ever show your face here again.”
“Neither did I.”
“So why now?”
Tommy looked around.
Then at Cassie.
“Because I heard Graham’s daughter was writing down the club’s history.”
Derek gave a bitter smile.
“So?”
“So our history includes what happened.”
Derek’s eyes sharpened.
“What happened is you left.”
“Yes.”
“You turned your back.”
“I left.”
“My father called it betrayal.”
“I know.”
“He died believing you tried to destroy what he built.”
Tommy inhaled slowly.
“I didn’t try to destroy it.”
“You wanted to change everything.”
“Yes.”
Derek spread his hands.