The Reunion (9 page)

"You know she doesn't take complements well."

"Forget I mentioned it.  I have an opening…"

"She's not looking for another position."  Brockton cut in.

"I didn't see that one coming."  Ryan patted Ty on the back.  "Good one brah."

"What page and which proposal is that?"  Cummins was already working on another machine.

"The December one on page eight."  Sanchez said.  "What is our current recommendation?"

"Upgrading 20 of the existing servers and redistribution of resource."

"That'd work too."  Toni said and Ryan and Ty looked at her.  "It's cost effective and would decrease the utilization percentages by between 10 and 20 percent."

"Where are
you
working sweetheart?"

"I'm work for you, Mr. O'Bryan."  She smiled sweetly at Ryan and wrapped her arms around him.

"We keep underestimating these broads, O'Bryan."  Ty took Toni by the arm and started pulling her away.  "How are you on hardware and security principals, sweetheart?"

"I want everyone back here in three hours."  Brockton booted a third computer "Cummins I want the manufacturer's specifications and recommendations for capacity and CPU utilization looked at again.  Marshall you're on the cost sheet.  Connally I want the distribution of resource for the upgrade and the reconfiguration including the dozen new servers…"

"That's on the next page.  Well at least the nationals; I didn't do the overseas ones.  Since we have so much dependant on the Chinese operations I would add three servers there, one in Japan and one in London.  Hey Ham, am I getting overtime for this?"

"Yes."  Brockton and Hamilton answered together. 

"Hamilton, I want the personnel and consultant portions updated.  Sanchez…"  Brockton smiled. "Double check the consultants."

"Come here baby, I've got a state of the art PC at my place."  Ty pulled at Em's arm.

"That sounds a lot like you showing me your etchings shit head.  I have a laptop."

"Marshall, give her computer back."  Marshall shut it down and handed her the laptop.

"Back to work."

"Yeah, thanks."  Em stuck her tongue out at Ty then ran for the elevator.  His laugh followed her down the hall.

"No sweetie, I'm sure you heard all about this."  Lou took her sister's hand and gave it a squeeze.  "It was Sam's only daughter Diana.  She married that low life from Shreveport."

"But you just said she was arrested…"

"Convicted.  Insurance fraud, darlin'.  She had the husband declared dead after a fishing accident.  Even without a body.  She then collected his insurance, got the insurance money from her momma's
accident
, along with most of her jewelry, personal items and all those items that had disappeared from the house in that supposed burglary.  Then they found him in jail under his brother's name in Texas for drug smuggling."

"No.  I definitely didn't hear this."  Hanna continued to shake her head.  "When did all of this happen?"

"Must be at least 15 years ago now."  Louise tipped her glass toward a group laughing by what was left of the ice sculpture.  "Martha, didn't you and Sam hire that private investigator to check into the will and the insurance after Linda's little accident."

"That's right.  It was a long time ago.  I had the car checked out again and the brakes had definitely failed.  She went right into the river.  Drunk driving is how it was filed and no one bothered to follow up.  She had quite a reputation and history, you see.  Not a damn thing we could do after most of the evidence was destroyed by Diana and her husband."

"I can't believe I've never heard this before."  Hannah stared at the group and picked out the one they were discussing.  "She's been out of prison how long?"

" 'bout two years now."  Martha set her empty flute down on a tray.  "Her brother Benny raised her three kids.  He was a terrific man.  Looked so much like his daddy."

"Benny was the salt of the earth.  That wife of his too.  Some of the best of the family."  Hannah agreed.

"Probably why they don't come to the reunions."  Louise laughed.  "Too bright."

"In summary.  Diana tampered with the will, got insurance out on her mother, killed her mother, killed his mother, had him declared dead to get his insurance money and got caught when he was found in a Texas jail for drug charges?"

"That's it."

"She looks pretty good for a convicted felon."  She looked at the woman leaving with a group from east Texas.  "A lot like Wild Thing."

"She was never arrested or convicted."  Louise sniffed.

"You're terrible Lou!" Hannah laughed.  "She wasn’t the first one I knew that got a tattoo."

"Have you seen Margaret's?"  Bea asked, cracking up.  "She's having to get a tummy tuck just to keep her snake from dropping to her knees."

"Between shows?"  Lou sniffed, "I can't believe how that girl has changed.  She was such a sweet child."

"Sweet my ass."  Bea was bracing herself on the table to catch her breath.  "The girl stripped for five years across four states."  She smiled at Martha.  "She's seen more mileage than a Peterbilt." causing Martha to laugh louder and harder.  "I haven't seen her this time…"

“Who are we talking about Wild Thing or Margaret?”  Hanna sniffed indignantly.

"Margaret.  She's probably working the strip…  No I’m sorry, that's unfair.  She's always been trying to prove what a tough thing she is.  She was one of the sweetest of your kids."

"She's showing dogs, and is in Reno at the moment, she may be down tonight."  Hannah looked hurt.

"Sorry Hannah, she's one of the ones that makes this family so interesting."

"Those stories are old.  I'd think that there would be new stories to replace them by now."

"Still it's one of the best.  Who the hell wants to hear about doctors and lawyers when we have a couple of strippers and several bar owners."

"The old stories
are
more colorful, you have to admit it.  We’re getting too common."  Martha was still biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.  Bea was finally catching her breath.  "Back to Diana and her showing up…"

"Oh yeah."  Bea took a deep breath.  "I heard that she'd dropped in on Jacob; that was her oldest, and tried to get a little free room and board until she could get on her feet again.  His wife tossed her ass out for having sticky fingers."

"Apparently a drunk too."  Louise sniffed again.  "Well?"

"She somehow got into a program and has been clean for a year according to Benny's wife Brenda.  Brenda is much more forgiving than I am.  Apparently, Diana's been working for some telemarketing group in Baton Rouge for the last six months and has reportedly been doing really well."

"What about the husband?" Hannah asked.

"He's still in prison in Texas."  Lou responded.  "He's due to get out soon.  Everyone thinks he's the one that came up idea for the insurance scams but I think it was Diana all the way.  She's sly that one."

"She looks twice as old as Josh and Ty.  She's what?  Six months younger?"

She had Jacob when she was sixteen.  Then was in prison before she was twenty five.  She's had an awful life."

"All in the eye of the…"

"Adds color.  What would the group of us have to gossip about if we didn't have such good material to work with??"

"True."  Martha laughed.  "There's a bit of everything represented here."  She indicated another group by the bar where Ryan had taken over from Tommy for a while.  "Ryan's been at a loss ever since Stacy got married.  They were quite a pair."

"She's happy as a clam."  Bea smiled.  "She's just found out she’s pregnant.  We’ll be sending baby blankets and flowers before long."

"Who has birthdays in November Hannah?"

"Oh there's got to be a dozen or more…  “

“You aren't still keeping up with cards are you Hannah?"  Louise looked at her sister and saw the blush rising.  "GOD woman.  You must personally keep the post office in business."

"How many do you send to now Hannah?"

"Not that many."  She was fumbling trying to think of a subject change.  "I'm so proud of the kids for getting this together. They started work on this the day after Mae's funeral."

"They did a great job.  This is one of the snazziest we've had."  Lou let her off the hook for the moment.   "The one we did in '82 took us six months to put together."

"They have computers and all now."  Bea thought back to the reunion.  "That was quite a group we had that year, the only one we did in California."

"What about the one in 97?"

"That wasn't technically a reunion.  It started out as a wedding then ended up in Mae's backyard in Huntington Beach three days later."

"We lost Sarah and my Mathew that year too."

"That was a tough year."

"Not as bad as 2000, seems we lost all the young ones that year."

"Tragic." Hannah sighed.  Bea got very quiet.  "You retired that year didn't you Lou?"

"35 years with the phone company."  Lou said proudly.  "Worked most of my life in California for that branch of Ma' Bell."

"You had some interesting changes in career over the years."  She said to Bea.

"Stuck with contracts and gov't."

"Yeah but you must have worked with every aerospace company imaginable."

"Most likely.  There just wasn't much of it left after the mainframe crash in the 90s.  I just couldn't move back to Silicon Valley again.  I love being in Big Bear."

"Texas suited you better dear."

"Texas always suited us better."

"Big and bold just like us."

"You kill me Lou."  Bea laughed.  "Martha always stayed quietly in California making her millions."

"Either there or New York and I hate worrying about when I can and can't wear white."  This sent Bea and Hannah into giggles.

"Who the hell cares?"

"It's something you have to be aware of in business."

"Do I look like I even know what month it is?"

"Girl, jeans is a lifestyle with you, not a fashion statement."

"I'll drink to that."  She raised another beer to her sisters.  "Here's to money, clothes and family."

"May we never run out of any of them!"  Hannah joked startling her sisters and sending them all into fits of laughter.

"That was funny Hannah!  Let's get back to the black jack tables before this breaks up anymore."  The room had been whittling down the last hour and there were probably only about two dozen people left.  They made their way through several casinos and shows over the next couple of hours, never more than 25 feet from each other the whole afternoon.

"We're going swimming mom." 

"What's the pool temperature?"

"High eighties.  It's an outdoor pool and it's nice outside."

"Who's going to be there?"

"Kim, Stacy, Debbie, Carole and the kids."

"I'm coming too."  She put her laptop aside and stretched.  Toni had returned her bikini top but she found her one-piece and put it on under a T-shirt then grabbed the computer and her towel.  The others were already down there and she pulled a lounge into the shade next to them and visited and updated her data over the next hour.

"You weren't answering your phone."  Brockton's voice cut through her concentration.  She shaded her eyes as she looked up. 

"I'm not in my room."  She went back to typing.  "I'm just about done."  He crouched down next to her.

"I'm cutting you lose and we'll finish this on Monday."  He said softly.  "It really wasn't right to change the scope and expect you to…"

"Hi Mr. Brockton."  Mike came over dripping and looking all of twelve.  Still a little babyfat on his long wiry body.  Muscles in his chest and arms were just starting to be defined.

"Hi Mike.  Having fun?"  He looked at the kids in the pool and the gangly one in front of him.

"It's ok.  I get kind of tired of being
it
all the time but the kids like it."  He shrugged.

"They're younger."  He patted his shoulder.  "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the main event?"

"We're just getting ready to go up and change."  All the while Brockton was listening to the clicking of the computer keys behind him.  "Mom?"  She held up two fingers and Mike rolled his eyes and started helping his aunts herd the kids back to their rooms.

"Connally we're shutting down." She held up one finger and kept typing.  He sat down at the foot of the lounge and watched her for a minute.  She was re-reading and chewing on her lower lip.  Her legs really did go on forever.  They were tanned and toned.  Her arms tanned the same warm brown color.  Her sun glasses were too large and covered a good part of her face as well as the hat she had her hair shoved into, which was escaping here and there.  He saw the toe rings for the first time and noticed a very fine gold chain right at the base of her neck.  The bathing suit was dry but clingy; it showed her many attributes.  Her hips were narrow, her stomach flat.  She had a small frame, fined boned, as his mother would have said.  Her suit plunged in the front.  His fingers tingled wanting to reach out and touch her.  She attached the documents to the email and pressed send then started shutting down.

"Done."  She smiled.

"Done?"

"I only had to update my old documents a little.  I should have been done half an hour ago."  She pulled the hat off and slipped the oversized T-shirt on before standing up.  His eyes roamed over her again.  She was a little top heavy and a little on the short side.  She looked taller until she was standing right next to you.  "I just sent the e-mail to the team."  She slipped her flip-flops on and picked up her towel and computer.  He just sat there looking at her.  She started getting more and more self-conscious when Tommy came to the rescue.

"There you are."  Their heads whipped around. "I just passed the kids and they said you were working down here."

"Just finished."  Brockton stood up.  He didn't like the direction his thoughts had taken.

"Ham and Sarah invited us to join you tonight, I hope that won't be a problem."  Brockton told them.

"No that's great."  Tommy took her stuff out of her arms.  "We'll see you in about an hour."  He wondered what was up.  Em was being really quiet and he didn't care for the way Brockton was leering.  Brockton turned and left.  Tommy took Em around the other way.

"So how's Ty?"  Tommy teased.