Heart Bones(82)

“What am I supposed to call you? Shawn or Samson?”

“Samson,” he says immediately. “I’ve never felt more myself than when I was with you that summer. That’s exactly who I want to be. Forever.”

I wrap my arms around my knees and bury my mouth into my elbow to hide my smile.

“Where do you live now?” Samson asks me.

I nod my head at my father’s beach house. “Staying with my father and Alana this week, but I have an apartment in Houston. I’m in law school.”

“No way.”

I laugh. “I am. Just started my first semester in August.”

Samson shakes his head with a mixture of pride and disbelief on his face. “I didn’t know that’s what you wanted to do.”

“I didn’t know either until you were arrested. Kevin has been really helpful. I’m actually about to start an internship at his office.”

Samson smiles softly. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you.”

“I took some college classes in prison,” he says. “I’m going to try to get into school somewhere, if anyone will take me.”

His eyes drift away after he says that, like he’s worried for all the challenges he’s about to face.

“What was prison like?”

He sighs. “Real, real shitty. I give it a one out of ten. Do not recommend.”

I laugh. “What’s the next step? Where are you going to stay?”

Samson shrugs. “Kevin has all that info. Says he set something temporary up for me. I was supposed to call him as soon as I was released, actually.”

My mouth drops open. “Samson! It’s been four hours. You haven’t called him?”

“I don’t have a phone. I was going to ask if I could use yours, but I’ve been a little sidetracked.”

I roll my eyes and take out my cell phone. “If you violate parole over something this stupid, I’m driving you to jail myself.”

Samson brushes sand from his hands and takes the phone after I dial Kevin’s number. Kevin answers after the second ring.

“I haven’t heard from him yet,” Kevin says, assuming it’s me calling. “I promised I would call you as soon as I did.”

Samson smiles at me as he speaks into my phone. “It’s me, Kevin. I’m out.”

There’s a pause on Kevin’s end before he says, “This is Beyah’s number. You’re with her?”

“Yep.”

“Where are you?”

“We’re at the beach.”

“Can Beyah hear me?” Kevin asks.

“Yes,” I say, leaning toward the phone.

“I guess you were right about him.”

“Sure was,” I say with a smile.

“I told you you’re gonna make one hell of a lawyer with that kind of commitment,” Kevin says. “Listen, Samson. You listening?”

“Yep.”

“I’m going to email you the information for your parole officer today. You have seven days to check in with him. You’ll find your key under the rock to the right of the trash can.”

Samson glances at me and raises a brow. “What key?”

“The key to my mother’s house.”

Samson looks over his shoulder at Marjorie’s home. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yeah, I know. My mother made me promise not to tell you until after you were released, which is why I instructed you to call me as soon as you got out. You follow instructions terribly. The deed is at my office, I can bring it by sometime this week. I tried to do what I could with the house, but life has been busy. It needs a lot of work.”

The look of disbelief on Samson’s face is something I wish I could take a picture. I’m sure the same look is splashed across my own face.

“Is this a joke?” Samson asks.

“No. You made some stupid mistakes but you also did a lot of good for a lot of people in that community. My mother being one of them. She thought you deserved to be able to call that place your home because she knew how much you loved it.”

Samson releases a trembling breath and then drops the phone in the sand. He pushes off the ground and walks away from his conversation with Kevin. He pauses near the water and grips the back of his neck.

I pick up the phone and wipe the sand off of it. “Can we call you back later, Kevin?”

“Is everything okay?”

I watch Samson as he struggles to absorb everything Kevin just told him. “Yeah. I think he just needs a while to process this.”

After ending the call, I walk over to Samson. I stand in front of him and lift my hands, wiping the tears away from his cheeks like he’s done for me so many times.

He shakes his head. “I don’t deserve that house, Beyah.”

I take his face in my hands and tilt it until his focus is on mine. “You’ve been punished enough. Accept all the good things life is throwing at you today.”

He blows out a quick breath and pulls me in tightly. I don’t let him hug me for long because I’m too excited to find that key. I grab his hand and pull him away from the beach.

“Come on, I want to see your house.”

We find the key exactly where Kevin said it would be. When Samson goes to insert it into the lock on the door, his hands are shaking. He has to pause for a moment and press his palms into the doorframe. “This can’t be real,” he whispers.