River Johnny felt the vibration of his cell phone. It was a text. She always started with a text. He hadn't seen nor heard from her in two months. He was getting the itch. He open up the text and read it; "honey, where are u?"
"Deal around me, Jack" Johnny said as he got up and walked to a corner of the room. He cleared the text then hit #1 and send. Delia answered the call.
"Hi, honey. How are you? Where are you?"
"I'm good. I'm in Billings. How have you been?"
"Great. Are you playing poker?"
"What else would I be doing? What's happening in Lolo?"
"I moved back to Missoula."
"What part of town?"
"Off Broadway and Russell. When are you going to come and visit?"
She must need her rent paid, Johnny thought.
"Maybe soon. But I gotta stop in Bozeman. A.J. wants me to check something out."
"How have you been running?" she asked.
"Good. I had a great week last week. Look, Delia, tomorrow is Friday and I'm gonna be in Bozeman. How about you drivin' over and spending the weekend with me?"
"Are you gonna let me play poker?"
"Yeah, sure" Johnny sighed. "But, sweetheart, you gotta learn to lay off those trash suiters unless you're around back and getting volume. For your speed you need to stick to Ace-Jack or better. And you gotta learn to get out of the way with those small pairs when you don't flop a set."
"How much are you gonna let me play?"
"You can play tomorrow night and Saturday night then drive back to Missoula on Sunday. I'll probably go with you. I wanna tag that game at the Silver Slipper."
"Okay, honey. You got a date. And you can stay with me when we get back."
She definitely needs her rent paid, Johnny thought.
"But I'm gonna get a late start. We have a special prayer meeting tomorrow. One of the deacons has cancer. We're gonna pray for him."
"Alright, sweetheart. But call me when you get ready to leave. Bring your Glock. I don't like you on the highway without protection. You been practicing flipping that safety off and on like I told you?"
"Yes, I'm good at it now."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow evening."
"You got it, honey. I'll be there. Bye."
Johnny thought about A.J. when he hung up. A.J. ran a good clean 2 to 10 holdem game at the Tiger's Paw in Bozeman. It was a beer and shot saloon, greasy spoon restaurant, 20 machine casino, with two poker tables. A.J. owned the tables and leased the space. Johnny and A.J. had known each other for 25 years. They were both rounders and kept running into each other at the card tables around the country. A.J. was passing through Bozeman several years before and stopped to hit the card tables. He saw an opportunity to get off the road and make a good living running the poker games at the Tiger's Paw.
He was damn good to his players. A regular could come in, get a meal, then put it on A.J.'s tab even if there was no game going on. The first 5 players got $120 for $100. And every once in a while he would throw a no buyin tournament and post all the prize money himself. He also hauled the drunk players home at night.
A.J. liked to keep the chips going around and around and down. Johnny pulled too much money off the table for A.J.'s liking so as a courtesy Johnny only played in the game a few days here and there.
"Sorry, Jack. I gotta cash out and get a good night's sleep" Johnny said when he returned to the poker table.
"Don't come back!" one of the players joked.
"Not for a while!" Johnny quipped.
to be continued....
