#22 – Circle

As far as Steve was concerned, the circle was complete.

To play a decent poker game, you need at least five guys. Steve's home game, which he'd been holding in his basement since he'd bought the house (two days after Tom's first birthday), was finally back on after a long hiatus. After Peter had quit because of Eva's disappearance, the other three guys had tried to carry on the tradition…but gradually, they'd made excuses to not show up. The game started getting cancelled more than it was held, and eventually the guys weren't even calling with excuses anymore. The game fell by the wayside.

Steve had been excited when Peter had called and casually inquired about starting it back up again. The excitement had been tempered, though, because life had moved on for everybody since the game had stopped. As he called around to his poker buddies without much hope, he was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the guys wanted to do it. They sounded excited about the card game, sure, but Jason, Albert, and Edward were so full of questions about Peter that it led Steve to believe they were happier that Peter was "back."

He'd dusted off the card table and counted the old chip set. He'd bought three fresh decks of cards from the market. Jean had even pitched in by making assorted dips and filling the cooler with ice and beer. She thought the game was a little silly, and she wasn't a huge fan of Steve gambling…but it was a dollar ante limit game. Even if he had a mind to, he couldn't do the checking account much harm under those circumstances.

Steve eyeballed his cards and then his dwindling chip stack, thinking he had sure gotten rusty over the year and a half that he hadn't played. He had always been the one to rebuy first after going broke. He was a late-runner, everybody knew that.

Peter casually tossed his hand into the muck, even though he'd been dealt a reasonable ace nine. He wasn't there for the cards, and nothing but the most premium starting hands was going to hold his interest. He was there because a return to the poker game was one more step in the return to normalcy. He swigged his beer and belched loudly, and grinned when the other guys at the table laughed raucously.

"You in or out, Eddie?" Jason asked with a tone of put-on annoyance. Just like they all knew that Steve thought of himself as a late-runner, they knew that Edward studied his cards like a book before making any decision at all. Eddie grunted and dropped the required dollar chip into the pot, then turned to Peter with an air of laxness…but that was as put on as Jason's annoyance.

"How's Marco doing?" Edward asked.

Pete laughed and crunched his beer can on his forehead, an act the others had always been amused by. "The damn kid is too smart for his own good. He thinks he's already smarter than his old man, and it's giving me fits."

"He probably is already smarter than his old man," Jason joked as he raised the pot limit. They all laughed at that, and Peter just gave a rueful I-won't-argue-with-that smile.

"Steve's boy will keep him out of trouble," Albert said confidently as he tossed Peter another beer. "Jake's a forty-five year old in a fifteen year old's body. A responsible forty-five year old." Albert shot a glance at Steve, making sure he hadn't overstepped. "Or has he started raising hell himself?"

Steve laughed easily. "I wouldn't know – he's never around anymore. But his grades are decent, he stays out of trouble at school, and he hasn't stolen my station wagon yet. As far as I'm concerned, that's as good as it gets."

"Better than Royce," Edward said sourly, talking about his own son. "I had to talk to his football coach last week about letting him stay on the team. The kid is a hell of a tight end, but he's more interested in chasing girls than pigskins." He gave Steve a pointed look. "From what I hear, one of the girls he's considering chasing is your niece."

"Rachel?" Steve asked, surprised. "Huh. Not that there's anything wrong with your kid, Ed, but Rachel's never struck me as the type to date a football player." He considered this, then added, "Never really struck me as the type to date anybody, really. That girl is…strange."

"Strange or not, all the boys seem to be interested," Peter chipped in, shuffling up for his turn on the dealer button. "She called last week for Marco, but he wasn't in – big shocker. But he was very interested in what she had to say when she called," he laughed, tossing the cards out. "Made me repeat what she'd said word for word."

The door separating the kitchen from the basement cracked open just then. The men heard Jake yell back through the kitchen, "I don't know, mom, I'll ask him." Jake clomped down the stairs, and all of the guys guiltily said hello to him – kids always seemed to show up right when you were trying to talk about them. Jake waved distractedly, then focused on Steve. "Mom wants to know if we have any more vacuum cleaner filters. And she said I have to ask you if I want to go to Marco's."

Steve grinned. "Vacuum filters are in the hall closet, second shelf. And you have to ask Peter if you want to go trash his house while he's over here."

"Oh, hey, Mr. Pete," Jake said. "Is it all right? Marco wants to meet up, and we might go to the arcade. I guess he wants to get crushed at some video games."

The guys laughed again, and Peter smiled. "No problem, but tell him he has to straighten his room before he goes anywhere. And his homework had better be done."

"Sure thing, Mr. P. See you later, dad. Bye guys!" He took the stairs two at a time and was gone before Steve's friends could even return the goodbye.

"Do they ever stop going?" Steve wondered as he checked his cards and raised the pot. "I remember a time where I couldn't get them off of the couch. Now I never see them, except for something like that," he waved his hand in the general direction that Jake had gone.

"Nope, Marco's the same way," Peter confirmed. All the other guys had folded, but Pete put a small stack of chips in the middle. "Gonna cost you the rest of your stack if you want to see if I got it, good buddy," he told Steve easily.

"Thank for the free money," Steve said, shoving it in. "Three aces," he announced, laying his cards down with a flourish.

Peter grinned. "That's a good hand…but remind me again. My flush beats that, right?" he teased as he laid down his own cards. The guys in the circle let out a loud, "Oooooh!" at Steve's blush as Peter scraped the pot toward him.

Steve pointed at the chip case and hauled out his wallet. "Don't get used to those chips, Pete. You're just holding them for me. Rebuy me for thirty bucks, Al." While Albert counted out the chips, Edward shuffled the cards and began the deal.

And the game went on.