Bax walked in with his jaw clenched and his hands running through his hair — again. His father, frowning, followed at his heels.
“Um, so she ran to the bathroom,” Bax said, coming up to Gray’s bedside again. “And Mom’s in there with her… She’s pretty upset.”
“Vuh!” The curse lacked vital consonants.
“Son, what’s the last thing you remember?” Lowell Blakewood asked, concern etched onto his forehead.
Christmas. He’d spent Christmas at his parent’s house in New Orleans, and Bax had driven him home the next day. And… he’d had a seizure in the living room…
“Day after Christmas?”he wrote. “12/26/16?”
Bax’s hands went to his temples. “Shit,” he hissed.
Gray’s stomach dropped.Hadhe been in a coma for ten years? How much had been erased?
His father’s mouth worked; the man seemed uncertain about leveling with him. Gray jabbed three question marks onto the marker board.
“Son, you’ve lost a little more than a month.”
His eyes shot open. “Aaah maah?”
Bax looked at his watch. “Gray, it’s Saturday, February 4, 2017.”
Gray’s father called to the nurse. “We need to see Dr. Cates. My son’s sustained significant memory loss,” he said, his tone leaving no room for anything but total compliance.
Nurse Cassie grabbed her iPad and approached Gray’s bed, ignoring his father and showing them exactly who was in charge in the ICU. “Retrograde amnesia is very common in patients after brain surgery,” she said evenly. “It’s normal not to be able to recall the hours and even a day or two leading up to the operation—”
“My brother’s lost a whole month,” Bax charged in.
Cassie’s eyes flashed to each man. “That’s…that’s unusual, but it does happen,” she said, making a note on the iPad.
“We need to see Dr. Cates,” Gray’s father repeated, an edge in his voice.
Cassie kept her eyes on the tablet. “I’ll see that Dr. Cates receives the message, but he’s already made rounds today when Mr. Blakewood was still asleep, but he did examine him, and his responses were all well within normal rang—”
“Well, when will he be back?” Lowell Blakewood bit out the words, and Gray was sure Cassie flinched a little.
“He should be here in the morning. Dr. Cates is very consistent.”
Gray watched them go back and forth, but the argument did nothing for him. Sure, he wanted to see Dr. Cates and get some answers to his questions, but he wanted to see Meredith more.
He picked up his board and wrote.“Bax, go find her. Bring her back.”
His brother rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you don’t remember her. This is just how you were about that girl. Obsessed. Do you know you sent me across town to get her take-out crème brulée?”
And with that cryptic remark, Gray’s brother spun on his heel and stalked out.
Lowell Blakewood turned to his son and narrowed his eyes. “Take-out crème brulée?”
Gray shrugged, but his curiosity piqued. What had prompted that particular gesture? And how had she responded?
“You remember nothing since the day after Christmas?” his dad asked. “Nothing at all?”
Gray shook his head. December 26 was yesterday as far as he was concerned. But if there was more than a month missing — a month of meeting and discovering Meredith… Meredith…
What was her last name?
He spelled out the question on the marker board. His father read it and smiled.
