AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiled. “Well, it’s not home, home. But you’re home in Montana.”
He was a little fuzzy on what she was saying. “Where else would I be?”
The door opened and J.T. and Sawyer walked through it with three cups of coffee. When they saw Jake was awake, they moved to the bed.
J.T. set the two cups he was holding down. “Dad. Shit. You’re awake.” J.T. was Jake’s oldestson by fifteen months. He had Jake’s build, tall with the muscle of a working cowboy. But facially he resembled his grandfather with dark brown eyes and sandy brown hair.
Sawyer came up next to his brother. “Welcome home.”
Jake rubbed his face. “I need to sit up.”
J.T. went to the side of the bed and picked up the remote. “I got you.” He raised the head of the bed, then handed Jake a glass of water. “Here, drink this.”
Jake drank some water then handed the glass back to J.T. “Why am I in the hospital? Other than feeling like I’m coming off a three-day binge, I’m not in pain.” He looked at his three adult children. “Why do you all look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
Sage glanced at J.T. who nodded, then put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “You’ve been gone for five months, Dad.”
“Gone? What the hell does that mean?”
Sage took Jake’s hand. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Jake took a moment to think about it. “I was in Denver. No. I left Denver and I was heading to San Antonio. But I was going to fish that great stretch of water on the Rio Chama on my way through New Mexico.”
Sage squeezed his hand. “You were in Denver in June. It’s November.”
Jake shook his head. “Are you saying I’ve beengone since June? And It’s now November?”
She picked up her cell phone and showed him the date and time on her lock screen. “Shit. What the hell happened?”
Sawyer rested his hands on the metal frame at the foot of the bed. “We were hoping you’d be able to tell us that.”
“You didn’t know where I was? I’ve been missing?” The thought of it was absurd. How can someone be missing for five months with no recollection of where he’d been?
“Yeah. You don’t remember where you were?”
“No. The last thing I remember is driving through Colorado.” He looked at Sawyer. “Five months?” He felt himself getting annoyed. Which was stupid. Obviously his children weren’t lying to him.
J.T. shook his head. “You don’t remember anything?”
Jake shrugged and took a breath. “No. I’m not lying to you, kid.”
“I know. This is just really weird.”
“Yeah. Well, try being in my shoes.” He looked at the hospital gown he was wearing. “Or hospital gown.” They all looked concerned and he tried to give them a smile to reassure them. But he didn’t know how successful it was. Smiling was the last thing he felt like doing.
Sawyer motioned toward the door. “I’m going to go tell them at the nurse’s station you’re awake. I think someone should know.”
He left and Jake looked at Sage. “So why am I in the hospital?”
“You were outside of Salt Lake City in a cheap motel. A place you’d never in a million years stay in. The maid found you unconscious on the floor when she went in to clean your room. You didn’t have any I.D. on you, so the cops ran your fingerprints to figure out who you were, and they flagged the missing persons’ list. The hospital called us and we had them fly you here to Billings.”
“How long was I out? Wait. Missing persons?”
Sage looked at him. “Yes, Dad. You were missing. And they found you two days ago.”
“That can’t be good.”
She smiled. “Dad. I’m just glad we found you and you’re awake and back with us. That’s all that matters right now.”
