Page 58 of Forgotten

I nodded. “Just for a minute. But he was lucid.”

“That’s good,” she said. “Very good.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked. “You look upset.”

She paced for a moment, looking at the sleeping Collin and then back to me.

“Look, I know you two are a … a thing, right?” she said. I nodded. “I’m not supposed to say anything about his condition unless one of the brothers is listening, but I’ve talked about things in front of you and they didn’t seem to mind. Luke said you were as good as family. So I’m going to tell you what I know, but you can’t let anyone know that you heard it, okay?”

“Sure,” I said. “What’s going on?”

She sighed heavily and sat down on one of the empty chairs that lined the room.

“Come over here,” she said. I did as I was asked and sat next to her. When she spoke again, she kept her voice calm but low. “I am trying to figure out how to tell Luke. He’s going to want blood. Essentially, they cracked his skull. Whatever they hit him with, I believe Kevin said that he told them it was a gun? Whatever it was, it had the force of a baseball bat to the skull. It hit him right above the spinal cord. A fraction of an inch lower and the impact would have either killed him immediately or would have damaged his spine.”

“Oh my God,” I said, gasping.

“Now the good news is, the doctors think he will make a full recovery. Probably pretty quickly at that. He’s in terrific shape, and we had some very talented hands working on him. But the damage to the skull was intense. Whatever Oland hit him with, he intended on killing him. He almost did.”

“He thought he had,” I said. “According to what he told Kevin, they thought he was dead when they left him.”

“They were almost right,” she said. “The thing is, even if he does recover, there is a significant chance he won’t recover fully. We don’t really know a lot about the brain, you know? And injuries like this… they can change people. You should know that right now. The Jesse that walks out of this hospital may not be the same one you knew before he got hurt.”

“I understand,” I said.

“Will he still be able to play?”

The voice came from the doorway, and we both looked up. A man was standing in the doorway, tall and skinny with black hair swooped to one side and dark-rimmed glasses with a namebrand on the temple piece sliding down his nose. He pushed them up and acknowledged us both with a small wave.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Flynn Moody,” he said. “I manage the Jesse James Galloway Band.” He gave a small smile, but it faded almost instantly into a defeated look. “Or at least, I used to. Right now, I’m not sure about the future of the band.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Jesse

The kitchen smells like fresh bread and coffee. Charlotte walks in, shocked to see me with a washcloth over one shoulder, an apron around my waist. Little does she know I have been learning from Collin how to cook for months. I want to be able to eat on the road without having to dine out, and the boys have been talking about getting vacation houses rather than hotels.

I shut the oven door and go to her, sweeping her up in my arms and kissing her deeply. She giggles as I set her back down on her feet, her heels clicking on the linoleum. I don’t recognize this kitchen, yet I know it. It’s home, but it’s not the ranch. Where I am, though, is home. I live here with Charlotte. And soon, more.

Kevin is in the living room with his girlfriend. He is picking at his guitar, working on a tune I wrote in my sleep. He comes over often and stays in the guest room. We write music and record in the basement. Charlotte brings us snacks and beer while we work.

I tell her I have a surprise for her, and she laughs in delight. She sits at the kitchen table and closes her eyes. I take a box out of a drawer, and when she opens her eyes again, I have opened it. Inside is a key. She is confused, and I laugh, taking her hand and leading her outside. I turn and show her the house. I tellher that it’s ours. The whole world is ours. And the whole world exists in that home.

Her face drops, and she nearly bursts into tears.What about my job?I tell her not to worry. She can travel all she wants. But home will always be home. And it can be anywhere.

She relaxes into my arms, and we go back inside. The house is full of people now. All my brothers. Amber, the Millers, everyone. We sit at the table and eat fresh bread and grapes and salted meat. It’s Thanksgiving, and turkey appears as if by magic. Charlotte is now in a dress with turkeys on the bottom. I love her. I love her so much.

We drink and enjoy our life with our family and friends. They leave, one by one, and then it is just us. But not for long. No, not for long at all. A baby is living inside her. The next generation of the Galloways. I take her hand and walk outside, and we are at a venue. I take her with me onto the stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. I sing to her. I sing to the baby. When the song is over, I pull her to me, and our lips press against each other once again.

I close my eyes.

I opened my eyes.

It felt so real, and yet, in those few moments of being awake right after a dream, I can see the moments that didn’t make sense. The random changes of time and space, the way things suddenly appeared and disappeared. It was just a dream. But a good one. A really, really good one.

I tried to move but found myself unable to. I was tucked in tightly in the bed, and there was no wiggling out of it without thrashing, and I wasn’t in a position to thrash just yet. Everything hurt too much.

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