Page 35 of Longest Ride

We stamped the snow off our boots in the woodshed before running into the house for breakfast. Travis was on his feet cooking bacon and eggs, but he looked pretty pasty.

“You okay, Dad?” I asked as I got myself a coffee.

“Not too good. Think I’ll come to work a bit later. I’ve got shit to do here.”

“What shit, Dad?” asked Virge. “We can help you.”

“More like banking and bills and stuff like that, Virge. Y’all go to town after y’all eat, and I’ll catch up.”

“Hear anything about Tammy yet?” asked Billy.

“Nope.”

“Would you be mad if I called Mom and asked her about it?” I looked at Travis and tried to get a read on his face. I didn’t want to get him pissed at me, but I wanted to know if Mom heard from Tammy.

“Call Annie if you want, son. It’s a free country.”

“Yeah, it’s free n’all, but I don’t want you mad at me and Virge. Ain’t good for us when you’re pissed off at us.”

“I just gave you clear sailing on your call.” He shrugged. “Call or don’t call. Your call.” Then he laughed and Virge laughed too.

Maybe I knew our dad a little better than Harlan did. Travis could stand next to you and laugh and then throat punch you a second later. Seen him do it lots of times in the run when prisoners ticked him off.

Dale Burden mode could be scary.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Virge drove the Jeep to the station, and I called Annie to see if there was news on Tammy. I put the call on speaker so Virgie could hear too.

“Hi, Harlan. How are you and Virgil doing?”

“We’re okay, but Dad ain’t telling us anything about Tammy and we were wondering.”

“I haven’t called him, but I should’ve called you.”

“Have you seen her, Mom?” hollered Virge from the driver’s seat.

“Yes. Tammy is in Texas. She drove that big truck all the way to Bobby’s house in Midway and I had one of our guys sitting there waiting for her. He called an ambulance for Bobby—who is near death—and Tammy went to the hospital in Huntsville with him. She’s at the ranch now. I’m not taking her back to the hospital until Bobby is conscious. There’s no point.”

“Right. Unconscious,” I said. “He’s hurt bad.”

“The doctor told us Bobby may never wake up.”

“What should we do, Mom?”

“Nothing you can do, honey. Call later and talk to Tammy. She’s not up yet.”

“Okay, I’ll do that. I want to know if she’s coming home.”

“I don’t think she knows that herself yet. She’s pretty mixed up over what she did to Bobby by taking him out of the hospital in Enderby.”

“Yeah, she almost killed the guy.”

“May turn out to be not justalmost,” said Annie. “Bobby Prescott may die in the hospital. The doctor isn’t optimistic.”

“Yeah, right. That will hit her hard, I guess.”

After Annie said goodbye Virge asked, “Should we drive down to Texas and get Tammy, bro?”

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