The Long Ride Home (Cowboys & Cowgirls) Read Free

as well, not wanting anything to do with what she liked. Finally, he stopped on a rap station, hating it more than anything. He moved his head as if he was enjoying the music and she laughed, and then joined in on the chorus.
    “I didn’t know you liked this one, Holton.”
    “Son of a …”
    “You shouldn’t cuss in front of a lady,” Elena remarked. Holton took a deep breath and prayed silently that the last remaining three hours would go by quickly.
    ***
    “How’s he doing?” Elena asked the nurse on the phone.
    “He’s not doing any better or worse. He still hasn’t remembered anything. He’s been complaining about headaches, but the scans aren’t showing any problems, other than the swelling from the fall. Which we are monitoring close.”
    “Can you tell him that I will be there soon, and that I love him?”
    “I’m not sure what good it will do, since he doesn’t know anyone, but I will tell him all the same.”
    “Thank you,” Elena said, sobbing as she hung up.
    “Hey, you okay?” Holton asked; he reached his hand across the seat and gripped hers in his own. Elena squeezed it and looked away.
    “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    “Listen,” Holton said, “I’m sorry about earlier. We’ll be at the hospital within an hour. We should probably talk about your dad now.”
    Elena looked over at him with fear in her eyes. “What?”
    “When he fell…his brain swelled. It’s not good, Elena.”
    “ What!”
    “They don’t think that…well they don’t think that he’ll make it. You asked me earlier why I came and didn’t just send for you. I didn’t want you to come home to what I saw.”
    Elena covered her mouth with her hand and started crying hard now. “Oh my God!”
    “Listen, he didn’t know who I was when I got to him in the barn, and I know it had to have only been twenty minutes at the most…I had just finished talking to him before I went on my way and started getting some of my stuff done.”
    “He didn’t know you then?”
    “No,” Holton said, shaking his head. “He was unconscious, and when we were in the ambulance, he flat lined. They brought him back, honey. I thought everything was going to be okay when he woke up shortly after, but then he didn’t know who I was. The doctor told me to call his kin right away. I left, but I’ve been in contact with your father’s doctor ever since.”
    “ And he just told you all this…”
    “I told him that you were my wife.”
    Elena’s eyes widened and she looked into Holton’s. “They wouldn’t tell me anything, not being related. I didn’t think you’d mind. I had to know, Elena. Your parents were my parents after mine died. And then your mother.”
    “Momma,” Elena whispered, crying still. Her own mother died two short years ago of Breast Cancer.
    “I’m so sorry, Elena.”
    “What am I going to do, Holton?” Elena whispered.
    “We’ll think of something, Elena. You know that we will always be family, right?”
    Elena nodded, thinking that if she didn’t have Holton , she would be all alone in this world. And now, more than ever, it was true.

Chapter 3
     
    T hey sat in the hospital room for three hours with no inclination of her father waking. Holton was by her side, getting up only to retrieve her some coffee or to use the restroom. He sat with her when her dad finally awoke, too, not recognizing his only daughter.
    “Daddy, do you remember me?”
    Her old man just looked at her with blank eyes. He then looked at the TV and switched it on, ignoring her all together. It took everything in her not to cry. Holton stood up and went behind her, taking her into his arms. She nearly fell apart, but kept strong for her father. She knew he had to have been scared.
    “If I’m your father, who is this guy?” her father asked.
    “I’m her husband,” Holton said, surprising Elena. “We’ve been neighbors for many years.”
    “You’re her husband? And we’re neighbors.”
    “Yes, Sir. Adjoining land.”
    “A