Forgotten Memories

by Theresa Stillwagon

  “Isn’t that strictly a nursing home?”

  “Yes.”

  Her worse nightmare seemed to be coming true. “I thought you were going to Summer Haven.”

  “The apartment there isn’t ready yet,” he said. “Both your father and brother have agreed going to the nursing home would be the best thing for me. I’ll only have to stay for two or three weeks, at the most. I’ll have a private room, with a view of the gardens. Edward told me it’s a nice place.”

  “But it’s a nursing home, Granddad.”

  “You just told me you weren’t going to try to stop me.” He leaned close to her and gazed into her eyes. “I don’t need your permission, honey, but I would like it.”

  An easy decision, one she should’ve been willing to make a long time ago. “If you’ll be safe at Southside Park, I’ll accept your need to go there.”

  “Are you sure, Jenny girl?”

  An ache grew deep within her, not because her beloved grandfather was moving from her home, but because he was slowly moving from her entire world. Looking into his tired eyes for a long moment, seeking a quick glimpse into his unusually quiet mind, Jen knew her aching had only just begun. The disease would steal away every iota of his memory, leaving him with nothing to take its place. All that her grandfather was would fade into the atmosphere.

  As if sensing her thoughts, he said, “I plan on fighting this disease until I have no breath left to fight with, Jen.”

  “I know you will, Granddad,” she said, fighting back tears. “I’ll be here to help you.”

  * * * *

  Light snow fell from the sky, onto the white top of her shared RV, as Jen stood at its door an hour after leaving her grandfather in the capable hands of the hospital’s nursing staff. One foot on the top step, one hand raised with key extended, she gulped in a cold mouthful of air and shook the last of her tears from her eyes. She sensed Barb and Rose would ask about her grandfather, and she wasn’t in any mood now to talk about him. Maybe she would never be able to talk about him.

  She wasn’t going to second-guess her decision. Jen knew she’d made the right one. Her granddad would be safer in a nursing home. Her heart would eventually stop hurting.

  She shook away the pain before placing her key into the lock and turning it. The door swung outward so abruptly her arms flung up in a vain attempt to avoid falling, keys flying from her hands to land in the snow covering the ground ten feet away. With a frantic grasp, she latched onto the side of the doorframe before a hand reached out to steady her and a familiar voice spoke her name.

  “I gotcha, Jen,” Barb said, grabbing her other hand and pulling her safely back to her feet. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” After retrieving the keys from the ground, she followed Barb into the warm RV. “Even though you almost knocked me on my butt, I’ll live”

  “Sorry.” Barb turned at the sink. “Did Adam talk to you?”

  “No.” Jen pulled down the zipper of her coat but didn’t take it off. “Why? I came straight here.”

  “He went to the saloon. He said he would keep one eye out for you. Didn’t he catch you when you came in?”

  “No,” Jen said. “I’ve just gotten back from the hospital.”

  “Oh, how is your grandfather doing?”

  “He’s doing fine,” Jen said, feeling her lips moving upward into a small grin. “Good enough to give all the nurses a hard time.”

  “Back to his old self, is he?”

  Jen glanced around the tiny enclosure, suddenly feeling closed in and contained, trapped, like a wild cheetah in a cage. The need to speak about her grandfather overwhelmed her then. “My dad and brother want him to go to Southside Park.”

  “The nursing home?” At Jen’s nod, she added, “Why? I thought he had an apartment waiting for him at the assisted living place you toured the other day.”

  “That unit won’t be available for two or three weeks.” She tore off her coat and threw it toward the sofa, shaking off Barb’s comforting hand. The coat landed at the edge of the sofa, spilling half to the ground. “I promised him I’d honor his decision, but I’m still not happy about it.”

  “I can tell.” Barb shook her head before placing a hand on Jen’s upper arm and squeezing tight. “But, if it’ll keep him safe, don’t you think it’s for the best?”

  She shook the comfort away. “I’m fine with it.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  Barb knew her too well. Her friend had no psychic abilities, but sometimes she seemed to sense the exact way Jen was feeling. Was this how people felt around her? Afraid to open up, because they were afraid she’d read their minds?

  She didn’t want to think about it now. “You mentioned something about Adam?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Barb said, retrieving the coat from the sofa and handing it back to her. “And I also saw that woman again.”

  “What woman?”

  “I think she’s the manager of the hotel up the road.”

  Jen froze, standing up straight while dragging the heavy material of her coat to her chest. My sister, here? What was Kimberley doing here, in Winter Creek? “You think it’s the same woman?”

  “William said it might be her.” A worried glance widened her eyes. “It might not even be the same blonde. I’ve only seen her that one time, after the stampede, and William just saw her back today. But he seemed to think it was the same woman he met at the hotel.”

  “Is she still here?”

  “Maybe.” Barb reached out to touch her arm. “Jen, what’s wrong?”

  “The hotel manager,” Jen said, pulling her arm away from her friend’s comfort, “is my sister.”

  “Oh God.”

  “And Adam’s at the saloon.”

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Barb said, trapping Jen’s shoulder under her hard grip. “Adam’s not Sam, Jen. He’s not going to do anything to hurt you.”

  “I…trust him.” Jen swallowed hard, tightening her hands into fists. “But I have to know for sure.”

  “Jen?”

  “Don’t follow me, Barb.”

  Before both of her arms were inside her coat, Jen sped out of the heated trailer into the chilly winter air. She pulled her coat closed as she raced toward the gate to the town, slowing down only when she saw the logo for the old-time drinking establishment. Her hand froze on the wood of the entrance door when a familiar feminine laugh rang out of the building.

  Kimberley’s laugh.

  Jen dragged in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Adam’s deep voice replied to her sister’s comment, the tone of it clear to her but not the words. Jen needed to know how Adam reacted to Kimberley. She knew it was wrong, possibly hurtful for her, yet she needed to watch them interact together.

  “Jennifer was always the smart one,” Kimberley said as Jen made her way through the door toward her personal area. “I must admit I envied her for that.”

  “Yeah,” Adam said. “She is one intelligent lady.”

  “And…” Her voice lowered an octave, smoothing out and warming up. “I also envied my sister’s ability to pick the finest men.”

  “Well, thanks.”

  Oh, please, Adam, don’t flirt with my sister!

  “I’ve never been disappointed in the men I’ve taken from her.”

  Jen sank down to her knees and hugged the rough inner area of the wooden bar. She squeezed her body into the storage alcove beneath the bar, folding her legs slightly under her.

  “Even with all her abilities,” Kimberley continued, “she never saw me coming. I seemed to be the only person she couldn’t read.”

  “Yeah,” he said, a hard edge roughing his voice.

  Her younger sister’s delicate laugh preceded her as she stepped past the bar and walked to the middle of the bar area, ringing like a hundred chimes in a quiet church. Adam, dressed like the sexy cowboy she’d met a few weeks ago, followed a second later. A glimpse of his scowling face spoke to her, a sullen mixture of indiffer
ence and incredulity showed clear in his tightened features.

  Is my trust in this man going to be rewarded?

  “So,” Adam said, leaning into the bar directly opposite Jen. “I expect Jen to show up here soon. We’re moving the cattle tomorrow, and I know she’ll want to be involved with the last minute details.”

  “Yes, my dear sister always has to be involved,” Kimberley said sharply. “As if the world would fall apart if she didn’t have her say.”

  Jen frowned at hearing the unexpected jealousy in her sister’s voice.

  “I suppose you don’t know this,” Kimberley said, control now back in her voice. “But Jen is not the only one of the Fergusons who has special abilities.”

  “She mentioned it.”

  “My mother probably won’t admit it.” Sharpness sliced her words. “In fact I’m positive my mother would deny it with her last breath.”

  “Deny what? Personally, I think Jen’s ability makes her unique.” A hint of irritably deepened his voice now. Softer, more controlled, he asked, “What did you want to talk to me about? I’ve got things to do.”

  “Oh.” Breathy, almost seductive, Kimberley’s voice spoke of promises Jen didn’t want Adam to hear. “I bet you don’t want her to see the two of us together? She’d probably give up on men completely then.” Her laughter rang out in the sudden silence of the narrow building, seeming to echo from one end of it to the other.

  “Don’t count on that happening.”

  Adam’s words froze her to the chilled wood.

  “You can fight it, Adam,” Kimberley said gently. “But I always get what I’m after eventually. Jen will give up on you like she always does, and I’ll have you.”

  “Not this time,” Adam drawled. “Jen is a special lady, one I don’t plan on hurting. Don’t you think you’ve already done enough damage to your sister?”

  “To my sister?” Kimberley said, bitterness overwhelming the seductive tones of her voice. “Jennifer doesn’t need anyone to protect her. She’s a psychic, remember. Everyone always thought she was better than me.”

  “The way I see it,” Adam said softly, “Jen is better than you.”

  Oh, Adam, do you really believe what you’re saying? Or do you somehow sense me hiding behind the old bar?

  Silence followed his comment, a deep dark quietness filled with unanswered questions and unspoken words.

  Seconds went by as Jen buried her body against the chilled wood of the bar, seconds seeming more like minutes, like hours. She waited for Kimberley to renew her sensual attack on her man, yet it never came.

  “You are different from Sam, aren’t you?”

  “When you love someone,” Adam said, in a lazy drawl, “no one can drive you away from them.”

  “You love her?”

  “Yes,” he said, the drawl changing to a soft groan. “I don’t know how it happened, but yes, I love your sister.”

  He loves me. But hadn’t Sam said the same thing to her? Hadn’t her ex-fiancé promised to stay true to her too?

  All relationships have to have trust, or there’s no relationship.

  If Jen wanted to have a chance with this man, she was going to have to trust him to do what was right by her. She was going to have to believe things would be different this time.

  “So what did you need to talk to me about?” Adam asked. “I’m going to go check with Barb, to see if she’s seen Jen around. We could talk while we walk, couldn’t we?”

  “Yes.”

  The hint of seduction still lingered in her sister’s voice as the two exited the saloon, yet Jen refused to allow it to worry her.

  Kimberley wasn’t going to win this time.

  Easing her body out of the tight space, Jen stretched her arms upward before bending to relieve the ache in her back muscles. A touch, like fingers made of ice, ran along the length of her spine, sending her mind into overdrive. The familiar scent of honeysuckle breezed in the air around her as darkness blanked her mind.

  Seconds, minutes later, she wasn’t sure how long, Jen awoke in front of the mirror in the private room, a half-filled tube of red lipstick clutched between her fingers.

  “Grace?”

  She shook her head to clear it before setting the small object on the dresser and glanced at the new words written on the mirror.

  Be careful, the first line read. Danger.

  “Am I in danger, Grace?”

  No sound whispered back a response.

  “Is Winter Creek in danger?”

  “Horses,” the chilly inhuman voice said. “Horses.”

  Chapter 20

  What in the hell was Grace trying to tell her?

  Horses, she’d heard. “What about the horses?”

  “Hurt,” the vaguely heard voice whispered.

  “The horses are hurt,” Jen confirmed.

  A chill steeped into her bones, and she wrapped her arms around her upper body. A moment later a loud crash sent her flying like a frantic bird out of the narrow room and into the cold October day. A rough male voice yelling out, “the livery stable collapsed” mixed with an assortment of other voices as she sped toward the milling group of students and shop owner less than twenty feet from her doorway.

  “Oh my God,” another male voice screamed. “The horses are trapped inside.”

  Horses, she thought. Grace was trying to warn her about the livery stable, about the trapped and frightened horses inside the old structure. Just like in her vision, she suddenly remembered. Her vision had shown people moving about, running from and to the damaged building, a jumbled image of bewildered people and panic-stricken animals. As she gazed around her, it was almost as if she was seeing the vision all over again. But this time Jen knew it was truly happening. She also remembered another part of her vision, a familiar arm reaching out to grasp the halter of one of the horses, a large hand soothing one of the escaping horses to stop his frantic passage into the town proper.

  She glanced around, looking for that arm.

  Adam’s arm.

  “Men,” he yelled. “We need to round up these horses.”

  As Jen watched his gloved hand grab at the mane of one of the wild animals, stopping it before it could race into a small group of students rushing from the bank to the fallen building, she dissolved on weak knees to the wet ground.

  Just like in her waking dream, she thought.

  A few of the wranglers, under Adam’s lead, worked with the young students to gather up the wandering animals. They quickly encircled the escaping horses, rounding them up easily and herding them toward the corral on the left side of the destroyed stable.

  “Are they all accounted for?” Mr. Thornton called out to one of his men. He raced to within five feet of the pile of fallen wood near the entrance of the unstable livery and stopped to listen for the telltale signs of frightened animals inside the buckled structure. “I want a count. Now.”

  “Three are still inside,” one of the men called back to him. “The rest are safe in the corral.”

  “I’m going inside.”

  “No,” Jen whispered, standing up on shaky legs. “It’s not safe yet.”

  “What?” Adam stood near her now, his wonderfully strong arms wrapped around her middle. She leaned hard into his chest and whispered her warning again, yet he didn’t seem to hear her. “Frank will be okay, honey.”

  “No, I saw…this happening,” Jen said, lifting her head slightly from his chest. “I saw the building fall.”

  “You what?”

  “Mr. Thornton’s in danger,” Jen said softly. “Stop him.”

  “Frank,” Adam yelled. “Don’t go inside. It might not be safe.”

  “I have to get to my horses,” the older man said. Jen watched the man stop his forward movement as he stared hard at Adam. “I’ll be fine.”

  “No,” Jen said, forcing her body out of Adam’s comforting embrace. She glanced up at him for a moment before moving slightly away and staring at the frantic stable owner. “I saw the live
ry falling. I saw you go inside, Mr. Thornton, but I didn’t see you come out. I didn’t see any of your horses get free either. You’ll be hurt.”

  “You saw this happen?” A puzzled look lined his face, a look of skepticism and uneasiness moved through his features. “How could you see something that hasn’t happened yet?”

  “Jen’s psychic,” Adam said lightly. “Maybe you should listen to her.”

  The skepticism didn’t lessen on his face. “And you saw this in a vision?”

  “Please don’t go inside.” A chill invaded her senses, a cold hand reaching out and squeezing her heart with a painful grip. “Something bad is going to happen.”

  “Adam?” Mr. Thornton looked at the cowboy beside her before shaking his head. “I’ll have to take the chance. I can’t afford to leave those horses inside if the entire building is going to fall.”

  “Then I’ll go with you.”

  Jen didn’t protest as Mr. Thornton followed Adam to the building. No protest rose from her as she watched her sister moving into her view. What was Kimberley doing here?

  Her feet froze to the snowy surface of the roadway and refused to turn her from the view of the familiar figure moving into her line of sight. Kimberley stopped near the entrance to the dressmaker’s shop a few doors away, a large stranger standing close beside her. Her younger sister glanced up at the man and said a few words, and then he disappeared down the street toward the parking lot near the school building.

  Oh, Kimberley, I hope you’re not involved in this disaster.

  Before she could open herself up to her sister’s thoughts, another booming sound echoed in the sudden quiet. She turned in time to observe Adam entering the flimsy structure a second before the last of its supports split and tumbled on top of him. The frantic whinnying of the trapped horses intermingled with the screams and yells of the people nearby, bringing another unnatural hush over the crowd.

  “No,” she screamed. “Adam.”

  Jen couldn’t move. It felt like stone weights were wrapped around her boots. All she could do was stand helpless as Wyatt and Mark leaped to the damaged livery stable to start throwing blocks of wood from the still standing side wall. Soon the other cowboys and male students ran from the crowd to help them.