TIMELESS 4
Chapter 1
Two years passed slowly for Jake. When Sam had left for San Francisco, the part of Jake that had been a normal happy young man had left with her. Overnight he had gone from a normal almost fourteen year old to what his grandfather Mac called an old soul.
Jake spent his time with his filly Witch. He trained her until they were almost of one mind. They both were totally devoted to each other. In fact, Witch wouldn't let anyone else near her besides Jake. This didn't bother Jake a bit since he too didn't allow anyone close to him.
He still had his friends, but he tended to be standoffish or shy with those he didn't know. Jake wasn't interested in new friends or acquaintances. Jake wasn't interested in much besides his horse.
Jake had reluctantly gone on the annual camping trip with his brothers, but hadn't really enjoyed himself. Adam, Nate, Quinn and Bryan could all see it. Jake had been withdrawn even with them.
Adam, as the oldest, had tried to talk to Jake about what he was feeling, but Jake had blown him off. He didn't want to talk about it. Talking about it would make him vulnerable and Jake refused to be vulnerable ever again.
Adam had graduated from high school the following summer and his parents had bought him a bright red truck as his graduation gift. They had all hoped that Kit would return for his younger brother's party, but he hadn't.
Kit was doing well on the rodeo circuit and the whole town of Alkali followed his progress. He tried to call home regularly, but it was never enough for his mother Maxine.
Nate graduated from high school just this June and his parents had bought him a gray truck for his graduation. Kit didn't make it to Nate's graduation either, which had upset Maxine.
Bryan and Quinn would be seniors in high school when school started up again in the fall. Just as previous years, they were very popular with the girls in their class. Well actually, they were very popular with all the girls in the school, regardless of what class they were in.
Quinn had dated senior girls when he was just a sophomore as had Bryan. It had amused Adam and Nate. Jake however, was ambivalent as he was about everything these days. Everything except his horse and the horses he trained.
Wyatt Forster had been so impressed with Banjo, the horse that he had bought from Jake years before, that he had talked it over with Luke and hired Jake to train horses for him.
Wyatt and Jake would either take in other people's problem horses or go to auctions to buy horses, then train them and resell them for a large profit.
It hadn't taken long for Jake's reputation to spread throughout the county as a premier horseman at the young age of almost sixteen. He would be a junior in the fall, but was already known for his training ability and his tracking.
Jake tracked things for hours, sometimes days, on end. He would leave home on Witch and just go out and track, returning to his home whenever he was done. His parents knew he was a lost soul after losing Samantha the way he had and let him be.
Oh they worried about him, but knew he had to work through his grief and guilt in his own way.
It had been with trepidation that Maxine had told him that Sam was finally returning to Nevada after two years. Jake had looked at his mother, not giving her any sign of what he was thinking, and simply nodded.
Maxine had looked after him as he walked away and sighed. She wished she could just wrap her arms around him and let him know that everything would be all right, but there was no way Jake would tolerate such a thing, even from her.