Out of the Storm

by B. J Daniels

  Kate fought back tears as she watched Bessie butter the bread and cover a piece with thick honey.

  “Take a bite of my soup and a bite of the corn bread. It isn’t that old dry box mix. Corn bread needs sugar in it, no matter what some of the old timers say.”

  Taking a bite of each, she chewed. The soup was hot and savory, the bread sweet and salty. Her stomach rumbled, and she realized Bessie was right. She hadn’t eaten much since she’d left Texas, and she couldn’t keep going the way she had been. She ate obediently as Bessie talked about everything from the weather to her favorite recipe to the weather again.

  To Kate’s surprise, when the woman finished talking, Kate had finished the bowl of soup and the corn bread.

  “Better?” Bessie asked.

  She nodded, feeling more like her old self. She’d been strong for so long, capable and determined. Seeing Danny in Jon Harper had definitely thrown her for a loop, but she would get through this. She had to. “Do you think I’m delusional?”

  “Probably,” the older woman said with a laugh. “But aren’t we all sometimes?”

  She looked into Bessie’s blue eyes. “I know it’s him. I know it in my heart. I see it in his eyes. I just don’t know what to do about it.”

  Bessie nodded. “Let’s say he’s the man you think he is. He must have his reasons for telling you he isn’t. Maybe you should trust him.”

  Kate hadn’t realized that he might be running from something other than her. Other than the explosion that had scarred him inside and out, changed his body and his voice and maybe even his will to be that person she’d known and loved?

  “You think I should leave town.” It really wasn’t a question, but Bessie answered anyway.

  “Honey, you seem to have a man who loves you, wants to marry you,” she said quietly. “What about him?”

  Kate shook her head. How could she marry Collin when she’d given her heart away to Danny and never gotten it back? Jon had made it clear that she was wasting her time. He’d almost convinced her that she was wrong about him. Almost.

  “Not everyone gets a second chance at love,” Bessie was saying. “You have one, and you’re still young. You still have a lot of life ahead you. I’d be real sure before I threw that away. Maybe you should take what’s being offered you and not look back.” Bessie rose to take her dirty dishes to the kitchen. “Maybe you should leave Jon to be the man he is now.”

  * * *

  WHEN COLLIN CHECKED and Kate still hadn’t returned to her motel room, he walked down the highway through Buckhorn. He kept trying to curb his anger. This woman was going to be the death of him, literally. He’d been patient, waiting until she was ready to put the past behind her and marry him. This trip was to be a beginning. And now this?

  Outside the café, he’d looked in to see her sitting in a booth with Bessie. He’d turned away quickly before either of them saw him. He couldn’t help feeling relieved. At least Kate wasn’t with Jon Harper.

  Just the thought of the man made his temper boil up again. Kate was still determined to stay here until who knew when. Something had to give, because he and Kate would be crossing the Canadian border tomorrow evening before the small border crossing closed. He wasn’t leaving her here. She was coming with him.

  He realized there was only one way to convince Kate to go—but only if he could prove that Jon Harper wasn’t her husband. He swore as he crossed the highway and shoved open the door into the workshop.

  Jon turned, putting down the mug of coffee he’d been drinking. He didn’t look happy to see him.

  “So, what all do you make here?” Collin asked conversationally as he closed the distance between them. He picked up a board the man had been working on.

  “Rockers mostly.”

  “Huh. In different sizes?”

  Jon nodded. “I make some toys.”

  Collin could see that the carpenter wondered what the hell he was doing back here. “What’s this you’re making?” he asked as he drew Jon away from the workbench. “What do you get for something like this?”

  “A couple hundred,” Jon said of the full-sized rocker.

  “That much, huh? How long does it take you to make one, though?”

  “A month at least.”

  Collin swore in surprise. “Not much of an hourly wage.”

  “It isn’t about that.”

  “No?” he said. “What is it about?”

  “I like making things with my hands.”

  Collin nodded distractedly as the carpenter loaded more scrap wood into his stove. “I just wanted to let you know that Kate and I are leaving tomorrow. Together.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Jon said, finishing what he was doing and closing the woodstove door. “I hope you have a nice trip.”

  Sneering, Collin walked out.

  * * *

  IT WASN’T UNTIL the man left the workshop that Jon glanced toward the workshop bench. He’d wondered what Collin’s real reason was for stopping by. Now he knew.

  His mug of coffee was gone. He could see a dark spot on the dirt floor where the coffee had been poured out when he’d turned his back. Probably when he’d put more wood in the stove. He could think of only one reason the man had taken his coffee mug—and it wasn’t for a souvenir.

  He leaned against his workbench, sick with the knowledge.

  Worse, he’d seen something in Kate’s fiancé that made his gut roil. He told himself that just because he didn’t like the man didn’t mean there was anything inherently wrong with him. But he couldn’t help wondering if Kate really knew who she had promised to marry.

  Trying to stay calm, he considered what to do. He’d pushed her toward this man, believing it was the best thing for her. Now he wasn’t so sure. The man had taken his coffee cup. That meant he knew someone who could get prints or DNA off it. Once those prints went into the national database, the authorities would know exactly who he was—and worse, where he was.

  He swore. This was a game changer. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this. But wasn’t something like this what he’d feared if he couldn’t convince the woman she wasn’t the man she was looking for? Now he was down to two options. One was to leave immediately and keep going. He would have to empty out his security box and ditch his old pickup right away. Trouble would be hot on his tail. He wasn’t sure he could run far or fast enough before they caught up to him and killed him.

  Running meant leaving Kate Jackson to that wiseass who’d just been in his workshop. All his instincts told him that Collin wasn’t who he was pretending to be. But then neither was he, Jon reminded himself with a curse. Which meant his second option was even worse.

  Once his prints hit that database and he hadn’t run, he was as good as dead. Worse, he would bring his trouble to Buckhorn. But he couldn’t just let Kate marry this man until he knew for sure that Collin Matthews was good enough for her.

  Which meant he had to move fast.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  YESTERDAY, AFTER HIS visit to Jon Harper’s workshop, Collin had taken the mug he’d lifted from the workbench straight to the post office. The post office was almost a joke: a small wall of numbered metal boxes and a tiny window with a plate that read Postmistress Vi Mullen.

  He’d peered in, seen no one. “Hello?” No answer. He’d heard rustling somewhere in the back behind the small bank of postal boxes. “Hello!” he’d called louder.

  That’s when he’d noticed the bell. It was silver and round with a small dinger on top. He had shaken his head in frustration. He’d known that she’d heard him call out to her. She’d just been waiting, determined he was going to ring her damned bell.

  He’d slammed his hand down on it. The bell had practically skittered off the narrow ledge of the counter through the tiny window. He was about to hit it again, when the bell had been whisked away by a small pale hand.

/>   The face that had appeared on the other side of the opening made him jump. A pair of ball-bearing-dark eyes had glared at him from a wizened, ghost-white, hard-angled face. Her pursed lips had only accented her wrinkles.

  “Yes?” she’d snapped. Vi Mullen had appeared to be in her late fifties going on seventy.

  “I need to send a package.” He’d wrapped the cup in a page from a newspaper at the motel since that’s all he had. “I need a box for this.”

  She’d considered what he held, then had shrugged and disappeared for a few moments before returning with a box. “Is it breakable?” Clearly it was. “You’ll need some of this.” She’d shoved a small roll of plastic Bubble Wrap through the hole. “I suppose you don’t have any tape.” Had he looked like he had tape? She’d shoved some of that through the opening along with a pen that had feathers taped to it. So no one pocketed it?

  “Over there,” she’d said, pointing to a small counter and then she’d gone again.

  He’d muttered to himself as he’d taken everything over to the counter and carefully wrapped the cup in Bubble Wrap, then put it into the box. After writing the address on the box, he’d returned with everything to the arched window to ring the bell again.

  She’d appeared at once and had begun to add up his bill.

  “Wait, you’re charging me for the roll of tape and this whole roll of Bubble Wrap?”

  “The US post office doesn’t supply tape or Bubble Wrap for nothing,” she’d said primly.

  “Well, I don’t want or need the rest of it. Is your supervisor around?”

  She’d smiled at that. “I’m Vi Mullen, postmistress,” making it clear she was the boss. Her eyes had narrowed. “And you’re that fella staying at the motel with that brunette.”

  He’d hated the way she denigrated his relationship with Kate. “She’s my fiancée. We’re getting married.” Her look said she’d known better.

  “From Texas, I heard. Strange time to be taking a trip to Buckhorn.”

  “We weren’t taking a trip to Buckhorn. Our rental car broke down.” As if she didn’t know that.

  “Still,” she’d said, eyeing his package and the address he’d written on it.

  He’d remembered what Lars had told him about his live-in girlfriend’s mother. “Vi’s the worst gossip in town.”

  “Doesn’t seem like there would be much to gossip about,” Collin had noted. “Does anything ever happen in this town?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Dave had said and then quickly walked away. Lars had looked down into his beer and changed the subject.

  “I need to overnight it,” he’d told the woman, and she’d let out an irritated sigh and started to redo his bill. “Will it get there by tomorrow?”

  “Should now that the highway’s open,” she’d said and asked if what was inside was liquid, perishable...

  He hadn’t caught the rest. “No,” he’d told her. She’d seen that it was a cup. Was the woman just being difficult? He’d handed her the money. “I don’t want the tape or the Bubble Wrap.” He’d shoved it back through the opening.

  She’d pursed her lips again but had taken the items back. “You paid for it.”

  “I did. Now you can charge the next sucker for it who walks in here.”

  With that done, he’d left, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. With luck, he’d find out the truth about Jon Harper. He was convinced the man was hiding here in this town because he had a criminal record. But more important was proving that Jon wasn’t Daniel Jackson. Once that was done, he figured Kate would finally knock off her fantasy about rekindling with her dead husband, and they could leave.

  The day had passed with him spending much of it at the bar. He was running out of money, though, and worried things would get worse before they got better. Back at the motel, he asked Kate to dinner, but she said she’d already eaten. So they’d gone to their separate rooms.

  This morning he’d texted her, asking her if she wanted to meet at the café for breakfast. He’d been in a good mood after receiving confirmation this morning that Nels had received the package.

  Now as he walked up to the café, he told himself that he could still make this work with Kate. Could he marry her and be happy? Happy enough, since he wouldn’t have to worry about the necessities. He could depend on Kate to pay for those, while he ran his businesses behind the solid domestic front she would provide.

  He just worried that what had happened here in Buckhorn could make that impossible. Even when he proved that Jon Harper wasn’t Daniel Jackson—and exposed the carpenter for the man he really was—Collin didn’t see her marrying him now. She didn’t look at him the way she had before this trip. She’d broken the slender thread that had connected them. Not that he’d ever felt she was as crazy about him as she should have been. It made him wonder if he could ever trust her.

  But he wasn’t ready to throw it all away just yet.

  He had a new plan. Which meant he couldn’t let on what he was thinking. He had to play the role of the understanding fiancé just a little while longer.

  * * *

  EARL RAY KNEW the moment he saw Jon that things had gone badly. He’d tried to warn the young man. Or at least let him know what was at stake so he could decide how he wanted to handle it.

  But from the look on Jon’s face, things had gotten worse. Not that Earl Ray hadn’t heard about what was going on through the Buckhorn grapevine—which was very short and fast in the winter months. Kate and Collin were staying another night—but were now in separate rooms. At least that’s what Shirley at the motel had said. And Kate had been visiting Jon’s shop while her fiancé, Collin, had been spending more time at the bar. If that didn’t spell trouble, he didn’t know what did.

  “Do you still have some of your old connections?” Jon asked without preamble.

  Earl Ray didn’t bother pretending that he didn’t know what the young man was talking about. Not that he’d ever told Jon anything about what he’d done in the military. Everyone believed he was the town’s local war hero. He had the medals. He just hadn’t been on the front line as that kind of soldier.

  “I need to know about the boyfriend,” Jon said.

  Earl Ray’s raised a brow. “Kate Jackson’s fiancé?” he asked, just to be clear.

  Jon limped over to the window and looked out. He was limping worse than usual. No doubt it was the stress. Did he think he’d been followed? From his expression he was worried—and not about the woman’s fiancé.

  “What’s happened?” Earl Ray asked, knowing it was even worse than what he’d heard on the grapevine.

  Jon turned from the window. “Collin Matthews paid me a visit. He stole the coffee mug I’d been drinking from.”

  Earl Ray didn’t need to ask what that meant. “What do you know about him?”

  “Just what Shirley at the motel told me, so little more than his name. He used a credit card for the room. When he went to get the second room for himself, the card was declined, and he had to use another one. Sounds like he doesn’t have as much as he pretends. I’m betting he comes from money, but I’m curious how he makes his own now.”

  “You sound suspicious.”

  “Just a feeling. One more thing. Kate Jackson. From what she said, she might be well-off or at least comfortable. I need to know if that is true.” Earl Ray raised a brow, making Jon shake his head. “I’m not interested in her money.”

  “But you think Collin might be.”

  “I’m worried about her. I suspect he’s marrying her for the wrong reasons. Can you find out as soon as possible? I’m not sure how much longer they’re going to be in town.”

  Earl Ray nodded. What Jon didn’t say but what he heard was that the man didn’t know how long he would be in town, either. “You told her you weren’t the man she was looking for?”

  “I tol
d her.”

  “She didn’t believe you,” he guessed and didn’t need confirmation. He saw the answer on Jon’s face. “Still thinking about leaving?”

  “I did leave. I had to come back. I couldn’t have her thinking I was that man she married in Texas. I was afraid she would keep looking for me.”

  “No, you couldn’t have her believing that,” Earl Ray said.

  He either ignored the jab or didn’t hear it. “I’m doing my best to convince her otherwise.”

  “I know you are. But I have to ask—”

  “No, you don’t,” Jon said as he headed for the door. “You know me. Thanks for doing this for me. I want her to have that happy ending, so I hope this guy is on the up-and-up.”

  “Me, too,” Earl Ray agreed. “She seems like a nice young lady who’s had a lot of heartache.”

  “Haven’t we all.” Jon hesitated. “If you ever want to talk about what it takes to move on with your own life...”

  He got the message. Everyone had their secrets and their weaknesses, some more than others. He stepped closer to cup Jon’s shoulder with his large palm and said, “I wonder what the chances are of this woman showing up here in the middle of winter and just happening on you? Do you believe in divine intervention? How about destiny?”

  “That would only be the case if I was Daniel Jackson, now wouldn’t it? Otherwise, it is just one misguided, heartbroken young woman with the rest of her life in front of her—if she can break away from what’s holding her in the past.”

  “And how are you going to help her do it?” Earl Ray asked.

  He shook his head. “First I have to know if Collin Matthews is the right man for her.”

  “And if he’s not?”

  Jon swore under his breath. “Let’s hope I’m wrong.”

  * * *

  BREAKFAST WITH COLLIN was beyond uncomfortable. The entire meal was strained, even though he seemed to be his old self, laughing and joking and telling her how beautiful she looked this morning. If she hadn’t seen that other Collin, she might have bought at least some of it. She wondered why he’d suggested breakfast at all, since he’d barely touched his food and neither had she. He was antsy, although he tried to hide it.