by B. J Daniels
“I’ll never forget everything you did for me, Earl Ray,” she said when they reached the airport high on the rock rims overlooking the largest city in Montana. “How can I ever thank you?” As they stood outside the small airport in the midday sunshine before the next snowstorm, they seemed almost shy with each other after everything they’d been through. She was going to miss Earl Ray.
“Allowing me to be part of this love story was thanks enough,” he said, taking her hand as they stood on the sidewalk outside the terminal. “No matter how it all ends, the two of you have something special. It was like a shooting star, much too quick, I know. But I don’t believe it’s over. Like you, I know Jon is strong. If anyone can pull out of this, it will be him because I believe in my heart that you have always been somewhere in his memory. He won’t want to let go of you anymore than you do him.”
“I have to believe that he’ll come back to me.” She let out a nervous laugh. “I always have.”
“Don’t give up hope.”
“You know I won’t.” Kate leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Take care of Bessie. She needs you. And whether you know it or not, you need her...”
“There’s one more thing,” he said as he pulled an envelope from his pocket. “I’m not sure this matters anymore, but still I thought you might want to see it.” He raised his gaze to hers. “I hope I’ve done the right thing. As you know, I was able to get your daughter Danielle free of the man who Collin had holding her as leverage against you. I know I overstepped, but I had some of Danielle’s DNA gathered and some of Jon’s as well...” He held the envelope out to her.
Kate felt her eyes widen. She stared at the stark whiteness of the envelope reminding her of the winter snow around them before she took it. She already knew, but still her fingers shook as she carefully opened it and pulled out the report inside it. Tears blurred the words. She shook her head and turned to Earl Ray. “Please, I can’t read it right now. Tell me.”
“You were right. Jon Harper was once Daniel Jackson.”
She nodded and, wiping her tears, smiled at Earl Ray. “Thank you.” With that she grabbed the handle of her suitcase, turned and walked through the revolving door that would lead her back to Texas.
Once inside the airport terminal, she turned to look back. Earl Ray was gone. So was that moment of sunshine. Snow had begun to fall again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
JON WOKE FROM what felt like the inside of a coffin. He opened his eyes in confusion and pain, half-believing he had died. He had no idea where he was and little memory of what had happened to him. At first, all he felt was the intense pain. In his head, his face, his side, his entire body.
He started to touch his face but was stopped by a nurse.
“You’re in the hospital,” she reminded him, not for the first time, he could tell. “You’re going to be all right.” When he tried to get up, feeling a need to be somewhere important, she said, “I’ll get the doctor.”
He watched her leave the room before he reached up and felt his face. It seemed to be a patchwork quilt of stitches and bruises and skin. “What happened to me?” he asked as the doctor came in.
“All in good time,” the physician said. “Right now, just be glad you’re alive. Your brain needs to heal. You need to be patient.”
Like the other times, he lay back, feeling weak and hurting as the doctor administered pain medication. He waited to fall back into the black hole he’d only recently climbed out of, knowing at least down there he wouldn’t be alone. There was a beautiful brunette with amazing green eyes who came to sit in his room. Sometimes she would tell him stories about a young married couple and two small children. Other times she would hold his hand and smile down at him. He had no idea who she was.
In one recurring dream, she was holding his hand and crying, begging him to come back to her. For some reason, she seemed to think that he’d saved her life.
Each time he woke, she was gone. He would beg someone to tell him what had happened to him. “I need to know,” he told the nurses and doctor. “I keep having these crazy dreams.”
The doctor would explain about the concussion but little more. “Give your brain time to heal. More might come back with time as your brain fills in the blank spots.”
Time. He felt confused, anxious and scared. There were moments when he couldn’t remember his name, and he would panic. The doctor kept telling him to be patient.
He was relieved almost to tears when he recognized a familiar face and could even put a name to it. “Earl Ray,” he said. “I can’t remember—”
“It’s all right,” the older man said, hurrying to his bedside. “Don’t try. It’s so good to see you awake. The doctor said you’re doing amazing, and in time—”
“In time,” he said with disgust. “Why do I feel like there’s something that can’t wait?” He met Earl Ray’s gaze. “I keep having these dreams about a woman with green eyes. I feel like I...know her. Like I have these memories...” He shook his head in frustration. “I know she probably doesn’t exist, but I feel like I have to get to her. Does that make any sense?”
Earl Ray chuckled. “Oh, she exists all right, my friend. She’s an amazing woman. I’ll tell you all about her.” He pulled up a chair next to the hospital bed. “Her name is Kate. You call her Katie. She lost her husband twenty years ago, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The best part of the story begins in Buckhorn, Montana, the day Katie’s car broke down in the middle of a snowstorm.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
THE TEXAS SUN beat down relentlessly on the patio. Kate watched the automatic sprinklers come on to water the flowers she’d planted around the pool. Everything was in bloom—a riot of colors next to the shimmering turquoise of the water in the pool. A warm breeze stirred the leaves on the oak trees outside the fence that surrounded her house.
After her daughters had left home, she’d often thought about selling the house. Now she was so glad that she hadn’t. It was too large for her alone, and yet she loved her yard, especially the wild array of plants and flowers she had growing around the pool.
She’d never thought of herself as having a green thumb, far from it. But since arriving back in Texas, she’d been at loose ends. Winter had left the pool area looking drab. She’d yearned for color after all that winter white in Montana. Sometimes she thought about those days in Buckhorn when it snowed day and night and she’d thought it would never end. She thought about how quiet the snow made the world, how pure and clean it had looked and felt. She thought about the cold stillness and how her breath had come out in frosty puffs.
While she’d never been that cold in her life, she had only good memories of Buckhorn. She thought often of Jon Harper, knowing that he was gone. And as Earl Ray often reminded her when he called, Jon would never be back. She loved getting reports from Buckhorn via Earl Ray. Spring had come, the snow had melted and the snowbirds were returning to open homes and shops. The Closed for the Winter signs were coming down. The fields were greening up, and the air smelled of new growth and pine, he’d told her.
Bessie would be opening her bakery at the edge of town Memorial Day weekend—the official start of tourist season. “You never got to try her fried pies. They are a little piece of heaven,” Earl Ray said.
She’d asked him if he was watching his diet after his heart attack.
“I don’t have to. Bessie watches it for me,” he said with a laugh. “She has me eating fruits and vegetables with every meal.”
Kate had smiled. “You sound good.” She desperately wanted to ask about Danny but didn’t because the news was always the same. He was recovering. The doctors were encouraged by his progress.
She didn’t need to ask how Bessie was doing. She could hear it in Earl Ray’s voice. The two had gotten closer. She listened as he talked, telling her about people she’d met at the funeral. Sharing the latest gossip. A few nam
es she could put faces to, others not so much. Lindsey, the pregnant waitress at the café, had had a baby girl. She’d named her Kate. Fred’s son Tyrell got in trouble with the law. Nothing new there, according to Earl Ray.
The big news was that Anna Crenshaw’s granddaughter, Casey, was returning to town and would be opening up the old hotel on the edge of town. The Crenshaw Hotel had been closed for two years, ever since Anna had died. It had been years since anyone had seen Casey Crenshaw. Everyone was anxious to see if the now grown woman was anything like her grandmother. Rumor was that she was only opening the hotel to put it up for sale. “The place is said to be haunted, has been for years.”
Kate had laughed. “Like you believe in ghosts.”
“You might be surprised what I’ve come to believe in,” he’d said. “Tell me about you.” Kate told him about the latest book she was ghostwriting and about her gardening. She’d discovered that she enjoyed digging in the dirt, but her favorite part was watching what she’d planted bloom.
He always asked about her work and how the girls were doing when he called. The book was done. She was considering another one but hadn’t committed yet. Danielle had graduated college and would be teaching elementary school in the fall in a small town in East Texas. Mia’s design business was going great guns, and she’d met a man. “Do you like him?” Earl Ray asked.
“He’s nice. I think her father would approve.”
He never asked how long Kate planned to wait for the love of her life to return to her. He didn’t have to. He knew. Until forever.
“Tell Bessie hello for me,” she said as their conversation waned. “Tell her I miss her corn bread and ham and bean soup.”
“I’ll do that. You take care of yourself, Kate.”
“You, too, Earl Ray.” Pocketing her phone, Kate went back to her gardening.
* * *
HIS NAME WAS now Nicholas Ross. He didn’t recognize himself when he looked in a mirror. Often when he was shaving, he would stop and stare into the brown eyes looking back at him. They seemed to be the only thing that hadn’t changed about him.
For years he’d lived with the scars. But now the ones on the outside were gone, thanks to the surgeons who’d put him back together. He no longer had the limp, either, after surgery on his leg. Even his voice had changed after more surgeries on his throat and face. It had taken months and months, but he was a new person—completely unrecognizable to himself or to anyone else from the man he’d been.
He had to admit, even the scars on the inside seemed to have healed. For all these long, painful months, Earl Ray had been calling him. Each time, he would ask his old friend to tell him about Katie. He loved hearing the stories. Some he thought he could remember. Some of his memory about what had happened had come back. The rest was a muddle of darkness. Except for his nightmares, which were filled with explosions and fire and pain.
But the nightmares had become fewer and farther between. He had been working out every other day, running on the days in between. After months of physicians and surgeries, he felt like a new man. He’d been put back together better than he’d ever been. Now he’d finally been told he was ready.
He hadn’t seen Earl Ray for months and was delighted when the man had walked into the room. They hugged, his old friend then holding him at arm’s length and nodding his approval.
Nick touched his face. “It’s going to take some getting used to.”
Earl Ray handed him a large manila envelope. “It’s official. You’re Nicholas Ross.”
“Nick Ross,” he said, trying out the name. Then he saw the white business envelope his friend held. “What is that?” he asked, having a bad feeling. All that was on the outside of it was Earl Ray’s neatly printed Nick.
“Is this what I think it is?” he’d asked, feeling that now-familiar flutter in his chest at even the mention of Kate Jackson.
Earl Ray nodded. “Entirely up to you to decide what you want to do with the information in that envelope.” He turned away and changed the subject as Nick took the envelope but didn’t open it. “You should have seen your funeral,” his old friend said, his back to him. “The entire town turned out for it. Dave even bought a round of drinks.” He’d chuckled at that as he tried to breathe. “Axel said such nice things about you. So did a whole bunch of other people.”
Nick’s gaze rose from the envelope. “The brunette with the green eyes? Was she—”
“Kate was there. She also said some nice things about you.”
He smiled. It felt odd, as if he hadn’t spent much of his life smiling.
Earl Ray turned to look at him. “All the information on where you can find her is in there.”
Nick looked down at the envelope again but didn’t open it. “Let’s say I find this woman... She won’t know me. I hardly know me.”
Earl Ray laughed. “You’ll find a way. Trust me. She found you after all those years. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding her—and the two of you finding your way back.” His friend hesitated. “Also, there’s a DNA report in there—in case you want to know. Entirely up to you. It’s your new life.”
“I’m not sure where to begin.”
“Aren’t you?” Earl Ray said.
Nick thought about it as Earl Ray left. He had money that he’d been saving for years. He had been given another chance to start all over again. A new name. A brand-new life at forty-one.
But it was his past that haunted him. A whole hell of a lot had happened to him, most of it he still couldn’t remember. Earl Ray had told him not to worry about the man he’d been. That man was dead and buried, his past gone as if it had never happened. Except for the memories of the brunette with the green eyes. Kate. Katie. And now whatever was in this envelope.
He looked down at it, knowing he wasn’t all that sure he wanted to face it. If he had been Daniel Jackson, then he’d walked away from his wife and family. How could a man do that?
The doctors had tried to assure him that the refinery explosion had taken all memories of that life from him. He couldn’t blame himself. Yet he did. When he thought about Kate, he couldn’t imagine walking away from her and two babies. Only a coward would do that. Why would she want that man back?
She wouldn’t, he told himself. She just didn’t know that. She’d hung on to the memories, romanticizing them, fantasizing about a man named Danny Jackson. No man could live up to that. A man would be crazy to try.
He turned the envelope over in his fingers. Did it matter what was inside? He wasn’t her Danny. He probably never had been, no matter what this document said.
Slowly he lifted the flap on the envelope. His heart was racing. What did he want it to say? That he wasn’t Daniel Jackson, never had been? He thought of the way Kate had looked into his eyes in his dreams. She’d been so positive that the truth was right there, according to Earl Ray. Those brown eyes that looked back at him each morning from the mirror?
What if she was wrong? What if whatever was in this envelope proved it? He couldn’t bear the thought of breaking her heart. He knew there had been other men who had reminded her of her lost husband. But in those cases she’d always been wrong. He didn’t want her to be disappointed again.
The thought made him laugh. He was capable of disappointing her on so many levels if he was Daniel Jackson.
He swore and pulled out the sheet, unfolding it with trembling fingers. The words blurred in front of his eyes for a moment. Then the truth surfaced. He stared at the sheet of paper for a long time and smiled. He should have trusted her. Kate had been right. But what did that say about him?
All he had of that time after the explosion were weird memories of waking up in the hospital in Houston with no memory of what had happened or who he was. He’d pieced it together as more patients had been brought in, as nurses scurried around, as families of patients arrived and the story of the explosion came together. He
hadn’t known his name. It was as if he hadn’t lived before that day. No, he didn’t know of anyone they could call to let them know where he was.
There were patients who needed medical assistance more than he did. He’d been moved. That’s when a fellow patient had said he recognized him as the new guy at the refinery, Justin Brown. He’d been given some clothing and been released from the hospital because they’d needed the bed. He wore a dead man’s clothing out of the hospital as he had walked into that new life.
He hadn’t known anything about himself. But when he’d looked down at his calloused hands, he’d known he was a laborer in whatever life he had lived. He had no idea of his exact age. He didn’t think he was even twenty-one at the time. He hadn’t been. After he’d walked out of the hospital, he’d done what he’d assumed he’d always done. He got a job working on a construction site and saved his money. He had no purpose other than to clothe and feed himself, until one day a friend had suggested he apply to the law-enforcement academy.
He hadn’t realized it until now, but he’d been lost from the moment he woke up in that first hospital. The explosion had untethered him from people he’d loved and needed. He’d been adrift for the past twenty years.
Tears filled his eyes. Even if he’d never been Daniel Jackson, it was time for him to go home.
* * *
AS KATE DROVE up the lane to her house, she frowned. There was a pickup parked out front with a boat behind it. She pulled into her drive, the garage door yawning open at the touch of her fingers, but she didn’t pull in.
Instead, she was looking in her rearview mirror. The boat was a classic wooden one, long and sleek with red cushions in the cockpit. Her father had always wanted one like it. But that wasn’t what had caught her eye.
It was the name stenciled on the back of the boat: Katie.
Her heart hammered as she climbed out of her car and squinted in the sun toward the pickup. It was new, didn’t even have license plates on it yet.
