Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,31
him.
He thought of Kate Jackson as he pushed open the café’s door. He hoped she would be able to move on. It would give him hope that he could someday as well.
“Earl Ray!” Bessie cried when she saw him. Her face broke into a huge smile. “Blueberry muffins still hot from the oven.”
He nodded, smiling. “You know me so well, Bessie.”
* * *
KATE STARED AT Collin as she felt her heart drop at his words. He was going to confront Jon Harper? “No, I—I don’t want you to.”
“Baby, you’re awfully protective of a man who is probably a complete stranger. I’m not going to beat the truth out of him. I’m just going to talk to him and try to clear this up, that’s all. Unless you don’t trust me to handle this.”
“It’s not that.” She could see that he was waiting to hear what it was in that case. She had no answer for him. She was protective of Jon Harper because she’d seen something dark in those sable brown eyes. A pain that she attributed to the explosion, his injuries, the path his life had taken over all these years.
Earl Ray had said they’d known Jon needed help when he’d landed in Buckhorn. Some of them had reached out to him. She understood their need to do that. She wanted to help him as well. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him even if he wasn’t Danny.
But he was. So what was the point of questioning him?
“Collin, I was thinking that maybe you could go on up to the border and meet your business associates and leave me here until—”
“No, I’m not leaving you here alone,” Collin said emphatically with a shake of his head. “Come on, Kate. Try to see this from my perspective. This is...”
“Crazy?”
“I wouldn’t have used that particular word, but bizarre would work.” He sighed. “Or totally frigging off the wall.”
She could see that he was losing his patience, and she didn’t blame him. “I just need a little more time.”
He shook his head and looked at the floor. “I’m going to talk to him.” He held up a hand. “I’ll be nice. I promise. All I’m going to do is find out where he’s been the past twenty years while you were working and raising your daughters.”
“Collin—”
“No, let’s say you’re right, and this man is your husband. Maybe he had a brain injury. Could have happened. Or maybe, Kate, he didn’t. He was a teenager working two jobs and still you were barely making it. I know what that feels like. It makes a person desperate. So maybe he saw an opportunity to walk away.” Earl Ray had said the same thing. “How are you going to feel about him if that’s the case?” She met his gaze, her eyes brimming with tears. He swore. “Are you seriously still that much in love with him that you’d take him back even if he did walk out on you all those years ago?”
She’d once dreamed of finding him, of bringing him home. She’d known that he could have walked away. It hadn’t mattered. Did it now? For so long, she’d told herself he had to be dead, otherwise he would have found his way back to her.
“I don’t know how to feel about any of it,” she said. “I’d given up hope of ever seeing him again.”
“Well, I’m going to find out what his story is.” Collin grabbed his coat and was out the door before she could stop him.
She thought about going after him but could just see the two of them busting into the woodshop, making complete fools of themselves. It was bad enough that Collin was going. She picked up a book but couldn’t concentrate. Instead, she paced the small motel room, wondering what Collin was saying to Jon. More importantly, what Jon was saying. She thought about getting in the shower to warm up when the door opened and to her surprise he’d come back.
“He’s not there,” Collin said. “Apparently, he’s taken off. I found the cabin he lives in out back. His truck is gone, and his landlady said he drove off a few minutes before I got there. She checked his cabin. What few belongings he had were gone. He left rent money and a note thanking her. He’s gone, Kate. He isn’t coming back.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JON HARPER PARKED his old pickup in the lot and limped inside the bank. He’d driven the fifty miles to