She nodded, having had enough, but saying nothing. She’d put him through so much and yet all she wanted to do was ask him to take her to the nearest airport so she could fly home. What was the point now of going to Canada to meet his associates? Maybe once they were on the road, she’d ask. He probably wanted to see the last of her as it was.
Bessie brought out their burgers and fries in a brown paper bag, the grease already soaking through the paper. The smell made Kate’s stomach roil. The woman handed them each a milkshake in a foam cup with lids and two straws. “Have a nice trip.” She seemed to hesitate, her gaze on Kate again. “Be careful.” With that, she took the money Collin gave her, thanking him when he told her to keep the change, and hurried back to the kitchen.
Kate noticed the looks they got as they left the café. Why did she feel as if she was letting everyone down, not just herself but these people as well? Collin took her arm and steered her out, letting the door close behind them. Snow swirled around them in this snow-globe world of white. She felt dizzy from the whirling flakes, from the cold, from the emotions, from the unshed tears that lodged in her throat and made her chest ache. She huddled down into her scarf and the collar of her coat against the bite of the wind and air crystals that stuck to her face and eyelashes.
“I’m getting a little sick of this stuff,” Collin said as they headed back toward the motel and their waiting car. “But I promised myself that you would finally get to see snow. Still want to make a snow angel?”
“Maybe we should cut this trip short,” she suggested and then saw his expression and wished she had bitten her tongue instead.
“I’ve already told my associates we would meet them. I can’t get out of that. Do you understand? This is important. It would raise too many questions if you don’t come with me. You owe me this much.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand why it is so important that I meet these men.”
He sighed and raked a hand through his hair before his gaze came back to hers. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but since you won’t let this go... I commissioned a special wedding dress for you.”
“You what?”
“I saw this dress in a magazine. It looked perfect for you. My associates found a place in Canada that would make the exact one in your size. That’s the other reason we’re going to Canada.”
“Oh, Collin.” It was so thoughtful and so unexpected. She felt tears burn her eyes.
“I still have to pick up the dress and pay for it even if you...don’t want it. But I wish you’d at least go to Canada with me. I’m going to look like enough of a fool to my associates when I pick up the wedding dress and I have no fiancée with me. After that, I’ll be happy to put you on a plane—if that’s what you want.”
She nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry.” He was right. This was the least she could do. “I’m just cold and tired and—” The rest of her words died on her lips as she looked across the street and saw the light coming through the crack in the carriage-house doors. Over the wind spinning snowflakes through the air, she heard the high whine of a saw.
Jon Harper had come back.
CHAPTER TWELVE
COLLIN MUST HAVE followed her gaze and then seen her expression. “I’m putting an end to this right now!” he swore, shoving the bag of burgers at her as he threw down his milkshake into the deep snow before stomping across the highway.
Caught off guard, she watched him barrel toward the light glowing in the workshop. She felt fear for what he would do in the mood he was in. But her overwhelming emotion was one of euphoria.
Danny had come back. She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Her heart filled to overflowing. He hadn’t run out on her. He never had. He just didn’t remember her. And for some reason, he couldn’t leave her this time.
For a moment, she didn’t move, could hardly breathe. The bag holding the burgers had been greasy. Now it was wet from the falling snow. She spotted a trash can and dumped the bag and her milkshake into it. She felt scared. Her future hadn’t been this uncertain since the day of the explosion. Would it make a difference what Collin said to him? Or what the man she knew was Danny said to Collin?
She started across the highway to follow Collin but stopped as he came rushing out of the old carriage house. He saw her standing there, her arms akimbo, and slowed. She wondered if he saw the hope in her expression. Or the fear. Or maybe worse, how excited she was that the man had come back. Jon could have kept going, but he hadn’t.
Collin walked across the highway toward her. He looked defeated. She felt an ache in her heart thick with guilt and relief and regret. He’d been so good to her and look what she’d done to him. She didn’t want to hurt him. But she couldn’t walk away from the man she believed was her husband. There had to be a reason why she was feeling this way. Why she’d felt that jolt the moment she’d seen him standing in his workshop. She wasn’t wrong this time. Maybe more painful, she was still in love with Danny. She always would be. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t found another man—until Collin. Her heart had always been overflowing because of Danny’s love.
* * *
COMING OUT OF the café kitchen, Bessie found a small crowd huddled at the front window trying to see through the frost on the glass and the falling snow outside.
“Seriously?” she asked as she joined them and saw that Lindsey was crying.
“What?” she demanded of the pregnant young waitress.
“It’s just such a touching love story,” Lindsey said. “She thinks Jon Harper is her dead husband. She’s been waiting for him to come back for twenty years. She’d given up hope and agreed to marry Collin Matthews. He’s the blond man she’s with.” As if Bessie didn’t know that. “But then their car breaks down on their engagement trip, and she stumbles into Jon’s workshop and sees him and knows in her heart he’s her husband. Only he doesn’t know her because he has amnesia.”
“It sounds like a soap opera,” Bessie said. “And where did you hear all this?”
“Shirley, at the motel. She said they yell a lot, and one day when she was cleaning an adjoining room, she heard them arguing about it.” Lindsey wiped her eyes. “It breaks my heart. What if Jon really is her lost love?”
“I wouldn’t believe everything Shirley says she’s heard through a motel-room wall,” Bessie said, though kindly. She knew that a lot of this was Lindsey’s hormones at work. “And don’t go spreading this story. They’re leaving town.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” the cook said and pointed across the street. “Jon left, but he came back.” Now in her fifties, Rene Carson had been passing through sixteen years ago after being dumped by her boyfriend. She’d come into the café hoping to earn enough money to catch a bus back to California and had ended up staying instead.