A criminal record. That could explain a lot about the man, Collin realized. “I’ll get his fingerprints. I’ll overnight them. I’m betting they’re in the national database.” He hung up. Hadn’t he thought from the first that the carpenter had something to hide? Why else stay in this town? If Collin were right, a man like Jon Harper would have a record. Which meant his fingerprints would be on file.
The hard part was getting his prints. It meant paying the man another visit.
* * *
KATE COULDN’T GO back to the motel. She was shaken after her visit with Jon. Seeing the way he lived broke her heart. It was as if he’d been punishing himself all these years. Doing penitence for walking out on her and the girls? Or did he really not remember her on a conscious level?
Inside his cabin, she’d gotten a good look at him. The light coming in the kitchen window had been blindingly bright. She’d seen the scars on his face and throat clearly. Just as she’d seen glimpses of the face that she’d fallen in love with all those years ago. When he looked at her... His brown eyes gave him away.
So why did he keep telling her that he wasn’t Danny?
Because he honestly didn’t remember her? But he’d called her Katie.
She knew that wasn’t proof and that Collin could be right. Even if Jon was Danny, he didn’t want her. Because she was a stranger? Or because he’d wanted out all those years go? If he had wanted her, he would have come back to her.
So why didn’t she move on? Why didn’t she leave with Collin? Maybe it wasn’t too late to make a new life for herself. What did she hope to accomplish by staying here even a few more days?
She stepped into the café, moving to a booth away from the doorway and cold breeze that had followed her in. Through the front window, she stared out at the falling snow, convinced it was never going to stop. She wished for Texas and the humid warmth and the familiarity of her home. The security of it. The ignorance she’d had there. Only days ago, she’d never laid eyes on Jon Harper. Never seen Danny’s eyes looking back at her. Never thought she’d find herself in this quandary.
Only days ago, she’d known who she was. Now, she was second-guessing herself. Even questioning her mental stability. And yet her heart swelled at even the thought of Jon Harper. She’d felt a connection the moment she’d seen him standing in his workshop that first day. Dust motes hanging in the air around him. His strong profile etched against the glow of the lamp—and her memory.
“I thought you’d be miles down the road by now,” Bessie said as she appeared at the end of the booth. All Kate could do was shake her head. “Something tells me you didn’t eat the lunch you got to go. When I feel like you look, food is the only answer.”
Kate had to smile. Bessie—just like everyone else here—had encouraged her to leave as soon as she could. So, it surprised her that the woman seemed to be dispensing kindness, if not sympathy, today.
“What would you suggest?” Kate asked, knowing there was no food on this earth that was going to make her feel better. But she was ready to try anything.
“I have a batch of corn bread about to come out of the oven. I think a big piece with butter and honey to go with my ham and bean soup will do the trick.”
Kate tried to laugh but it came out sounding more like a sob. “Why not?”
Bessie disappeared back into the kitchen. Kate watched the snow, hypnotized by the flakes sweeping past the window as she tried to rein in her emotions. The snow had risen higher on the window. If it didn’t stop soon, she would suffocate under its cold, feathery flakes.
She wondered what Collin was doing. Probably losing his mind over her. Why didn’t he just give up on her and leave? Did he love her that much? She took in a deep breath and let it out, afraid she was giving up her chance for happiness.
But even as she thought it, she knew that she could never be happy with Collin—not knowing that Danny was alive. She wasn’t wrong. But, she’d been wrong before and that made her doubt herself. In her heart, though...
Shaking her head, she wondered how she could have thought that marrying Collin was a good idea when clearly she’d never gotten over Danny. Not even after twenty years of being alone. There was only one man she wanted. That alone broke her heart because that man didn’t want her, even if she was right and Jon was Danny.
“Here,” Bessie said, handing her a napkin to wipe her eyes. She put down a bowl of ham and bean soup and a plate of corn bread on the table, then pulled a bear-shaped plastic container of honey from her apron pocket.
Bessie slid into the booth opposite her. “Eat,” she ordered. “You think you can’t eat a bite, I know. But you can and you will because you need to, and I’m going to sit here until you do.”
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.