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.
As a tall man climbed out from behind the wheel, she stared, telling herself he had the wrong house even as her pulse thrummed in her ears. It was the way he moved. No limp. Not Jon. Her heart dropped as he moved toward her.
And yet she could feel the chemistry that arced between them. It wasn’t something she wanted to feel because he was the wrong man, she told herself.
He wore jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers along with a baseball cap and sunglasses. “Hi,” he called to her. Not Jon’s voice. A stranger. A man looking for directions. A man who just happened to have a boat named Katie.
She’d often fantasized how Danny would come back to her. One day she’d open the door, and there he would be. Of course, Earl Ray had warned her that she wouldn’t recognize him. But once he told her who he was...
“Can I help you?” she asked as he walked toward her. She still had her keys in her hand, her car door open—just like the garage door.
“I hope so,” he said. She waited for him to ask directions. Clearly he was lost, since there was no place nearby to put that boat into the water.
He must have seen how nervous he was making her, because he stopped just a few feet from her. He shook his head as he studied her. “I’m sorry. I’m making a mess of this. I can see that I’ve scared you. I’m sorry. My name’s Nick. Nick Ross. You’re more beautiful than even in my dreams.”
She stared at him, trying to make sense of the words.
“When Earl Ray told me that the beautiful brunette with the amazing green eyes was real and not just a figment of my delirium, I couldn’t wait to see you again. For months I’ve been trying to get back to you. Oh, Katie.” He said it with a softness that made her close her eyes to stem the tears.
She tried to speak around the lump in her throat but couldn’t.
“Katie.” He was so close now that she felt her name on his lips stir the hair next to her ear. He gently touched her shoulder. “I know I look nothing like the man you knew. Either of them. I’m not sure how they were able to put me back together, but all I could think about was seeing you again. Tell me I’m not too late.”
She opened her eyes, reached over and lifted his sunglasses to see his sable brown eyes. “You’re right on time,” she said, her voice breaking as she threw herself into his arms. He held her tightly as if he never wanted to let her go. Her heart felt as if it might explode.
Finally, she pulled back to look at him. Nick Ross stood before her, his handsome face twisted with anguish. He didn’t move, didn’t even seem to breathe.
There was no holding back the tears. “Jon.” The name came out on a breath.
“It’s Nick,” he said and smiled. “Think you can get used to that?”
She let the tears fall, even though she was now laughing and smiling. “Nick,” she said. “Nick Ross.” His warm, brown gaze met hers as she buried her face into his shoulder. It felt as if she’d come home. Finally.
“I was afraid to just come to your door. I know I look so different... I was worried, and then I saw this boat for sale and the name on the back. I knew it was a sign. So, I bought it.” His laugh was musical. She wanted to hear it for the rest of her life. “I realized it wasn’t just the boat and the name. It was my future.”
She pulled back to gaze into those eyes again. “You came back to me.”
“As soon as I was able. I couldn’t stay away. But Katie, I’m never going to be the man you married,” Nick said. “I don’t know that man.”
“But you are that man, and you’re Jon. I fell in love with you both.”
He laughed softly. “Any chance you could fall in love with Nick?”
She leaned into him, breathing in his scent. She should have known the moment she saw the name on the boat and the man who walked toward her. She hadn’t realized that she’d said the words until he responded.
“That’s how I feel. I should have known that I had a wife and daughters when I woke up in the hospital all those years ago. I can’t tell you how much guilt I’ve felt since learning that I was Daniel Jackson. How could I have not known?”
“You had a terrible concussion. You didn’t even know who you were.”
“I don’t know my daughters. Hell, I barely know you. But I want to get to know you. I want to get to know them. Can you see me for the man I am now? I can’t bear the thought that you might always still be looking for Danny.”
She shook her head. Her days of looking for Danny were gone. “I fell in love with Jon. Even if the DNA hadn’t matched, I would still love you,” she said, wiping at her tears of joy. “So, you really bought that boat?”
“How could I not? When I saw the name, I knew that was my future. I want to restore classic wooden boats. Apparently there’s money in it.” His voice softened. “I feel as if I spent half my life looking for you and not realizing it. Now that I’ve found you, I’m never going to let you go, Katie.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her. It was like a Fourth of July fireworks show. All the chemistry she’d felt between them seemed to explode around them. She melted into his arms, telling herself that dreams do come true. Her husband had come home.
As he drew back from the kiss, he asked, “What will we tell Mia and Danielle?”
“Hopefully, we’ll know when the time comes. All that matters is that you’re here. That you’re back where you belong.”
He grinned. “It’s nice to be home.”
The summer sun lolled overhead as they walked over hand in hand to look at their new boat. The girls were going to love it. And love Nick, too.