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“He’s good,” Dane said, beaming at Zoey.
“He loves to play ever since he moved here. You should have seen him that first year. He—” The look of pain that flashed across Dane’s face halted her words. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, I’m the one who is sorry. I want you to feel free to talk about what our children have done in the past. How else will I get to know them now if you don’t?” He moved in close and continued in a low voice, “The same goes for you and what you’ve been doing. It was nice listening to what Jesse had to say. It makes me realize you and I need to spend some time alone talking about what you’ve done the past few years.”
What I’ve been doing, but not you? His presence overpowered her, her senses inundated with his nearness. Zoey wanted to back away from Dane, but she didn’t. She didn’t want the townspeople to hear any of their conversation. “Will you share your life for the past few years, too?”
A shadow furrowed his brow. “There’s really nothing to share. I survived the crash and finally remembered who I was. I lived with good people who took me in. I learned to live in an environment very different from here without any trappings of civilization.”
She touched his arm, vaguely aware that people were staring at them, that the soccer game had continued. She didn’t care. “Sharing that is a beginning.” She sat, and Dane sat next to her on the bench. “I think your idea about talking is a good one. I’ll see if Mom can watch the children tonight. We can go out to dinner.”
“A date?”
“Yes. We may be married, but there’s so much we don’t know about each other.”
“Zoey, don’t expect me—”
She took his hand, stopping his words. “We have to start somewhere. For the children’s sake.”
“How about our own?”
His question, unanswered, hung in the air between them. Zoey wanted to hope one day they could capture the emotions they’d had when they’d first married before real life had intruded, before his work had taken him away from her and thrown up a wall between them that she couldn’t seem to scale, even now. But she was a realist now, and she didn’t know if that was possible.
Mandy clapped. “I won! I won!”
Dane began to put the pieces of the board game back in the box. “Did anyone ever tell you how lucky you are, young lady?”
“Yes, Mommy all the time.” Mandy helped to clean up the mess. “Ya look nice.”
He ran his finger under his collar. “You think so? I haven’t worn a suit and tie in a long time.”
“Is this what ya bought today at the store, Daddy?”
Every time his daughter called him “daddy” his heart swelled. How could he have forgotten her—forgotten Zoey and Blake? Oh, he knew all the medical reasons for amnesia, but in his heart he should have known. Guilt gnawed at his insides for the lost years.
He cleared his throat before replying, “I figured I’d better get some clothes that fit me.”
“I want to go out with ya and Mommy to eat.” Mandy came to sit next to him on the couch. “I have a pretty new dress that Nana bought me. I can wear it.”
His first impulse was to tell her yes. She would be a good buffer between him and Zoey. But he’d never been a coward before, and he wasn’t going to start now. He placed his arm around Mandy’s shoulder and pulled her against him. “You can another time. Your mother and I need to talk.”
“That’s okay. Ya can talk. I won’t mind.”
“Sometimes grown-ups need time alone. Just like you and I need special time alone.”
Mandy pouted. “Okay. This time. And I’ll give ya a chance to beat me tomorrow.”
“That’s a date. Just you and me.”
He hugged her, relishing the feel of his daughter in his arms. He’d missed so much with her. Regret mixed with anger, always beneath the surface, surged in him, threatening his composure. Clenching his hands, he closed his eyes and forced those emotions to the dark recesses of his mind before they overwhelmed him. He’d survived the plane crash when no one else had. He’d finally made it back to his family. He was remembering new things every day. He would get his life back. He had to!
When the doorbell rang, he used that as an excuse to leave Mandy. In the hallway, he took several deep breaths to fortify himself. A feeling of helplessness, one he’d dealt with many times in the rain forest, nibbled at his mind. He pushed that away, too. He would never feel helpless again. He would control his own life from now on. He knew who he was and that was half the battle. The rest would fall into place now that he was home again.
Composed, Dane opened the door to allow Emma into the house. “Thanks for helping out on such short notice.”
“My pleasure. Anything for Zoey and you.” She placed her purse on the table in the foyer. “Where are the children?”
“Blake’s in his room, has been since he came home from the game. Tara’s with Zoey. And Mandy just beat me at a board game. She’s quite a competitor.”
“Even though she looks like Zoey, there’s a lot of you in her.”
Dane smiled.
Emma glanced up the stairs. “After you and Zoey leave, I’ll go up and talk with Blake.”
“Good luck. Zoey tried to and he didn’t say two words.”
“Where’s Zoey?”
“Still getting dressed, I think.”
At that moment Dane saw Zoey at the top of the stairs, her gaze fixed on him. He sucked in a deep breath and held it while she walked down the steps, carrying their youngest child. His wife looked gorgeous in a simple black dress with a lace shawl draped over her. Her outfit fell to her knees and accentuated her long legs clad in black hose. Her shoulder-length blond hair was swept back from her face, emphasizing her big, brown eyes. Around her neck she wore a white gold chain with a single black pearl that he’d given her on their first anniversary. The memory pierced through his heart with all the time he’d missed with his family—with Zoey.
Had he conveniently forgotten his other life while in the jungle because of the problems he and Zoey had been having in their marriage? That question knocked the breath from him, leaving him with new doubts. In that moment he didn’t know if he could give Zoey what she needed…and deserved.
Chapter Four
After the waiter cleared away their dinner plates, Zoey relaxed back in her chair and scanned the restaurant, trying to come up with something to say other than pleasantries that had nothing to do with what was wrong between her and Dane. She noticed several other diners glancing their way and shifted in her seat. Obviously the word that her husband had returned from the dead had swept through Sweetwater like a brush fire in an arid climate, as she’d known it would. Not much happened in the town and this was definitely news to her friends and neighbors. She didn’t want to be the center of gossip and knew by the tense set to Dane’s posture he hated every minute of it.
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