The contact lasted longer than it would have had it been anyone else’s, but he found that he simply did not want to let go. On the contrary, he wanted to pull her over to his side of the booth so she would be closer to him. The urge was so unexpected and powerful that it took him a minute to process. This had never happened to him before. Being the intellectual that he was, it definitely warranted further study.
“Shane Callaghan.”
“I know who you are,” she said, amused.
Of course she knew who he was; he had been guest-lecturing her class. Shane offered a slightly embarrassed grin, reluctantly releasing her hand. She let it linger a moment more before reclaiming it to break off a bite-sized piece of doughnut.
Her next words surprised him. “I recognized you earlier. You spoke at Maggie Flynn’s re-zoning meeting awhile back. You were wonderful, by the way. Very eloquent.”
Her words were spoken sincerely, with no trace of flirtatious flattery. Shane’s mind flew back to that night, his photographic memory allowing him to review the room section by section. Ah, there she was, sitting left of center, halfway back. He remembered his eyes had lingered on her then, too, but had turned away when the man she was sitting next to draped his arm around her shoulders and cast a possessive glance in his direction.
“I remember,” he said without thinking, something very out of character for him. “You were with someone. Tall guy, brown hair, ex-military.”
Lacie’s eyes opened wide. “How could you possibly remember that?”
Shane shrugged modestly, realizing his mistake. “Blessed with a good memory, I guess.” Some people were put off by his ability to remember and recall things at will; it was not something he shared often. His brothers knew, and that was enough. If this woman was who he was beginning to suspect she was, it wouldn’t matter, but he wasn’t about to take any unnecessary chances until he was certain. He was a cautious man by nature.
Lacie, however, was as astute as she was attractive. “Better than good, I’d guess. Photographic?”
Shane nodded cautiously, but once again his instincts had been correct. Lacie’s grin grew. “And you’re modest, too. You are not at all what I expected, Mr. Callaghan.”
“Shane, please,” he insisted. He was on the verge of asking her exactly what she had expected, which would have been followed up closely by inquiring just when and for how long she had been thinking of him in any regard, and decided against it.
“So you were there to speak on Maggie’s behalf?”
“Yes. Maggie is wonderful. My parents used to take me and my brother and sister up there when her grandparents were still alive to pick apples and pumpkins and go on the hayrides. We made such wonderful memories. Now I take my kids there. They love it.”
Shane’s chest constricted; his focus snapped back onto the woman across from him, the memory of that man’s arm around her shoulder flashing in his mind’s eye again. “You have children?”
Lacie’s shy smile lit the whole room. “Not technically, no. I teach Kindergarten. I refer to my students that way. For a few hours each day at least, they are mine.”
The tightening in his chest eased. He could easily picture her in a room full of little ones, sitting on the floor with them surrounding her as she read from a book of fairy tales. Even with his talent for detailed imagery, this one was particularly clear.
“You’re not married then?” he fished. He’d already noticed she wore no ring on her finger, nor was there any indentation or tan line, but he would rather hear the confirmation from her lips.
A light pink blush suffused her cheeks. “No.”
“Seeing anyone?” He tried to keep his expression carefully neutral, but he could not keep the glimmer of hope from his eyes.
“Not unless you count this,” she teased. “You?”
The neutral expression vanished; a devastating grin took its place. “Present company excluded? No.”
The next few hours flew by. Shane learned that in addition to teaching Kindergarten at the Pine Ridge Elementary School (she had a morning and an afternoon class) she was also working toward her Master’s degree in Education, one night class at a time, ruefully noting how long it would take her to finish.
She had one older brother, Brian, who was in the service (Army). He’d gone missing nearly three years earlier while stationed in Afghanistan. From the way she spoke of him, Shane could tell that they were very close. Lacie believed that he was alive and would return, saying with absolute conviction that if Brian was gone, she would know. He didn’t immediately discount her claim. He had similar connections with his brothers, often instinctively sensing when one was in trouble.
She also had a younger sister, Corinne, who was a full-time undergrad at the University. It was Corinne, he learned, who had recommended Professor Steven’s Ethics course to her sister to fulfill one of her optional Humanity requirements. Shane was profoundly grateful she had.