“It’s a school night.”
Her response only served to confuse him further. “What’s that got to do with it?”
And then he looked down at her hand as a belated explanation for her concern hit him. Was she married and needed to get home? There was no ring on her hand, but in this day and age, that didn’t mean that the woman was single.
The shortest distance between two points was a straight line, so instead of beating around the bush, he decided to ask her. “You’re not married, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” Shania answered. Even as she said that, she felt an atypical pang twisting the pit of her stomach.
What was wrong with her? All these years, she had never once felt that marriage was for her. But ever since Wynona had gotten married, Shania had found herself reevaluating everything, including what she’d thought were her deeply rooted feelings about marriage. Maybe it was time to rethink her position on that.
Would it be such an awful thing to get married? Marriage had certainly made Wynona happy.
“The conversation just got more interesting,” Daniel said with a smile that unnerved her.
Shania thought of finishing her beer in order to dramatically put the empty mug down on the bar and push it away before she got off the stool. But in order to do that, she’d have to actually drink the brew and she decided that she’d had enough. So she just pushed the mug aside.
“I’ve got to go,” she told him, and started to get up off her stool.
He gave her a long, soulful look. “Was it something I said?”
She needed to avoid looking into his eyes, she silently insisted. He had beautiful, sexy eyes and eye contact had a way of making her thoughts evaporate.
“No, I just have to go,” she told him seriously. “I have school tomorrow,” she explained.
His eyes narrowed as he studied her more closely, doing his best to see past her beauty even though it wasn’t easy.
“No offense, but just how many times have you been left back?” he asked.
“Left back?” she echoed, clearly confused about what he was asking.
“Well, yeah. Because I know for a fact that the Murphys are really strict when it comes to serving alcohol to minors.” Then, because she was still staring at him quizzically, he clarified it for her. “They don’t, which means that you’re not a minor even though you’re fresh-faced and pretty enough to pass for one.”
“I’m not a minor,” she assured him, not sure if she was flattered or insulted by his comment.
“Then why...?” He left the end of his question up in the air, waiting for her to finish it.
“I’m a high school teacher,” she told him.
“A high school teacher,” he repeated.
He hadn’t thought of that. He was slipping, he upbraided himself. But then, he wasn’t used to putting moves on a woman. Because Elena had aggravated him, he’d wound up doing something out of character.
“Yes,” she confirmed in case there was any doubt. “So you see why I have to go.”
But Daniel wasn’t quite ready to let this go just yet. Questions popped up in his mind. “What do you teach?”
“Algebra and physics,” she answered.
He nodded, impressed. “Ambitious.”
“Tiring,” she countered.
He thought of what he’d just endured trying to deal with his sister today and he understood exactly what this woman was telling him.
“It’s a tough age,” he agreed.
“You say that like someone who’s been in the trenches,” Shania noted. “Were you a teacher?”
“Me?” he asked, surprised that she’d think that. “Hell no.” Realizing he might have offended her, he corrected himself. “I mean heck no.”
She tried not to laugh and only partially succeeded. “That’s okay. I find myself swallowing a few choice words too, especially whenever I’m having a particularly bad day communicating with my students.”
Although, she thought, those were happily few and far between.
“Was that what this was all about?” Daniel asked, nodding at her unfinished mug of beer. “A particularly bad day?”
“You might say that,” Shania admitted. “There are some times when I really don’t think I’m getting through to them.”
“If it’s only ‘some times’ then you’re doing better than the rest of us,” Daniel assured her, thinking of Elena. “Why don’t you let me buy you something that you enjoy drinking and we can compare war stories?”
She felt a bit confused again. “But I thought you said you were never a teacher.”
“And I wasn’t,” he answered.
“Then I don’t understand. How can you have any war stories?” she asked.
“Because my war stories all involve my younger sister,” he answered. “My sixteen-year-old younger sister,” he specified, as if that should make everything clear to the woman he was talking to.
“Your parents having trouble handling her?” she guessed.
“My parents aren’t there to handle her,” he answered, doing his best to mask his reaction to her question. Thinking of his parents always made him feel sad. Then, before she could ask anything further, he told her, “For better or for worse, it’s all me. Mother, father and, according to my sister, thick-headed older brother, all rolled up into one big package.”
The way he’d worded his response caused something to click in her head. “You said she was sixteen?” Shania asked him.
He nodded and finished his beer. “Yes.”
She knew the deputy looked familiar to her, Shania thought. Even if she threw the reservation into the mix, Forever was rather a small town.
“What’s her name?” she asked.
He narrowed his eyes again as he studied the woman he’d been flirting with.
“Why are you asking me that?” Daniel asked her suspiciously.
Shania tried to sound off-handed as she answered, “I was just curious to find out if perhaps she’s in my class.”
Bits and pieces of their conversation began to align themselves in Daniel’s head, forming an imperfect whole. A whole he didn’t really want to own up to.
He suddenly realized that he might have very well just tried to hit on Elena’s teacher and, if that was the case, he was fairly certain that if Elena
