Julie Donavan, the new kindergarten teacher, was on her
knees consoling a little boy named Chuck on the first day
of school when she noticed movement coming in the door. She
gasped when she looked up. Her eyes widened and high color
filled her cheeks. The most striking cowboy she’d ever laid
eyes on just walked through the door. Well, she had laid
eyes upon him one time before but that time they’d been two
point five sheets to the wind. One less drink that night
and they’d have stopped before they got to the motel. Two
more and neither would have remembered a damn thing. But
the combination had been just right and he was there in her
kindergarten classroom in Saint Jo, Texas.
Her first thought was “Damn, he even looks better
with hair.”
Her second was “What in the hell is he doing in Saint
Jo, Texas?”
Her third was, “Oh, shit, what do I do now?”
The man stopped in front of her and looked
down. “Hello, we are the Luckadeaus. This is my daughter,
Lizzy, who will be in your class this year.”
And I’m the woman you met in Dallas six years ago?
She wanted to shout at him. Remember me? I’m Red.
Griffin waited for her to finish with the little boy,
his pulse racing and his heart thumping. God Almighty, he’d
never been attracted to a red head before. That was his
brother’s choice of women. No one told him the new
kindergarten teacher was knock-down-gorgeous or that she
had eyes that could see straight into his soul. Desire shot
through his body or was it plain old lust? Either one was
something he hadn’t allowed in a very long time and he
determined he would get control of it before he spoke
again.
Julie’s daughter, Annie, came running from across the
room, her jet black dog ears bouncing on her shoulders, the
white poliosis streak in her hair parted so that the
majority of it was on the left side. She stopped dead in
front of the little girl.
They eyed each other for several minutes, mirror
images of each other, doubles in almost every sense of the
word. Jet black hair with a white streak from the forehead
back several inches, crystal clear blue eyes, a slight dent
in their chins.
Finally Annie grabbed Lizzy’s hand and said, “Come
sit by me. My momma is the teacher, she won’t care.”
Lizzy let go of her father’s hand and ran off with
Annie, her jet black pony tail waving from one side to the
other, the white streak in her hair slicked straight back.
Both parents couldn’t peel their eyes away from the
two little girls giggling together . Julie felt the world
tilt backwards on its axis and the concrete floor St. Jo,
Texas elementary school tremor as if Texas was having a
rare earthquake.
“Who are you?” Griffin whispered. Desire took a back
seat to shock. That little girl had to be a Luckadeau. His
blue eyes narrowed into slits. Who was the red head and
where had that child come from?
“I’m going to be your child’s teacher but we knew
each other a long time ago. You don’t remember?”
He shook his head. “I’ve never met you before in my
life but I’d know that little girl anywhere. She could be
my Lizzy’s sister with that white forelock.”
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