LITMIR.BIZ

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almost grown and out of the house, thanks to you I have two more little ones.”

      Cal laughed. “How can you complain when creating them was so much fun?”

      Maddie shook her head. “Let’s have this conversation again when they hit their teens.”

      “The teens,” Ronnie said, nodding knowingly.

      “Oh, don’t even try to sound like you suffered through those years,” Dana Sue said. “We were divorced most of the time when Annie was a teenager and you weren’t even living here in Serenity.”

      Ronnie winced. “Probably best not to revisit that time right now. Sorry.”

      She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay. I’ve forgiven you. Mostly, anyway.”

      But an occasional reminder of that awful time did wonders to keep their marriage on track these days. Just like Maddie and Helen, she found herself counting her blessings when it came to love. Who could have imagined it would take the drastic step of a divorce to get her and Ronnie to such an incredible place?

      * * *

      J.C. glanced surreptitiously at his watch and realized that the football game at the high school would already be well under way. He enjoyed stopping by the games. The whole community usually attended, and he liked feeling a part of things. He should have noticed the time when Sullivan’s had started emptying out a half hour ago.

      “Am I keeping you from something?” Laura asked, studying him with concern. “I’m so sorry. It never occurred to me that you might have other plans. It’s a Friday night. Of course you do.”

      He smiled, enjoying the flustered rise of color in her cheeks. “I mentioned before we came that I’d planned to stop by the game. You said you were planning on going, as well. I lost track of the time and just now realized it’s probably started.”

      She looked even more nonplussed. “Oh, my gosh, we did talk about that. I need to make a call. The other teachers will wonder what on earth has happened to me.”

      “Why don’t we drive over together? It’ll be faster than going back to my office for your car.”

      “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

      “Of course not.”

      He quickly paid the check, then led the way to his car, which he’d wisely parked on the street, rather than in the crowded lot. Now that lot was almost empty.

      Ten minutes later he found a parking space a block from the field. As soon as they got out, he could hear the shouts of the crowd and smell the aroma of popcorn.

      “Sounds to me as if we just missed a great play,” he said, as he helped Laura out of the car.

      “Are you a big football fan?”

      “Big enough,” he said. “I played a couple of years in college, but it was tough to do that and keep my grades high enough in premed. Since I knew I’d never go pro, I dropped off the team. Let me tell you, it put a crimp in my social life.”

      She studied him curiously. “Then you weren’t always averse to dating?”

      “Not always,” he said, leaving it at that.

      “There’s a story there,” she said, holding his gaze. “Maybe you’ll tell me sometime.”

      “Maybe,” he said, evasively. Surprisingly, though, the thought of revealing that time of his life didn’t seem as depressing as it usually did. The best thing about moving to Serenity had been the fact that not a soul in town knew a thing about his marriage to his childhood sweetheart or how it had blown up in his face.

      When he’d paid for his ticket and Laura had shown her pass, they walked into the stadium just in time for the Serenity team to score a touchdown on a pass from quarterback Greg Bennett.

      “That kid has an incredible arm,” he commented.

      Laura nodded, but there was something in her expression that suggested she wasn’t half as impressed with him as J.C. was.

      “You don’t like him,” he said intuitively.

      “He’s a good player,” she said carefully.

      “But you don’t like him,” he repeated. “Why?”

      She hesitated, then said, “If you really want the truth, he has a massive ego and I’ve seen the careless way he treats the girls at school. It’s a bad combination.”

      J.C. nodded. “I don’t really know him personally. He’s Bill’s patient. All I know is what I see on the field.”

      “Lucky you,” she said, then winced. “What is wrong with me? I’m not usually so indiscreet when it comes to students.”

      “I think we’re past worrying about being careful with each other. If we’re going to get to the bottom of what’s happening with Misty, we need to trust each other enough to speak frankly.”

      “But one thing has nothing to do with the other,” she said.

      J.C. hesitated. It was a shot in the dark, but it was something worth considering. “You sure about that? You just said Greg’s careless with the girls he dates. Could Misty be one of them?”

      She shook her head at once. “I’d say she has better sense, but at that age, who knows? The problem with your theory, though, is that he’s not in either of the classes she’s been skipping. And the word around school is that he’s seeing Annabelle Litchfield.”

      “Oh, well, it was a thought.”

      “And not a bad one,” she said, then caught sight of her friends who were waving from the stands. “I see the other teachers. I should join them. If you’re not meeting anyone, you could come along.”

      “And stir up even more talk?” he asked, grinning at her.

      She smiled back at him. “That ship sailed long ago. First Sullivan’s and then we walked in here together. Haven’t you noticed that since the touchdown more eyes are on us than on the field? I can’t imagine having you sit in the bleachers with a bunch of women would make anything worse.”

      “All women? Where are the men?”

      “Sitting with their wives,” she said. “There’s not a bachelor on the faculty. Trust me, you’ll feel like a king.”

      He laughed. “How can I possibly resist that? Lead the way.”

      They climbed up to the top row, where three women moved over to make room for them. He already knew all of them, at least by sight.

      “You sly girl,” Nancy Logan said in what was meant to be a whisper but was easily overheard. “How’d you snag the hottie?”

      Laura blushed furiously. “I haven’t snagged anyone. J.C. and I were just having a quick bite to eat and realized it had gotten late and we both had plans to be at the game.”

      “So you had dinner and then you came to the game together,” Nancy said, her grin spreading. “In my world that sounds a lot like a date.”

      “Mine, too,” the others echoed.

      J.C. saw that their teasing had Laura even more flustered. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Don’t panic. I can handle the talk, if you can.”

      She turned to him wide-eyed. “But there shouldn’t be any talk, not about dating. You don’t date at all. I don’t date you. I just explained what happened.”

      “And they’re obviously not buying it,” he said, impulsively taking her hand snugly in his. “Let’s just go with it.”

      “Go with it,” she repeated, her eyes widening with alarm. “What does that mean, go with it?”

      “It means tonight you and I are on a date. We’ll think of it as an experiment. Maybe I’ll

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