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gorgeous, isn’t he?” Lynda Connor whispered, following
her eyes to the door Cole had just passed through.
    She and Lynda had gone to high school together, and while
they weren’t the best of friends, they were always friendly acquaintances. Getting
caught ogling one of her students’ fathers was embarrassing, even if Lynda, who
was supposed to be happily married, was doing the same. “It’s nice to see you,
Lynda,” Charlene said, pasting a smile on her face. “How was your summer?”
    “Same old, same old.” She sighed heavily. “You know how it
is around here, Charlene. Not much ever changes.”
    That was true, but Charlene was starting to believe that
danger and excitement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially if a
certain broad-shouldered cowboy was the one offering to shake things up. She
just needed a nice normal man to make her stop thinking about all this nonsense
with Cole. Someone she would be proud to take home to her parents. She’d start
thinking about her prospects, putting some feelers out there, just as soon as
she settled into a nice routine at work. Maybe one of the teachers at the
school had a single brother or friend…
    “Are you happy to be back?” Lynda asked, pulling her from
her musings.
    “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
    “I don’t know. Like I said, there’s not much goin’ on around
here.”
    Charlene turned her attention to Lynda’s son, a dark haired,
wide-eyed terror the grade one teacher had warned her about. “You must be
Charlie.” She offered her hand and smiled when the little boy looked at her skeptically.
“I’m Miss McCoy.”
    “I know who you are,” he said, crossing his arms.
    Lynda nudged her son. “Go on, shake Miss McCoy’s hand.”
    “I don’t want to.”
    Lynda blushed and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It looks
like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
    Charlene knew how he felt. She was starting to feel that way
herself. Of course, if she’d had a certain sexy cowboy crowding the other side
of her bed, she might feel differently. Damn Cole Braxton… what was it going to
take to erase the memory of that one night?   
     
     
    Never before had Cole counted down the hours until he could
pick Cassidy up from school. In fact, he usually had to set the alarm on his
watch to remind him in case the three fifteen dismissal slipped his mind when
he got busy tending to his daily duties on the ranch. But today, he was parked
in front of the school watching the agonizing seconds tick by until he could
see her again. She taunted him all day, slipping into his mind when he
should be working.
    It had been like that in the days after their night together
too. He couldn’t get her out of his head. Then he asked the owner of the bar,
Dixie, if she knew anything about some girl named Charlene. He told her she’d
been in with her girlfriends and proceeded to recite off the names of her
companions. Dixie informed him that Charlene McCoy was a hometown girl who’d
gone away to school. McCoy . Cole put the pieces together quickly and
realized that the woman he took was the little sister of one of his closest
friends, a local cop named Jake McCoy.
    Cole winced just thinking about what his friend would say if
he found out how his so-called friend had treated his precious sister that
night. Now that Cole knew about the family connection, he hung on Jake’s every word
when their tight-knit group of friends met at Dixie’s for beers. He hoped to
glean information about Charlene. Was she involved with anyone? Planning a
visit home? Was she happy… well… lonely? He finally hit pay dirt last spring
when Jake mentioned his little sister was planning to move home and accept a
position teaching second grade at the elementary school. He had counted down
the days ever since.
    As Cole got out of his truck, he exchanged greetings with a
few of the other parents waiting for their kids. He usually parked in the
pick-up line and