Sunrise at Sunset Read Online Free PDF Page B

back row of the room, but still projected a penetrating, appraising expression in her green eyes that distracted him.
    “So, in the next few days, feel free to move around the room until you find a seat you feel most comfortable with, okay?” Caleb neutrally offered, although he quickly glanced at Katrina and fleetingly at two empty seats on the front row off to his left.
    Having been studying him so intently, she noted the implied meaning in both his actions and words. Her slightly amused smile added to the twinkle in her eyes. Baiting me?
    He handed out an essay assignment sheet to everyone and set into his lecture on a brief review of European explorers who had visited the New World as a precursor to the westward expansion of larger scale European settlements.
    “Well, can anyone tell me what primarily influenced Portugal to decline Christopher Columbus when he begged funding for an exploratory expedition to seek a western route to Asia?” Caleb asked curiously.
    The room was silent as he scanned the faces. His eyes fell on Katrina’s gaze, which seemed to bore directly into his.
    “Since Vasco de Gama helped initiate the profitable Portuguese control of trade routes to Asia around the Cape of Africa, Portugal believed there was little need to seek additional passageways,” Katrina’s voice broke the silence.
    Caleb’s right eyebrow shot up with some surprise. “Correct, Ms. Rawlings. Very good.”
    Most heads in the class turned to silently stare at Katrina. She maintained her gaze directly at Caleb with a slight smirk, and everyone’s attention returned to him. The lecture proceeded from there, and Katrina offered little more in the way of responses throughout the remainder of the class. As soon as Caleb dismissed the class, she was once again the first student to depart.
    Weeks passed with Katrina sitting in the back row of the classroom, much to Caleb’s disappointment. She displayed varying degrees of interest and often smiled to herself, which Caleb found slightly unnerving. He also noted that a couple of women in the class chose to move to the forward seats in the classroom, paying more than a normal degree of attention to him, which he found flattering. Meanwhile, most of the males in the classroom seemed to gravitate further to the back rows of the room where Katrina sat. Still, she focused exclusively on Caleb, as if studying him even more than the material being discussed.
    After two exams, which Katrina passed without error, Caleb wanted to interact with her outside of class. He still struggled to determine what seemed so familiar about her. But after each class, she always departed before he could approach her.
    It wasn’t as if he were going to ask her out or anything. He was well aware that would be inappropriate and a violation of college policy. It could get him fired, and he’d worked hard to get on the final interview list for the job. Caleb had to be resigned to the fact that Katrina was simply the elusive type. At the very least, he looked forward to their brief interactions within the classroom.
    On a particularly drizzly evening two weeks before the end of the eight-week semester, the parking lot lights fluctuated as Caleb walked from his car to the building. In passing, a maintenance worker said they were troubleshooting a systemic electrical short. With the budget cutbacks due to the poor economy, it seemed that even parking lot lighting was being piecemealed together just to remain operational. It never ceased to amaze him that during poor economic times, when the influx of students was greatest, community college funding was at its lowest levels.
    Caleb went to class as usual, and once again, Katrina departed just as class was dismissed. Not being in a hurry to get home since Melanie was shopping with her friends, he chose to stay a little later to catch up on grading some essays. After an hour, he decided to leave and noticed that the parking lot lights were completely out in a