The Unknown Twin

It could be nothing, but…the room smelled different, almost like cologne. The scent was male.

And the desk drawers were slightly ajar.

And her throw pillows were on the floor.

Lauren was neat, and knew she hadn’t neglected to close the drawers. She hadn’t scattered pillows on the floor before she’d left, either.

With a sinking feeling, she realized somebody had been in her home.

CHAPTER THREE

ALEX STARED out at the second-graders and thought about the fact that by now he could have had a seven-year-old child. He was thirty-four. Sometimes he regretted that he hadn’t already married and started a family. Sometimes, he was glad as hell. Still, he wanted a woman to share his life with, to eventually have kids with. It just hadn’t happened yet.

“Alex?” The teacher, Hannah Nielson, smiled up at him. She was engaged to his friend, Vince Wojohowitz, a cop, and Alex liked her. “You with us?”

“Yeah, sorry I’m a little vague. I was on last night and we had calls.” Then, when he finally did get to sack out, he’d dreamed of…damn, he wasn’t going to do this.

“Well, we’re ready to start if you are.”

“Sure.”

“Hannah?”

Both of them turned to the door. Lauren. Jeez, what was fate up to here?

“Hey, Lauren.” Hannah smiled. “Have you met Alex Shields, one of our bravest?”

Lauren bit her lip. Some lipstick—the color of rum—came off on her teeth. “Yes, I have.” She smiled. “He’s the one who pulled me out of the fire.”

Hannah’s brows arched. “Oh, Lord, I didn’t know that.”

Lauren’s eyes filled with emotion. “I’m very grateful to our bravest.”

“Just part of the job, ma’am. And those cookies you made—we feasted, I’ll tell you.”

“I’m glad you liked them.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I volunteer in Hannah’s classroom.”

Hannah squeezed Lauren’s arm. “We were roommates at UCLA.”

As with Toby Hanson, Lauren had thought it curious that Hannah hadn’t ever mentioned her likeness to Dana. She had asked about it earlier, and Hannah said she’d never met Dana personally in the year she’d been in Courage Bay. She associated more with Vince’s cop buddies. When Lauren had found a picture of her on the Net and showed Hannah, her friend had gasped at the similarity. She, too, found it hard to believe they weren’t related. Lauren wished people would stop saying that.

“How about you?” Lauren asked. “Why are you here?”

“Alex does most of the fire instruction in this school. I think he’s a frustrated teacher.”

“Please, I could never handle them on a day-today basis.” He nodded to the class.

“Speaking of which, I think the natives are restless.”

Flushing, Lauren stepped away. “I’ll just go to the back of the room.”

Alex watched her walk away. She wore a gauzy sage-green skirt, which swirled around her calves, and a matching top. It was a peasant kind of style with the tie around the neckline. Her dangly earrings accented the outfit. They were made of tiny green stones.

Damn! What was wrong with him, noticing every little thing about the woman. He turned to the students. “Hi, guys. Remember me?”

“Captain Shields.” They all spoke at once.

One kid asked, “We gonna get to do the fire extinguisher again?”

“Not today. We’re going to talk about what a person should do if he or she catches on fire.”

From the back of the room, Lauren gasped.

He threw her a knowing grin. “Some people think we shouldn’t scare you with all the possibilities of what could happen, but we’ve already talked about how to prevent fires and precautions to take. It’s important to know what happens in the event of a fire.”

Lauren blushed. He gave her a smile that was meant to ease her embarrassment. She blushed deeper.

“So, look up here.” He turned and wrote on the board. “Everybody repeat this for me.”

The kids yelled, “Stop, drop and roll!”

“I don’t suppose there are any volunteers who want to help me illustrate the technique?”

Sixteen hands shot up. God, he loved this. Maybe he was a frustrated teacher.

THE MAN UNNERVED HER. Lauren was right to have said no to a date with him. So what if she couldn’t get him out of her mind? She would, if she could stop having contact with him. Who would have guessed that he’d be at school today? She’d agreed to help out Hannah with some end-of-the-year art projects, and never imagined she’d run into the one guy she’d been thinking about way too much.

Concentrating on the stars she was drawing, she listened to his strong baritone and the rumbles of laughter from him and the kids. She stole a sideways glance at them. He didn’t seem to mind being on the floor with the kids, even though he wore a nice outfit: a red silk T-shirt that outlined his broad shoulders and washboard abs, and pressed khakis, which highlighted his trim hips and long legs. “Man At Ease With Children,” she’d title the scene at the front of the room. He had the kids circled around him. A little girl was demonstrating the technique of Stop, drop and roll. Alex spoke softly to her. Gently he eased her down to the mat he’d spread out. The tender gesture made Lauren think of husbands and fathers. Her own father had been a wonderful man, even if both her parents had been as different from her as desert to ocean. They’d loved her dearly and were stymied by the fact she’d always felt a sense of not belonging. Thoughts of the loving man and woman who had raised her made her eyes mist.

Damn. She was feeling too much today. Probably because she hadn’t slept enough last night. When she’d gotten home, she’d been sure someone had been in the house.

First, there was the scent of the man’s aftershave in the air. The policeman who’d come had thought she was crazy….

“Let me get this right,” Officer Carlos Jerado asked after he’d checked out the house and taken her statement. “You smelled somebody?”

“I know it sounds silly, but I have a heightened sensory awareness. Besides, there were the other things.”

Like the pillows that weren’t where she’d put them.

“You know where every pillow is?” Jerado had asked, indicating the ten or twelve in the living room. “As for the desk drawers, you sure you closed them?”

By the time the cop left, Lauren had felt like a fool.

Still, she knew she wasn’t imagining things.