Catching Fireflies

“Great. Send her back.”

“Will do, and then I’m gone for the weekend. I’ll lock the door when I go.”

“Thanks. Have a good weekend,” he said, even as the door to his office swung open to reveal a pretty woman, probably in her early thirties, with soft clouds of highlighted brown curls framing her face. She was wearing one of those filmy skirts that seemed to be in style these days and a ruffled sweater. It all had the effect of softening her appearance. The effect was spoiled, though, by the no-nonsense glint in her eyes. He couldn’t quite imagine Misty choosing her to speak to about her problems.

“Dr. Fullerton,” she said briskly. “I’m Laura Reed, Misty Dawson’s English teacher.”

He stood and held out his hand. “Call me J.C. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Really? You didn’t seem so enthusiastic when Maybelle Hawkins at the Serenity Inn wanted to fix us up.”

He was about to sputter an embarrassed response when he caught the glint of real amusement in her eyes and realized she was actually teasing him, though he didn’t doubt for a second that Maybelle had tried to set them up. Until he’d moved out of the inn, the innkeeper had been second only to Debra in her determination to find him a wife.

“Actually, Maybelle tried to fix me up with at least a dozen women while I was staying at the inn. Her choices ranged from wildly inappropriate to downright weird. Excuse me for being skeptical about her taste.”

Laura laughed, and the tension in her face vanished. “But she does have the heart of a romantic,” she said. “Must be all those trysts I hear were held at the inn over the years.”

“That would definitely explain it,” he agreed, thinking how much prettier she was with a smile on her face. “So you’re here about Misty. Cal Maddox mentioned to me last night that you’d been concerned about her. Did she open up to you today about whatever’s going on?”

“Not really,” Laura admitted. “She did come to see me, though, and tried to convince me to let her transfer out of my advanced placement English class.”

J.C. frowned. “Is she failing?”

“Far from it.”

“Then why would she want to drop the class?”

“I have no idea. I was hoping, if you have the time, we could compare notes on what she said to each of us and see if we can figure this out. I’m worried she’s in some kind of trouble. What was your perception?”

“The same thing,” he admitted. Though it went against his gut instincts, he impulsively found himself asking, “Are you free for dinner? We could go to Rosalina’s or Sullivan’s and see if we can come up with any answers. Or did Maybelle find someone else who’s now waiting impatiently at home for you?”

“Maybelle’s matchmaking on my behalf was no more successful than hers was with you. And truthfully I’m starved, so dinner sounds great.”

“Any preference?”

“Either place works for me.”

“It’ll be quieter at Sullivan’s, and the service is fast. There’s a game at the high school tonight. I assume you’re going?”

“I usually meet a couple of other teachers there,” she confirmed.

“Good, then we’re both on a timetable. I’ll tell the waitress. If we’re lucky, the Friday-night special will be catfish. No one does it quite like Dana Sue.”

“So I hear,” she said.

He regarded her with surprise. “You haven’t been there?”

“Just a few times, and I’ve never had the catfish. Sullivan’s is a little beyond a teacher’s salary except for rare special occasions. Once in a while several of the teachers get together there to celebrate a birthday, but we usually opt for the Sunday brunch.”

“Then Sullivan’s it is, and it’s my treat.”

Her green eyes sparkled with more of that unexpected mirth. “Wouldn’t that almost constitute a date? I thought you were opposed to dating. That’s what Maybelle said.”

He chuckled. “Maybelle has a big mouth, but to be honest, in this case, she wasn’t far off the mark. Not that she or any of the other people I’ve tried to head off have paid a bit of attention to me. I must not sound as convincing as I’ve meant to.”

Laura held his gaze. “Something else to discuss over dinner.”

J.C. frowned. The last thing he wanted to do was give Laura Reed the wrong idea. She seemed like a lovely, thoughtful woman, but she needed to understand that this dinner was strictly business. They had a mystery to solve about a troubled teen, nothing more. He’d found that laying out the ground rules usually kept expectations in check and avoided unpleasantness later.

“Maybe we should stick to talking about Misty’s problem.” Even to his ears the comment sounded stuffy, but at least he’d made himself clear. He waited for her reaction. Her smile died along with the warmth in her eyes, but she merely shrugged.

“Whatever makes you comfortable, doctor,” she said, suddenly sounding as distant and cool as he had. “Misty’s my first priority, as well.”

The relief he should have felt at her response didn’t come. In fact, what he did feel was the faintest twinge of regret and disappointment. The sparks that had been missing during his lunch with Janice Walker reared up in I-told-you-so fashion, proving that his immunity sucked, after all.

That wasn’t good, he thought, as he ushered her to the parking lot. It wasn’t good at all.

He hoped he was just looking for a handy alternative who might get Debra to back off with her candidate, but he knew all too well that would be playing a dangerous and pretty selfish game. Tonight when he was home in his lonely bed, he’d have to examine his motives for inviting Laura Reed to dinner a little more closely…and then pray that the answers weren’t too disturbing.

* * *

Laura saw the speculative looks when she walked into Sullivan’s with J. C. Fullerton. Not only was she rarely seen around town with a date, but if he could be believed, neither was he. For a town that loved its gossip, their arrival together was bound to be big news.

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” she murmured as they were shown to a table.

J.C. frowned. “I thought you wanted to come here.”

“I did until I realized that we were going to be on tonight’s menu right along with the specials.”

He glanced around, then sighed. “So we are. Too late to hide now, Laura. The cat’s out of the bag.”

She regarded him with surprise. “You think this is amusing? By tomorrow morning everyone in town will think we’re dating.”

“Anybody in your life going to be furious about that?” he inquired.

“Well, no, but…” She frowned. “It’s not a good idea. I don’t want to answer a million questions. Do you?”

“Hey, you’re my second unplanned date of the day,” he admitted with a rueful expression. “If anyone’s going to be a hot topic over breakfast, it’ll be me. They’ll probably just feel sorry for you getting mixed up with an obvious scoundrel.”

She stared at him incredulously. “What on earth are you talking about?”

He explained about his nurse and her apparent mission to set him up. “End result? First thing tomorrow I have a date to go for a run. I’m not a hundred percent sure how it happened. The words just came out of my mouth, and there I was with a date.”

Laura couldn’t help chuckling. “You’re really bad at not dating, aren’t you? Or is it that you’re easily manipulated?”

“Not until recently. Debra’s sneaky. And then you showed up in my office and before I knew it an innocent invitation came out of my mouth and here we are. Two dates today and one more in the morning. My extended track record as a total stick-in-the-mud has taken a real hit.”

“You don’t sound half as distressed as you should for a man who claims he doesn’t want to date,” she accused lightly.