The Lawman's Romance Lesson. Marie Ferrarella

were never a teacher.”

      “And I wasn’t,” he answered.

      “Then I don’t understand. How can you have any war stories?” she asked.

      “Because my war stories all involve my younger sister,” he answered. “My sixteen-year-old younger sister,” he specified, as if that should make everything clear to the woman he was talking to.

      “Your parents having trouble handling her?” she guessed.

      “My parents aren’t there to handle her,” he answered, doing his best to mask his reaction to her question. Thinking of his parents always made him feel sad. Then, before she could ask anything further, he told her, “For better or for worse, it’s all me. Mother, father and, according to my sister, thick-headed older brother, all rolled up into one big package.”

      The way he’d worded his response caused something to click in her head. “You said she was sixteen?” Shania asked him.

      He nodded and finished his beer. “Yes.”

      She knew the deputy looked familiar to her, Shania thought. Even if she threw the reservation into the mix, Forever was rather a small town.

      “What’s her name?” she asked.

      He narrowed his eyes again as he studied the woman he’d been flirting with.

      “Why are you asking me that?” Daniel asked her suspiciously.

      Shania tried to sound off-handed as she answered, “I was just curious to find out if perhaps she’s in my class.”

      Bits and pieces of their conversation began to align themselves in Daniel’s head, forming an imperfect whole. A whole he didn’t really want to own up to.

      He suddenly realized that he might have very well just tried to hit on Elena’s teacher and, if that was the case, he was fairly certain that if Elena got wind of this, he was never going to hear the end of it.

       Chapter Three

      He debated his next move—did he mention Elena’s name and hope that there’d been some mix-up and this woman wasn’t her teacher, or did he just not say anything?

      At the apex of his debate, Daniel heard his cell phone ringing.

      Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he looked down at the screen. Rather than someone’s name or a number, he saw that what was vying for his attention was an app. The second he saw it, all thoughts of possibly embarrassing his sister because he was trying to get to know her teacher instantly vanished.

      Shaking his head, Daniel frowned at the screen he was watching.

      Shania saw the change. “Something wrong?” she asked him.

      “Yeah,” the deputy answered, closing his phone and putting it away again. “My sister is attempting to escape.”

      “Escape?” she repeated uncertainly. “Are you holding your sister prisoner?”

      “That just might be the next step,” he murmured, more to himself than to the woman sitting beside him at the bar. “No, I put up a basic security monitoring camera by the front door while she was at school.” He could see by the woman’s expression that he needed to explain this a little more clearly. “I grounded her after the last incident—she went to a party during a school night and there was alcohol flowing like the Mississippi River. She’s not supposed to go out on school nights for a month and it looks like she’s breaking the rules again.”

      Shania looked at the deputy thoughtfully. A different take on the situation occurred to her.

      “Maybe your sister found out about the security monitor and she decided to try to pay you back,” Shania suggested.

      Daniel’s frown deepened. “You sound like you’re on her side.”

      “No,” she answered without hesitation. “I just happen to know how the teenage mind works. How mine worked for a little while,” she added to convince him. “Until I suddenly realized I was being totally selfish and ungrateful.”

      Shania vividly remembered the confrontation between her great-aunt and herself. The verbal altercation really straightened her out and left her feeling not only very humbled but utterly grateful to the older woman for putting up with her.

      “How long did it take you to realize that?” Daniel asked, wondering just how long he and Elena were going to be at odds over absolutely everything from morning until night, because he was really getting tired of butting heads with his sister.

      “Longer than it should have,” Shania admitted ruefully, since she should have realized immediately that Naomi had been under no obligation to take them in, much less put up with her antics.

      Daniel saw something in the woman’s face that moved him, something that spoke to him even more than the fact that he found her to be an incredibly beautiful woman.

      But right now, he had an emergency with Elena to deal with and that took precedence over everything else.

      “Look,” he told her, “I’d really like to stay here and talk some more with you, but I’m afraid that I’ve got to handle this.”

      Shania flashed a smile at him. “I understand perfectly,” she told him. Then, on the off chance that she’d correctly guessed whose brother he was, she called after the deputy, saying, “She’s a good girl who’s just testing you and her boundaries, and being rebellious.”

      But Daniel had already crossed the floor and gave her no indication that he’d heard her. Within another minute, he was gone.

      Shania stared after him, wondering again if she’d accurately guessed who his sister was. She could have very well just been reading into the situation.

      “Another one?” Brett asked, standing on his side of the bar right behind her.

      Startled, Shania managed not to gasp. Instead, she turned around to look at the bartender. “You really should wear squeaky shoes so you don’t scare your customers when you sneak up behind them.”

      “I wasn’t ‘sneaking’ and squeaky shoes wouldn’t help,” he told her. “There’s too much noise in here to hear anything as understated as squeaky shoes.” Brett nodded toward her mug and repeated, “Another one?” He added, “On the house,” no doubt thinking that might sweeten the offer and make it more tempting.

      But Shania shook her head. “That’s okay. One was enough.” Brett looked at her doubtfully. When he went on to tilt the mug she’d pushed aside, emphasizing the fact that there was still some beer in it, Shania added, “More than enough, really.”

      “I can get you another brand,” Brett offered. “Something less bitter,” he added.

      Shania smiled at the man. Brett Murphy was a decent, down-to-earth man, even more so than his younger brothers, and she appreciated his offer to appeal to her tastes, but that really wasn’t the problem.

      “Maybe next time,” she told him, sliding off her stool. “I really just came in for the company.”

      Brett nodded. “His name’s Daniel Tallchief,” he told her, even though Shania hadn’t asked. After having been behind the counter for as long as he had, Brett prided himself on being able to read people accurately, at least for the most part.

      Tallchief. Shania smiled. She’d guessed right, she thought.

      “I thought so,” she said aloud, secretly congratulating herself, then quickly added, “I mean, I didn’t ask.”

      Brett’s smile deepened. “You didn’t have to,” he told her.

      Rather than become defensive, Shania regarded the man a little more closely, then teased, “You’re adding mind reading