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“Teaching young people is pretty big.”
“True.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “After the diner, I was going to write about you.”
Grace blinked. “Like for a book?”
“I sometimes have a tendency to shape strangers into potential characters.” He stroked her upper arm. “Make up histories and stories about them. And after we met, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Especially after your rhubarb pie story, I wanted to know so much more about you. But I didn’t ask because I’m used to coming up with my own answers.” He smiled faintly. “Turns out no character I could have created would be nearly as interesting as the real you.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “Don’t tell me you’re going to write about a twenty-eight-year-old virginal farm girl turned Shakespeare scholar.”
He chuckled. “Not a chance. I could never do you justice. I’d like to know the story, though.”
“It’s not very exciting.” Grace propped herself up on his chest. “I spent most of my life on the farm, of course. I had a lot of friends, but never dated much because I was always helping with chores, which never end on a dairy farm.
“And like my childhood, my college experience was different from the norm, too. Dating and relationships usually happen for people in a certain way and time. Like, college is supposed to be this big social experience where you date a lot and have sex and maybe fall in love, that kind of thing. Well, it didn’t work that way for me.”
He didn’t take his eyes off her. She swallowed, feeling as if he were seeing right into the place where she kept all her secrets.
“So, I dated a little, like the Renaissance fair guy,” she explained, “but I was busy with classes and working so I wouldn’t have to take out a student loan, and I drove back home as much as I could to see my father and grandmother. I was also involved with several community charities and programs in Farmertown, so I needed to be there to help. Gram died my junior year, which meant I went home even more, so I wasn’t around campus a lot on weekends to participate in all the social stuff going on.
“After I graduated, I worked for a few years at a rural school that had a lot of financial problems and challenges, so I devoted all my energy to my classes. Then I was accepted into the Skyline master’s degree program, so I was both working full-time and going to school part-time, which left no room for anything else. A few years ago, my father had a heart attack and was diagnosed with heart disease, and that contributed to the financial issues at the farm…anyway, my point is that my life hasn’t allowed for much dating or any serious relationships.”
He kept his gaze on her. “What about guys who asked you out? Or who you were interested in?”
“A couple of guys I liked ended up already having girlfriends, and men I’ve met at bars or whatever have usually just wanted to get into my pants without even knowing my name. I obviously wasn’t into that.”
She managed to smile faintly. “The opportunity just never came up. For some people, that happens, whether it’s sex or a big break or the perfect job. The right lightning doesn’t strike.”
An emotion flashed in his eyes that she didn’t recognize. Her heart suddenly bumped hard against her chest. His sudden appearance in her life had been like a bolt of lightning, a flash of energy blazing into her quiet atmosphere.
He tightened his arm around her. Grace closed her eyes. A Shakespeare line fromA Midsummer Night’s Dreamdrifted through her mind.
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream. Brief as the lightning in the collied night.
Such was true love.
Or rather, this moment with a man who could set her world on fire.
