Chapter 4

It was the first week of October, and Palm Grove Elementary School's annual Harvest Open House was in full swing. The hallways and classrooms were wearing festive autumn decorations and packed with school staff and excited children and their proud moms and dads. Lucy stood near her desk, smiling and greeting the large crowd of visitors to her classroom, pleased and a little surprised that she recognized most of the adults. Over the past four weeks, she had managed to introduce herself to nearly all of her students' parents. However, the one parent who Lucy (secretly) hoped to see at the open house had not yet arrived. Not that she glanced at the doorway every three seconds or anything. She had more pride that. Except, to her chagrin, apparently she had zero pride when it came to Jamie Logan's father.

Lucy relived her awkward first encounter with Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan more often than she cared to, starting that very evening. In spite of her best intentions not to tell her sister about the embarrassing incident, no more had Amy had walked in the door and innocently asked, "Well, how your first day as a kindergarten teacher?" than Lucy had blurted out all of it, then plopped down on the sofa and put her head in her hands. To her surprise and immense relief, her sister didn't laugh at her or even roll her eyes, although there was a certain calculating gleam in her eyes. "So let me get this straight: you meet a tall, dark-haired, well-built, very good looking, possibly single male with an adorable child and said man also has incredible blue eyes, a deep sexy voice, smells really good, and the first thing that happens is you fall on your butt, and while wearing a dress?" Lucy opened her mouth to protest, but thought the better of it as Amy wasn't quite finished, "Let's just set aside the fact that this guy apparently made a enormous impression on you in, like, what? Five seconds?" Lucy hunched her shoulders defensively and retorted, "Well, it's not like I planned the whole thing! It sounds so much worse when you say it. You know I'm not exactly the most coordinated person! And meeting new people tends to make me nervous, and then I start rambling on," her voice trailing off in defeat.

Amused, Amy did laugh at Lucy's crestfallen expression and sat down, putting an arm around her sister. "Hey, Luce, it's okay," she consoled her. "Everybody has an embarrassing moment every now and then." Lucy swallowed hard. "But then I really messed up, Amy. I may have reprimanded him for being late to pick up his son," she mumbled. "Oh, you didn't?" Amy exclaimed with a pitying look. "Well, I was just so mortified about my super-graceful move that it just burst out of me in this prissy old-lady voice, and the second the words left my mouth, I wanted to take them back. I could tell he was mad when he frowned and assured me in a very calm, polite voice that it wouldn't happen again, and took Jamie by the hand and walked away. And his anger was totally justified. There's no excuse for the snotty way I acted." Amy had no answer to that and just squeezed Lucy's shoulder. "C'mon, Luce, you have had an exhausting day on very little sleep. What you need is a bite to eat, a nice hot shower, and an early bed time, and you'll feel better in the morning."

As usual, her sibling had been right. Lucy woke the next morning determined to somehow change Wyatt Logan's opinion of her, which she doubted was very positive. She kept hoping for a chance to apologize to the man, but over the ensuing weeks, except for a very brief glimpse of him picking up Jamie one afternoon (right on time, her conscience was quick to point out), there had been no opportunity to do so. "He just has to be here tonight," she had told herself the day of the open house. "He'd never disappoint his son." And so she smiled and chatted, and pushing down the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach, hoped she looked a lot calmer than she felt.

"Daddy, hurry up!" Jamie urged his father as he practically dragged him into the school. "I wanna show you my pictures I made and go see Miss Preston." Wyatt raised an eyebrow at his son's eagerness, "Hold your horses there, buddy, it's pretty crowded in here." But no sooner had the pair walked through the front doors of the building than Jamie let go of his dad's hand and took off like a shot down the hall, dodging in and out of the various groups of people scattered about. Wyatt sighed, wishing he were just about anywhere but here, but not even to avoid Lucy Preston could he bring himself to disappoint his son. She was all the boy could talk about every single day for the past month. It was "Miss Preston this" and "Miss Preston that" and Wyatt was almost sure he had heard Jamie mumble her name in his sleep, for heaven's sake.

He reluctantly came to the conclusion that his child was experiencing his first real crush on someone of the opposite sex, and he desperately hoped that in spite of his less-than-encouraging first impression of her, Lucy Preston was worthy of Jamie's growing adoration. The real kick in the pants was that as pathetic as it sounded, Jamie wasn't the only Logan male who couldn't seem to stop thinking about the attractive brunette. In spite of Wyatt's best efforts, she was on his mind more frequently than he cared to admit, and as the days passed, his anger had eventually faded away. He decided that for Jamie's sake, he would be civil to her this evening, if not exactly friendly. Looking down at his neatly pressed khakis and crisp light blue button down shirt, he told himself that he was in no way hoping to impress a certain kindergarten teacher. "Nice try, Logan," he thought in disgust, and went to look for his son.

Making his way down the hall to the kindergarten classroom, Wyatt exchanged nods and a word here and there with several of the other parents he was acquainted with. A couple of minutes later, he stepped through the room's open doorway, barely avoiding a collision with a pair of chattering five-year-old girls, and glanced about for his son. Not seeing Jamie immediately, he slowly began walking around, impressed in spite of himself with the warm atmosphere the room presented, as he noticed the many pieces of childish artwork and colorful fall decorations placed strategically around the cheerful classroom. As he neared the back of the room, Wyatt came to an abrupt halt.

He felt his heart stutter ever so slightly in his chest at what he saw before him. And prayed his face didn't betray his thoughts. As expected, his son had quickly found his Miss Preston, and (dammit), she was just so much prettier than he'd remembered. She was wearing a pale pink dress with some kind of soft little sweater that was a darker pink (or whatever the color "darker pink" was called–how was he supposed to know the correct name?). Her dark brown hair was kind of curling around her slight shoulders, and Lord, she really did have ridiculously long dark eyelashes (well, hell).

As appealing a picture as all that was, that's not what had stopped him dead in his tracks. Miss Preston was crouched down in front of his son, who looked to be telling her something obviously very important at about 90 miles an hour, and she was completely focused on the little guy, listening and nodding at him. And then, Jamie put a small hand on either side of the teacher's face, and Lucy Preston gave his son just about the most beautiful smile Wyatt had ever seen. In that instant, he felt the tiniest of fissures in the hard protective shell that had been forming around his heart since the day Jess had died. He cleared his throat rather loudly, and when she glanced up at him still wearing that same devastating smile, Wyatt nearly stopped breathing. "Jesus. Maybe lightning really does strike the same place twice?" he wondered, followed rapidly by, "Aw, hell, I really hate it when Julie Baumgardner is right."

Wyatt offered a tentative half smile. Lucy wobbled slightly as she got to her feet, and he instinctively put a hand under her elbow to assist her, thinking to himself that good looking as Lucy was, she seemed to be a little clumsy. A month ago, he would have smirked (and not in a kind way), but right at this moment, it seemed kind of endearing. She didn't quite meet his eyes as she said quietly, "Um, it's okay, I'm good now," and he realized that he was still holding on to her. (Good grief, who was being awkward now?) Finally looking up to meet his dark blue gaze, Miss Preston said in a rather breathless voice, "Mr. Logan, I'm so glad you and Jamie were able to attend the open house this evening," "Call me Wyatt," he invited in a low tone. (Where had that come from?) Her big dark eyes widened slightly, and then with a shy smile, she blushed becomingly before responding, "Um, yes, sure, that would be nice, um, Wyatt." And Wyatt was surprised to realize he kind of liked the soft way she said his name. And even though he could feel himself staring, he just couldn't seem to look away. After a few seconds of this prolonged eye contact, the tension was broken by Jamie tugging on his hand and chirping, "Daddy, come look at my drawing! It's the bestest one I ever did! Miss Preston said so! Come see right now!" And then the moment was gone.

Lucy stood there unmoving, watching as the pair crossed the room to examine the children's drawings. She unconsciously put a hand to her chest, startled to realize her heart felt like it was beating twice as fast as it should have. While she was relieved that Jamie's dad didn't seem to be angry any longer, a small voice in her head wondered at the effect this man had on her. How was it possible to feel like this after spending maybe two minutes total with Wyatt Logan, someone she met only a month ago, when she had spent two years in a relationship with Doctor Noah, and yet hadn't hesitated a second to break off their relationship?

Lucy was startled by a hand on her arm. It was Principal Christopher. "Miss Preston, if you have a moment, I'd like you meet one of our school board members and his wife," she requested. "Of course," Lucy murmured, and pasting a smile on her face, turned to shake hands with the couple. After a few minutes of polite conversation, Lucy excused herself in an effort to at least say goodbye to the Logans, and she felt (unreasonably) disappointed when it seemed they had already left. By now, the open house was over and the room had begun to empty, so with a small sigh, Lucy went to her desk to retrieve her bag. With everyone gone, she took one last look around, then turned off the lights, and stepped into the hallway.

She was surprised and more than a little pleased to find Jamie and Wyatt standing right outside the door, obviously waiting for her. Impulsively, she exclaimed, "Oh, you're still here!" And felt her face warm at the lazy grin Wyatt gave her (she should have known where Jamie got his dimples from). "Miss Preston! We are waiting for you 'cause Daddy said we should walk you to your car so you won't be scared cause it's all dark out now if that's okay," the little boy confided in a rush of words, and she smothered a grin when Wyatt rolled his eyes at his son's lack of tact. Lucy assured Jamie (and his father) she would like that very much, and as they started walking down the long hallway, an adult on either side of the child, she was charmed when Jamie reached up to hold her hand. When he grabbed Wyatt's hand as well, a tiny shiver ran through Lucy as she (very) briefly imagined if someone saw the three of them like this, they might think they were a family. And that simultaneously delighted and scared her half to death.

The trio stopped beside Lucy's car, and she felt a little sad that what had turned out to be a wonderful evening was coming to an end. "Well, thank you very much for the escort," she managed. "It was our pleasure, right Jamie?" Wyatt responded easily. The little boy shook his head vigorously, "Oh, yes, Miss Preston." Jamie then gently patted Lucy's arm, and when she leaned down to see what he wanted, he hugged her tight around the neck, saying, "Good night, Miss Preston, see you tomorrow!" Lucy had to swallow around a big lump in her throat before she got out, "Good night, Jamie, and you, too, Wyatt, thanks again." Wyatt smiled once more, and taking Jamie by the hand, the pair turned and walked over to their vehicle. As she drove home, Lucy couldn't help contrasting the scene in the parking lot just now with what happened a month ago, and suddenly hoped that Amy would be there when she got home. She couldn't wait to tell her all about the open house, and maybe, just maybe, about Wyatt Logan.