Julie Donavan, the new kindergarten teacher, was on her knees consoling a little boy named Chuck on the first day of school when she noticed movement coming in the door. She gasped when she looked up. Her eyes widened and high color filled her cheeks. The most striking cowboy she’d ever laid eyes on just walked through the door. Well, she had laid eyes upon him one time before but that time they’d been two point five sheets to the wind. One less drink that night and they’d have stopped before they got to the motel. Two more and neither would have remembered a damn thing. But the combination had been just right and he was there in her kindergarten classroom in Saint Jo, Texas.

Her first thought was “Damn, he even looks better with hair.”

Her second was “What in the hell is he doing in Saint Jo, Texas?”

Her third was, “Oh, shit, what do I do now?”

The man stopped in front of her and looked down. “Hello, we are the Luckadeaus. This is my daughter, Lizzy, who will be in your class this year.”

And I’m the woman you met in Dallas six years ago? She wanted to shout at him. Remember me? I’m Red.

Griffin waited for her to finish with the little boy, his pulse racing and his heart thumping. God Almighty, he’d never been attracted to a red head before. That was his brother’s choice of women. No one told him the new kindergarten teacher was knock-down-gorgeous or that she had eyes that could see straight into his soul. Desire shot through his body or was it plain old lust? Either one was something he hadn’t allowed in a very long time and he determined he would get control of it before he spoke again.

Julie’s daughter, Annie, came running from across the room, her jet black dog ears bouncing on her shoulders, the white poliosis streak in her hair parted so that the majority of it was on the left side. She stopped dead in front of the little girl.

They eyed each other for several minutes, mirror images of each other, doubles in almost every sense of the word. Jet black hair with a white streak from the forehead back several inches, crystal clear blue eyes, a slight dent in their chins.

Finally Annie grabbed Lizzy’s hand and said, “Come sit by me. My momma is the teacher, she won’t care.”

Lizzy let go of her father’s hand and ran off with Annie, her jet black pony tail waving from one side to the other, the white streak in her hair slicked straight back.

Both parents couldn’t peel their eyes away from the two little girls giggling together . Julie felt the world tilt backwards on its axis and the concrete floor St. Jo, Texas elementary school tremor as if Texas was having a rare earthquake.

“Who are you?” Griffin whispered. Desire took a back seat to shock. That little girl had to be a Luckadeau. His blue eyes narrowed into slits. Who was the red head and where had that child come from?

“I’m going to be your child’s teacher but we knew each other a long time ago. You don’t remember?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never met you before in my life but I’d know that little girl anywhere. She could be my Lizzy’s sister with that white forelock.”