No sooner had she said the words than the lights flickered on and off in an attempt to get everyone’s attention.
“They are on their way down the hall now,” Kelly called out, standing near the front of the banquet room.
Practically as one, everyone not already standing came to their feet and turned toward the main doors. For the moment, Lauren pushed aside all of the swarming thoughts in her head. Tonight was a big night for her mom, and she wanted to enjoy it.
Again the door opened, this time Virginia and Thomas McDonald walked in. Immediately, the room erupted with a chorus of “Surprise!” followed by applause. Much to her credit, Virginia McDonald gave the best performance of her life. For a minute, even Lauren believed that her mom was surprised.
Wiping tears from her face, Virginia accepted the microphone the DJ held out to her. “I . . . I don’t know what to say. Thank you all so much.” Virginia handed the microphone back to the DJ, and then both she and her husband followed Kelly to the table of honor that had been set up near the front of the room.
Throughout dinner, Lauren tried to stay focused on the various conversations at the table, but nothing captured her attention. She remained fixated on the party’s unexpected guest across the room while next to her, Callie and Kelly discussed Kelly’s baby preparations, and across the table her older brother Matthew and Kelly’s husband, Jared, discussed basketball. On her other side Kevin remained relatively quiet now.
“Lauren, it looks as if your mom will be missed. How long did she work at the school?” Dylan’s mildly accented voice pulled her thoughts back to the table.
“If you count the five years she worked as a teacher before Matt was born, twenty-five years.” Once again, Lauren glanced around the room. The last time she’d seen him, Nate had been walking toward the bar. Immediately she had looked down, afraid he’d spot her and guess she had been looking for him. But that had been at the beginning of dinner. Now only her aunt stood at the bar, most likely ordering her favorite drink, a nonalcoholic piña colada.
“I think she’s going to miss it.” She scanned the right side of the banquet room and spotted him. As if guided by radar her eyes locked on his profile. He was seated with his parents, and judging from the smiles on their faces, she guessed he was telling them some humorous story. He’d always been an excellent storyteller, even in elementary school. And when the two families would have campfires in the backyard during the summer or go camping together, he came up with the most imaginative tales.
A hand settled over hers and the sudden contact made her jump. “He wants to know if you’re done eating,” Kevin said, nodding toward the waiter standing at the table.
Had he asked her the same question already and she missed it?
“Yes. Thank you.” Lauren handed the nearly full plate to the young waiter and reached for her drink
“You’ve been distracted tonight. Are you okay? Something you want to talk about?” Kevin released her hand.
No not really. How could she tell her date (Or should she call him her boyfriend? She still wasn’t sure what to call him.) that the man she’d once spent days dreaming about marrying was sitting on the other side of the room? And just the sight of him was making her heart rattle around in her chest. “Sorry, one of my students had some behavioral problems this week. I keep thinking about it.” Her statement was not a complete lie. One of her students had received in-house suspension that week for starting a fight at recess.
“There is nothing you can do about it now, right? So relax and enjoy yourself. Everyone else is.”
How many times now had he said things like that when she told him about problems at school? She tried to explain to him that as a teacher she couldn’t leave work behind the same way people in other professions did. Each and every one of her students was important to her. She cared what happened to all of them.
“You never mentioned that Callie and her husband were coming tonight. Are they visiting you long?”
With a sigh Lauren shook her head. “They’re going back to New York in the morning.” She wished Callie were staying longer.
“Too bad. Next time they’re in town we should all go out.” Kevin wrapped his hand around hers, his signet ring digging into her skin. “Let’s dance.”
As soon as the wait staff began to collect the dinner plates, the DJ cranked up the music. Now, instead of classic instrumentals, Top 40 dance hits poured from the speakers and guests of all ages moved to the beat on the dance floor. Any other time she would’ve joined them out there immediately. Dancing was her first love. In fact, two nights a week she taught ballet at a nearby dance school. But now she held back. So far she’d managed to avoid Nate Callahan. They hadn’t even made eye contact. For all she knew, he may not have even seen her. If she moved onto the dance floor, though, there’d be no hiding from him; she’d be too exposed.