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“I don’t think so,” Suzanna replied hesitantly.

Tinsley frowned as her gaze lingered on Suzanna’s bandage. “But it looks like trouble found you. Are you okay?”

“I had a little run-in with a knife, but I’m fine,” Suzanna assured her. She could tell Tinsley had more questions, but Suzanna didn’t want to go into all the details of how she’d been hurt. “You needed to discuss something with me?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I received a complaint about you,” Tinsley said.

“Oh?” Suzanna looked at her in surprise. “From who?”

“Eva Dayton. She came in Friday after school, and she wanted to know if I would advance her daughter into the fourth grade. She believes Boone will appreciate Holly’s special gifts more than you do.”

Suzanna fought back a groan. Just what she needed to add to what she knew was going to be a stressful day. “And what did you tell her?”

“I told her I generally frowned on moving children from one grade to another. I pulled up Holly’s grades, and while she seems to be doing well, there’s nothing there to indicate she’s ready to skip a grade. I assured her that you were a great teacher and appreciated each one of your students’ special qualities. I’m sure she left unsatisfied with my answer, which was that I wouldn’t move Holly from your classroom.”

Suzanna released a deep sigh. “Holly is a bright girl, but socially she’s very immature and more than a bit of a bully. I addressed my concerns with Eva at the parent-teacher meeting, and I knew at that time she wasn’t particularly happy with me.”

“After she left my office, I took the opportunity to reach out to Holly’s last school. I spoke to the principal there, who told me Eva had launched the same kind of complaints at Holly’s first and second grade teacher, so this does seem to be something of a pattern.”

“Do you have any suggestions on how I should handle this?” Suzanna asked.

Tinsley smiled at her. “Just keep on being the great teacher that you are. I just wanted to give you a heads-up that you have a disgruntled parent.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Suzanna replied.

“Now, get out of here. It’s almost time for the students to arrive.”

Minutes later, Suzanna stood at her room’s doorway and greeted the children as they came in. Another day had begun. She had a discontented parent and she hated that. However, what she hated even more was that she still had to face the three men she had named as potential suspects in the attack against her.

That happened at lunchtime. As she walked into the teachers’ lounge with her lunch, all three men were there, along with Vanessa. “What in the hell, Suzanna,” Ray said angrily as she sat at the table with her lunch tray. “Some nut is after you, and you think it’s one of us?” He looked at her incredulously. “Are you out of your ever-loving mind?”

“You’re hurt,” Boone said, his gaze filled with concern as he gazed at her bandaged arm. “I’m sorry you got hurt, Suzanna, but you’ve hurt all of us by having Chief Calloway come to our homes to question us about the attack on you.”

“I’m sorry, but Dallas asked me about who was close to me, and so I gave him your names,” she replied defensively. “I just want to find the person who attacked me.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you, but I don’t appreciate you putting my name out there as a potential suspect,” Ray said, his eyes dark with an anger she’d never seen in him before. “I would never hurt you, and I certainly wouldn’t ever attack you with a damned knife, and you should already know that about me.”

“Stop picking on my girl,” Vanessa said with obvious irritation, and Suzanna shot her friend a grateful look. “She’s explained why she gave Chief Calloway your names, and there’s nothing more to say on the matter. Suck it up, buttercups.”

“Ha, easy for you to say,” Ray muttered under his breath.

The lounge was quieter than it had ever been as they all ate their lunches. Suzanna’s thoughts whirled around and around in her head. Arlan had an airtight alibi for the night she was attacked with the knife, but Boone and Ray didn’t.

Was it really possible one of them had attacked her first by forcing her car off the road and then with a knife in an effort to kill her? Had Boone’s sympathy over her wounds been real or manufactured to make her believe he cared about her? Had Ray been angrier with her than she’d realized because she hadn’t gone out with him when he’d asked her? Had that anger driven him to hate her…to want her dead?

She had hoped that seeing the men today would clear her mind and assure her that Boone and Ray were completely innocent. Instead, she was more confused than ever about the two men she worked with, two men she had considered her friends. But now she worried that one of them wanted her dead.

The next week flew by, and Seth was happy that they had settled into a routine that was smooth and easy. The only thing that wasn’t easy was his simmering desire for Suzanna. She had definitely become an itch he wanted to scratch.

Every morning, he drove her and Sammy to school, and while they were gone, he worked on the farm, getting the fields ready for winter and planting the crops that needed to be planted.

At four thirty he picked them up from school. Sammy had gotten the necklace every day that week, and so two evenings ago after supper they had gone to a charming little ice cream parlor in town.

Seth had definitely been on duty that night. With his gun hiding beneath a sport coat, his eyes had shot everywhere and to everyone who entered the ice cream parlor. He didn’t like going out, but the trip had been short and Sammy had been happy.

Suzanna had told him about the tense first lunch with the three men she had named to Chief Calloway. According to her, things had remained tense with Boone Wilder and Ray Stedman throughout the week.

Still, she managed to put it all behind her in the evenings when they all spent time together. He so admired her strength and her ability to be in the present and enjoy life despite the fear he knew she still carried deep in her heart.