“Sweetheart,” he said quietly, running the backs of his fingers over her cheeks, “there is no place I would rather be.”
She sighed softly, a light moan carrying on her breath. “Now I know I’m dreaming, because I think I’ve had this one a couple of times already this week.” Her words were just slightly slurred, her eyes fighting to remain open. “The next part’s really awesome, but I’m just so tired...”
God help him, if she admitted anything more about her fantasies he was going to crawl into bed with her and make them all too real. What she needed now was rest. There would be time enough for his selfish desires later. “Go back to sleep, Lacie.”
“You’ll stay?” she murmured, her eyes already half closed.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He pressed a kissed to her forehead, smiled at the barely audible moan she uttered, and felt the final lock in his heart break open as she drifted back into the land of medication-induced dreams.
He stayed with her for a while, until he was certain she was comfortable and deeply asleep. The pain pills would have her out for several hours at least. To pass the time, and because Shane was curious about the woman he now knew without a doubt he was going to marry, he decided to have a look around.
Overall, her apartment was very clean, but like her car, untidy. There seemed to be no obvious method to her placement and storage of things, but he suspected there was some underlying rationale behind it. After a bit of time and thought, he began to see a pattern emerging, and he smiled. Lacie had a different way of thinking about things, but once he saw it, it made perfect sense.
It was her desk that interested him most. There were lesson books, planners, a list of accounts and financial statements. Whereas he would have had them in neat and labelled files, Lacie kept hers in specific piles across the desk top. Looking more closely, he saw that the stacks were arranged in a vague semicircular pattern, leaving her a small workspace in the center. Those to the left were time-sensitive – bills, policies, renewals; those to the right were not.
In addition, rather than being stacked neatly, each pile had sections that fanned out. That was obviously how she distinguished the various accounts from one another. Among each “fan blade”, there were individual papers that stuck out at odd angles. His fingers itched to tidy them, but he realized upon closer inspection that the incongruous pages were remittance forms. All she would have to do when she sat down to pay her bills was pull out the offset pages, working bottom to top, left to right.
It wasn’t how he would have done it, but he had to admit, it was effective. After they were married, however, he would try to persuade her to let him handle their accounts.
Satisfied that he had decoded her system, his eyes were drawn to a thick stack located at the center of the half-circle. The folder perched on top caught his attention. It was simply labeled Brian.
After checking on Lacie and finding her still fast asleep, Shane settled down in the comfortable recliner with the file, positioning himself so that he would could keep an eye on her through the partially open door. Shane found organized lists of names, dates, printed emails. Notes she made from various phone calls, copies of letters and official correspondence. Aerial photos, some of which she had lightly marked with a fine black Sharpie.
It was clear that Lacie was trying to find out what had happened to her brother. He whistled softly, impressed by some of the names she’d contacted. He also recognized the all-too-standard run-arounds in the replies she received. The amount of information and detail she had managed to acquire was substantial, especially considering she was a Kindergarten teacher from Pine Ridge. His croie was clever and resourceful; a feeling of pride welled in his chest at the thought.
As he read each page, he committed it to memory. When he got back to the Pub, he was going to talk to Ian. His brother was a certified master at gathering information. If anyone could find out what happened to Brian McCain and the others, Ian could. He wouldn’t mention anything to Lacie just yet, though. He didn’t want to get her hopes up, and chances were that after three years, the news wouldn’t be good. If nothing else, he might at least be able to give her closure.
Shane was careful to put everything back where he found it before allowing himself one last look at Lacie. She was resting peacefully, the ghost of a smile playing about her lips, and he wondered if she was dreaming of him. The thought pleased him greatly.