"You gonna gawp all day or help a girl out?"Nondescript, middle-American accent."Depends where she's heading."She raised her arm again, the bangles on... her wrist clacking as she pointed ahead. Warren followed the line of her finger into the distance, between trees that framed the shimmering heat from the road's surface."Sure? Junction City's that way. Two, three hours at least."She shrugged. "That's good."It was Warren's turn to smile, dimples forming. "Anything I should know?"Another shrug.. ‘I’ve just been here for two months, before the start of school. How about you?’ ‘Well, I was working in the Big Apple, living in a high-rise apartment, and working 60-80 hours a week in one of those big law firms that we have in corporate America. I was working my ass off to become partner, working hard during the week and playing harder during weekends. Then bam, my brother dies and I have custody of a two-year old little girl. I knew nothing about parenting, I was just the doting but distant. Sit down" she did."Mary, I am over twice your age" (almost three times but why niggle) " and I despise 'dirty old men''She looked confused and took it the wrong way."I figure that if, for some reason, a young girl finds me attractive enough to accept an approach, she would also know that a gentleman would never insult her by implying that he's got all the same attractions as a young man." So what you just did is the only way of opening up that door to further possibilities"I looked at her with. The revelation slowly dawned on me that he must have noticed me some time ago and had been watching for me. I started to open my mouth with a quizzical look, but closed it again. He smiled as he realized I had connected. He seemed pleased that I had caught on, so it made me bold enough to actually answer his question. I responded, ‘Thursday is staff meeting day, which causes a great deal of stress towards the end of my week.’ ‘And you’re a teacher?’ I was quite surprised at this and started.