Page 40 of This Loving Feeling (Mirror Lake)

Someone had brought a beat-up boom box and it was cranked up to the Top 40 radio station and happy Saturday music was rolling out of it. It was eighty degrees already—at eleven—and the late May sun was beating down strong and bright and full of promise for a fabulous day.

“It’s okay, Ms.R.,”Calvin said, holding Liz by the waist and swinging her around—away from the street, mercifully. “Liz is expendable. Right, Liz?”

Liz beat on Calvin’s shoulders and playfully screamed for him to put her down.

Ah, young love. Jess had brought Hugo and they’d been a big help hooking up hoses and organizing the kids to be ready when the cars arrived. Which they hadn’t yet, but it was still early. The energy level was high, judging by the whooping and hollering and the general excitement of being outside on a gorgeous spring day with summer right around the corner.

Hopefully the weather would bring them a lot of business and they’d make a nice sum of money to help fund the food for the upcoming donor dinner. Jess had somehow convinced Hugo to wear a regular T-shirt and for now, he was keeping it on. Life was good.

Except Sam felt a little old. She remembered herself at that age. She would have been out there with a bikini top, too, flirting with boys. Yet by the end of senior year, she wouldn’t have bothered to show up at an event like this at all.

Not that she minded being the authority figure or even having to be a hard-ass teacher sometimes—she loved her kids, shaping young minds, mentoring them. It was just that she looked at all the fun they were having and felt like some of it—well, a lot of it—had passed her by.

She missed being spontaneous and crazy and a little bit wicked. Yeah, yeah, she understood that being an adult meant you had to leave that behind. But sometimes she just wanted to let loose and ... live a little. She thought about what Effie had said, about acting too old for her age, about not taking any risks.

That made her think about Lukas. That crazy, impulsive kiss. That had been the wildest thing that had happened to her in ... well, six years. Being with him had always seemed to be a roller coaster ride of risk and excitement. How could any relationship sustain that artificial high for any length of time? It just wasn’t natural.

It was fairy dust, and she supposed she had stars in her eyes just like everyone else in this town. Best to stick to steady and tangible reality.

She shook her head. She had to tuck the past away, where it belonged. Her future was set, and once Harris and she navigated this rough patch, all would be well. Once Lukas Spikonos moved on—as he soon would—her life would finally get back to normal.

Just then a fire-engine red Maserati streaked down the street and pulled into the car wash lot. Harris stopped on a dime and revved the engine, instantly causing a gaggle of teenage boys to stand at attention.

She smiled. He’d come here—all the way from Boston—to support her and give her a proper good-bye. To make up for last weekend when nothing had gone well. To say he’d missed her and he’d been thinking of her and—

“Hey, babe.” Harris winked. She loved that wink. Suddenly her mood lifted.

The boys surrounded the gleaming sports car faster than if it were a hot girl standing in the middle of the parking lot. “Hey, sweet car,” Leo said. Several guys ran their hands along its smooth-as-ice surface. Admired the gleaming silver spokes on the hubcaps.

“Just pull up to the hoses and we’ll get it washed for you,” Calvin said.

Harris pushed his aviators to the top of his head. “Does this car look like it needs to be washed?”

Sam turned from where she was making change for a twenty that Mr.Marks in his hardware store truck had just handed over.

“Isn’t that why you’re here?” Calvin looked puzzled. “To support the theater project?”

“My parents have donated more than what you’d make from ten years’ worth of car washes to this theater project, kid,” Harris said. “I’m here to talk to my girlfriend.” He got out of the car and walked over to Sam.

Sam felt her face heat. She overheard Leo say, “Who is that guy?” and Calvin say, “He was kidding, wasn’t he?”

“I don’t think so, man,” one of the other boys said. “What a jerk.”

At that moment, a bus drove into the car wash lot, loudly honking its horn. The kids all turned to see a giant black tour bus pulling in with“Lukas Live!”in scrolly yellow letters across its side. Someone waved out the driver’s-side window. Someone with midnight-black hair and a wicked smile he was aiming right at her. The kids swarmed the bus. At that moment, Sam couldn’t have been more grateful that everyone’s attention had been diverted away from her.

“Look, Sam,” Harris said, “I don’t like the way we left things last weekend.”

Sam studied his handsome face. His expensive clothes. He had a commanding air about him that would serve him well as he made his way up the political stepladder.

The initial relief she’d felt on his surprise appearance had dissolved to irritation. For the sake of her students, she wasn’t going to leash it in. “No talking until your car gets washed.”

“What, are you kidding me? Let teenage boys rub some dirty dollar-store sponges over that perfect paint job? They’ll scratch it.” A you-couldn’t-possibly-ask-this-of-me look passed across his face, liked she’d just asked him to surrender his aspirations of one day becoming president.

She folded her arms obstinately. “That would be teenage boysandgirls. And they’ll do a nice job. Now that you’re here, I’d like you to support our project.”

From the corner of her vision, she saw Lukas drop his lithe body down from the driver’s side of the bus. Oh, no, he was walking toward them across the lot, the kids close behind, some of them oohing and aahing over the bus, others gathering around him, wanting to be close. He walked up to where Sam and Harris stood. “C’mon, Harold,” Lukas said, a lazy grin spreading over his face. “I always thought you were one to support a good cause.”

Harris had the decency to look sheepish. “I was just teasing. Of course they can wash it.”

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