Page 45 of This Loving Feeling (Mirror Lake)

“Honey, we’ll be home in just ...”

“Sophie pooped.”

“No poop,” said Sophie, looking alarmed.

“Aha. You pooped,” James said. Then he got in her face. “Poop, poop, poop!”

Sophie started to cry.

“Well, time to go!” Meg said cheerily. “Call me crazy, but I’m determined to get through this car wash. Great to see you, Lukas,” she said, pulling the van forward.

Lukas straightened. He tapped his hands on the car door. “Hey, great to see you. Maybe I will. Bye, kids!” He gave the kids a goofy grin and a wave, then went back to tend to the cars.

Sam watched Lukas tirelessly sign autographs on baseball caps, T-shirts, a child’s teddy bear, and even a reusable shopping bag in lieu of paper. Her kids were having the time of their lives and so was Stevie, who was going to crash hard tonight judging by all the excitement and laughing going on.

No, this grown-up Lukas was nothing like who she thought he was. He’d claimed he left her back then because he’d had nothing to offer. He’d sounded genuinely remorseful about it, yet he’d made a bunch of teenagers very happy today, and saved their car wash. She had to remind herself that this was the same man who’d stolen her words and left without a trace. But somehow she found it impossible to hate him. Far from it.

And that was the scariest thought of all.

The next day, Sam answered Meg and Ben’s front door, pushing aside a batch of bobbing helium-filled balloons to a shocking sight. Lukas was on the front step, grabbing Stevie by the back of his button-down shirt to prevent him from bolting into the house. Lukas had a look on his face like he was pining for a smoke and wished he were, oh, just about anywhere else but here. Stevie was red-faced and just plain mad. How Lukas had managed to get cute little shorts and dress shoes on the little boy was beyond comprehension. “Hold up a second, there, bud,” Lukas reprimanded in a firm voice.

Wow. In aparentalvoice. Stevie obeyed but not happily, crossing his arms and pulling out his lower lip, his omnipresent blanket wedged in between his arms and his hip. She couldn’t help smiling. They both seemed so ... irritated.

“Aren’t you boys handsome. But did Vineyard Vines go out of business?”

Lukas scowled, but she couldn’t help but enjoy the torment. He appeared to be as uncomfortable as Stevie. His baby-blue oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up a little, covering most of his sleeve tattoo, looked great with his coloring, and the sight of his sexy arm muscles peeking out from under the cuffs was positively Sexiest Man Alive.

But he had on these ... shorts. They were seersucker, with blue and white stripes, with whales interspersed throughout the stripes. Yes,whales.Spoutingwhales. Her rebel rocker had gone ... preppy on her. What the ...

Stevie tugged on Lukas’s shorts. “I want to see the kids, Uncle Lukas. I seen ’em all in the backyard. Sam, let me go, okay?”

He pleaded with her, making full use of those big brown eyes that made her heart melt and want to tell this adorable child who’d had it so toughsure, honey, whatever you want. But she’d had lots of practice watching her brothers and sisters-in-law with their kids. She knew you didn’t interfere with discipline.

“If it’s okay with your uncle, I can walk you back there and introduce you to everyone.” She looked up at Lukas. “Would that be okay?”

Stevie wiggled out of Lukas’s grasp. “He’s making me wear this stupid tie. I want itoff.” He gave a vicious tug.

Lukas shifted his weight back and forth. He raked an impatient hand through his hair. “Mrs.Panagakos dressed him. Meg invited her, too, but she has an event at church today.”

Sam swept her gaze up and down Lukas’s lean body, trying hard not to smile. “Did she dress you, too?”

He shot her a murderous glare that promised retaliation, but she didn’t care. This was far too much fun to stop.

“She doesn’t know how to dressboys,” Stevie said, stomping his feet on the front stoop. “Everyone’s gonna laugh at me.”

Sam bent down and wrapped an arm around him. “She just wanted you to put your best foot forward. Do you know what that means?”

His frown deepened, but he leaned into her a little. Sam wasn’t unaware that Stevie had a soft spot for her almost as big as the one she had for him. “Well, it means that it’s kind of fun to dress up and look your best when you’re about to meet new friends.”

He stuck his fingers between the collar of his shirt and his neck. “I’m choking. Todeath!” Oh, the rebellion to conformity. Must be genetic.

Lukas did not look amused. In fact, he looked downright uncomfortable, glancing about and fiddling with his sleeves. Sam stood up and got right to the point. “Okay, Lukas, can he lose the tie?”

“Fine.” Lukas bent and unpinned it. “There, can you breathe now?”

Stevie frowned in response.

“Here,” Lukas said to Stevie, handing him a wrapped rectangular package. “Take the present with you.”

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