Page 58 of This Loving Feeling (Mirror Lake)

CHAPTER 13

“It’s too hot to hike,” Stevie whined as Lukas pulled into the MetroParks parking lot the following Friday afternoon. “I wanna go home.” In the rearview mirror, Lukas saw him swipe his forehead with his blanket. Lukas rolled his eyes, unable to decide whether or not to ignore Stevie or tell him to suck it up until he felt a tap on his knee. Mrs.Panagakos was eyeing him solemnly from the passenger seat.

“I’ve got this, Obi-Wan,” he said, then pointed out the window. “Oh, look, Stevie, James and his dad are here already. But if you’re too hot, we can always turn around and go home. But that would be a shame, huh, since they invited us.”

“I wanna go play with James!” Stevie said, releasing the latch on his booster seat and grabbing for the door handle.

Lukas met him as he jumped out. “Sunblock first.” Lukas managed a few quick slathers while Stevie gave him a disdainful glare and wiggled out of reach to go find his friend.

“How am I doing, Teach?” Lukas snapped the cap shut on the suntan lotion. “Am I getting this dad stuff down?”

Mrs.P., who had left the car and was now tying her sneaker, smiled. “You’re doing very well, my dear. Bit by bit, he’s learning and you’re learning. Oh, except I have to ask you if it’s okay to sign him up for swim lessons? He won’t swim with the Rushford kids. I’m afraid he’s going to miss out on a lot of fun if he doesn’t get over his fear.”

“I’ll try to work on that some in Samantha’s pool.” Actually, after that kiss last weekend, he wasn’t sure she’d talk to him again, let alone allow him back on her property, since he’d just moved their things out of her guesthouse today.

“Very well.” She pinched his cheek, kind of hard, but Lukas tried not to wince out of politeness. “I am proud of you. Just keep diverting him when he gets feisty—and using the force, Luke.” She chuckled at her own joke—that is, until she straightened up and glanced across the parking lot. “Oh, dear. Looks like you might need it.”

He looked up to see Samantha standing next to her grandmother and Ben. What was she doing here? Certain as stink on a skunk, if she knew he’d be here, she wouldn’t have come. He caught Effie’s eye and she immediately glanced away. Well, that explained that.

Sam never returned that night after the kiss, leaving him to toss and turn, awakening to every stray creak and groan that might have been her car motoring up the road, or the garage door opening.

She’d been in school every day, and in the evenings she came over to the guesthouse to see Stevie but avoided talking to Lukas as much as possible.

Every night since, he lay awake, giving himself plenty of time to think about that kiss. That fabulous, inevitable kiss he’d felt right down to his bones. He knew, no matter how much logic kept them apart, he couldn’t deny it any longer: he wanted her, and it was time they talked about it. Resolved, he tucked the sunblock into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and followed after Mrs.P.

“Love your fanny pack,” Sam was saying to Effie, whose pink sneakers matched her ball cap.Love your fanny, too, Lukas thought,and other assetsas he checked out Sam’s dark green shorts and red tank top, her hair piled atop her head in that artsy way that was meant to look messy and was sexy as hell. Just seeing her released a sweet flood of yearning everywhere. It was going to be a long afternoon. Especially if she refused to talk to him.

“It’s got my crocheting,” Effie said.

Ben shared a look with Sam. “You brought your crocheting on a hike, Ef?”

“I figured if I got tired I could stop for a while and not be bored.” Effie turned at the sound of crunching gravel. “Hello, Lukas dear, and Alethea.”

Sam saw Lukas and stiffened. The look she aimed at him practically drew blood, but if he could handle Stevie, he could stay cool through this, too. “Samantha,” he said, smiling pleasantly.

“I—didn’t know you were coming,” she said with a smile as fake as Alethea’s hair color. Her gaze drifted to Effie.

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear. I must have forgotten to mention it. Getting old’s a bitch, you know?” She tapped her temple with an index finger. “The memory’s the first to go.”

“That’s not going to be the only thing that will be going,” Sam mumbled.

“Lukas,” Effie said, pointing to his bottom half. “I love those—what do you call them?—cargo shorts.”

Sam gave him the once over. Her gaze told him she liked what she saw despite herself. Which made him feel better about that kiss. Like, it might be possible, despite her involvement with he-who-shall-not-be-named, that she might just want to kiss him again.

He had to stop himself from getting too close to her for fear that he might just run his hand along the soft skin of her inner arm, or press his lips against the warmth of her beautiful neck, which he’d have perfect access to with her hair swept up like that.

Anyway. “I need the pockets for all this stuff I have to carry.”

“What stuff?” Sam asked.

He pulled out keys, a juice box, a purse-size bottle of hand sanitizer, and a penknife. Stevie’s inhaler and travel-size suntan lotion followed.

Sam eyed Lukas’s pockets. “There’s something else in there,” she said.

“It’s nothing,” he said.

“No, it’s round and hard.” She touched it through his pocket. “What is it—a compass?”

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