Page 15 of This Loving Feeling (Mirror Lake)

The woman reached across the table and grabbed his chin in her hand and shook back and forth. “Lukas Achilles Spikonos. You finally had the sense to come back home. It’s about time.” Her brown eyes, heavily made up with eyeliner and eye shadow, got misty behind her big jeweled glasses. “And who, may I ask, is this?”

She released Lukas’s chin from her death grip to eyeball Stevie, who immediately shrank back into his seat.

Lukas smiled. “This is my nephew, Stevie.”

“Hello, Stavros. What a fine, handsome boy. I am Alethea Panagakos. Sit up straight when I speak to you.”

Stevie looked to Lukas for guidance. All he did was nod a little. Because it was fruitless to fight a tsunami. Fortunately Stevie’s pancakes came just then, and he happily dug in.

Mrs.Panagakos turned to Lukas. “Samantha told me you need a babysitter.”

“Yes. But I thought you were moving back to Greece?” Alethea had kept an eye on Lukas after his accident a few years ago. More than an eye. She’d cooked fabulous Greek food for him for weeks while his arm was broken and he couldn’t work. She might look foreboding on the outside but her insides were allrizogalo—Greek rice pudding.

She sighed heavily. “I was so lonely after I divorced. I wanted to return to Mikonos where I would be surrounded by all my relatives. But then my mother came here to live with me, so I decided to stay. So do you need me?”

He leveled his gaze to hers, knowing there was no point in icing over the truth. “I need you.”

“Great,” she said, clapping her hands together in glee. “Then I start tomorrow. But I have conditions.”

He was afraid of that. “Okay, whatever you say, it’s fine.”

She held up a warning finger. “I must tell you what they are. First of all, Stavros, you need a haircut and let me see your teeth.”

Stevie automatically clamped his mouth shut. “Let me see them,paidi mou,” Alethea said. Stevie crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, I see you are stubborn, like your uncle, yes? Stubborn Greek boys. Well, you must brush your teeth. And your socks don’t match.”

“We’ll do our best to be more tidy tomorrow,” Lukas said. “Right, Stevie?” He winked at the boy, just to make sure he knew that Alethea’s bark was worse than her bite.

She turned to Lukas. “And don’t get me started on you. How come you’re still single? You need a nice girl to settle down with, now that you have a family to raise. Stavros needs more brothers and sisters to grow up with.”

“Mrs.Panagakos, I—”

“Don’t youMrs.Panagakosme, young man. You’re a father now. You have responsibilities. You’ve officially left your salad days behind you.”

He had no idea what salad days were, but she made it sound like it was a good thing they were in the rearview mirror. “Here comes my committee now,” she said. “Stavros, Lukas, I’ll see you boys tomorrow.”

Crazy relief tore through him. The woman was an organizational whirlwind. She was desperate to give love. And she cooked like a Greek Paula Deen. Lukas grabbed a napkin to write on. “I’m renovating one of the houses on the west side of the lake. The Ellises’. You know it?”

“Let me get a pen.”

She rummaged through her enormous bag. Out came a full-sized bottle of hairspray, a packet of wet wipes, a travel-sized can of Lysol, and a kitty shank. She finally produced a pen, which said,Vote for George Gianopoulos for Councilman. He scrawled the address and handed her the napkin and pen.

“Wonderful. I’ll see you boys at eight o’clock tomorrow.” She got up and ran to a group of women who’d just come through the door.

“That old lady scares me,” Stevie said, blowing out a big sigh.

“She scares me, too, buddy.” He lowered his voice. “And you’d better call her Mrs.Panagakos or who knows what might happen.” Lukas made the slit-throat sign with his finger across his neck. Stevie gulped. Until he suddenly began jumping up and down on the vinyl seat and waving frantically at something in the distance. Lukas turned. Samantha Rushford stood at the entrance, being engulfed in an Alethea-hug and surrounded by two other old ladies who made their way down the aisle.

“Sam. Samantha!” The little boy unashamedly flagged her down until she couldn’t help but stop at their table. This time, he scootched over of his own accord.

“Hi, Stevie,” she said with a wide smile, taking the time to sit down next to him.

She wore a yellow printed sundress, her hair swept up in a thick ponytail, and when she breezed by, Lukas caught a whiff of grapefruity body wash.Pretty. He couldn’t resist letting his gaze drift down the line of her lovely neck and settle on her fabulous breasts. When he forced his gaze upward, she was frowning.Busted.Samantha eyeballed him like he’d just crawled up from the local sewer. “Lukas.”

“Hey,” he said, rubbing his neck to cover the fact that his face suddenly felt hot.Real smooth. Before he could come up with something more intelligent, Stevie moved in.

“I’ll share my pancakes with you.” Stevie was clearly bartering his precious pancakes for her attention, which she gave in spades, tousling his hair and hugging him. Lukas watched the interaction with what he hoped was disinterest, but truth was, it amazed him how instantly and without hesitation she gave the boy her affection.

Just as she had him, once upon a time.

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