Page 27 of This Loving Feeling (Mirror Lake)

“Stavros.Kalimera,” Mrs.Panagakos said. “Good morning. I brought you something.” She rummaged in her giant bag, pulled out a worn child’s book with curled edges, and placed it on the table in front of Stevie. “Greek myths. Do you know what those are?”

He shook his head.

“Ah, then, we’ll read all about them. They are stories from our Greek culture about brave heroes and heroines who slayed monsters and did impossible feats of bravery for the sake of love.”

“Are they fairy tales?” Stevie asked.

“Yes,paidi mou, they are.”

Stevie batted those irresistibly long lashes at Sam. “Will you read them with us?”

“I’ll have to take a rain check. My boyfriend Harris is coming over soon to give me a boating lesson.” She smiled at the little boy. “I’ll have to see about getting a life jacket so we can take you for a ride next time if that sounds like fun.”

Stevie looked more than eager but Lukas couldn’t help frowning. “He’s going to teach you how to drive a boat?”

“Yeah. His boat. He’ll be docking it right over there.” She pointed off in the distance to a wooden dock that ran from the edge of the grassy front lawn of the big house into the water.

“Fun way to spend a Sunday,” Lukas said. His eyes held hers again, and they seemed to ask a thousand questions.

Good.Let him have the questions for once. God knows, he certainly hadn’t provided much of an answer to hers.

Sam told herself it didn’t really matter. Her life was on a set course, and she knew better than to believe in fairy tales. No matter how handsome the Greek god sitting across from her was.

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