Free This Loving Feeling (A Mirror Lake Novel) by Miranda Liasson Page A

jealous about that kiss.”
    “A little jealousy is good,” Alethea said. “It makes a man realize what he’s got, if you know what I mean.” This was accompanied by a knowing nod, to which the other women solemnly bobbed their heads in return.
    Effie, her lovely, white-haired grandma, eagerly piped in. “Maybe this little incident will help Harris see how special you are.”
    “If he thought you were special,” Gloria said, “he’d buy you a tiara. All the princesses get one. The man you love should treat you like royalty.”
    “This isn’t England, Gloria,” Alethea said. “American men don’t even know what tiaras are.”
    “Well, maybe they should,” Gloria said. “Does he know what an engagement ring is?”
    Not even five minutes, and this was getting out of control. “Gran, Harris does think I’m special,” Sam said. “Just because he tells me in private doesn’t make it any less meaningful.” It troubled Sam that Grandma Effie, who loved everyone and who never had a bad word to say, disliked Harris. Maybe because she’d always distrusted wealth. Effie didn’t understand that Harris had picked her , plain old unremarkable her , who’d been raised by her grandma and her crazy band of brothers, who’d never been anything special.
    After she’d been bullied in high school, she never thought she’d find someone who wouldn’t judge her, who wanted her for who she was, much less find a decent, respectable man who met everyone in her family’s approval . . . well, except Effie’s, that is. Or at least, Effie was the only vocal one about her feelings. Sometimes her sisters-in-law cast each other worried looks when they thought she wasn’t looking. It was just their way of wanting to make sure she was happy and being treated well, and she was. She really was.
    “I don’t blame him for being upset,” Sam said. “What Lukas did was outrageous. It was completely inappropriate. I mean, I’d be angry, too.”
    Alethea spoke next. “I like men who are brazen and bold. Besides, who can resist a handsome Greek man like that? Even if he does have tattoos everywhere.”
    “I certainly wouldn’t even try to resist him,” Jess said, after which Sam elbowed her in the ribs. Whose side was she on, anyway?
    “I can’t help it,” Jess said, rubbing her side. “The tattoos are hot.”
    Sam couldn’t deny Lukas’s heavily tattooed arms added just the right touch of danger to his dark chocolate eyes, his gypsy black hair, and his Mediterranean skin. No wonder why, in her misguided youth, he’d appealed to her so intensely. She’d been begging for escape from the short cords of her brothers’ scrutiny and he’d been the perfect foil.
    That was in the past. Perhaps Effie should spend her time counseling Jess on choosing the right man instead of chastising Sam for choosing someone who was reliable, upstanding, and steadfast.
    “Maybe you should live a little,” Effie said, looking right at her. Oh, God, this was coming from her grandmother? Really? “I just don’t want you to be stuck in an unhappy marriage.” Effie patted her hand. As if that would take away the sting of her comment.
    Gloria nodded. “There’s nothing worse. Look at Charles and Diana. A tragedy all around.”
    “Okay, ladies,” Sam said, “thanks very much, but I think we need to get down to business.” She opened her purse and pulled out a folder. “The donor dinner for the Palace Theater restoration is just two weeks away. And the big benefit concert is a week after that.”
    Mirror Lake was home to one of only a handful of atmospheric theaters left in the United States, former movie palaces built in the 1920s and made to look like exotic places. Theirs was a Moorish palace adorned with alabaster sculptures, elaborate carvings, and, the crowning glory, the dome of a night sky complete with twinkling stars and passing wisps of clouds. The theater was one of her favorite places in the world, and she was head of the