Excerpt: Love on the Lido Deck (25% off at Smashwords!)

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Love on the Lido Deck (excerpt below)

“This is ridiculous, Mother.” I felt like we were in a bad sitcom. “You said you wanted to talk to me ‘girl-to- girl.’ Now, unless you’ve taken your cue from endless episodes of some program on the Lifetime Channel, something is up. Spill!”

She dabbed at her mouth delicately with her napkin—private Catholic girls’ school training had not been wasted on Maeve Graham—then cleared her throat and dropped a bomb on me.

“Keira, I’ve been dating a nice gentleman, and it’s becoming serious.”

I was dumbstruck.

“Keira? ... Keira! Say something!”

I paused. I wanted to make sure that just exactly the right mature, calm words would come out of my mouth. Then I spoke.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW CAN YOU BE- COME SERIOUS WITH SOMEONE? DADDY HASN’T BEEN DEAD ALL THAT LONG. I FORBID IT!”

Um. Perhaps not so mature.

“You forbid it?” To my mother’s credit, she was very calm.

I mentally stepped back. After all, I had gone to private Catholic girls’ school as well. I could be ladylike.

“NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”

Oh. Yes. That was soooo much better.

My mother cleared her throat.

“Keira! Listen to yourself. You sound like you are five years old.”

“I do not!”

Just kept getting worse! I jumped off the stool and ran to the window and looked out across the back grounds. That didn’t help. All I saw were the stables. Daddy’s stables. I whipped around.

“Mother,” I started patiently. “Who? What? Why?” I trailed off.