Summer of Love by Marie Ferrarella (easy to read books for adults list .TXT) 📕

“If you still want to have dinner with me, then yes, we’re still on,” she answered cautiously. She made a right turn, pulling into the parking lot. “Are you sure this won’t interfere with you getting back to Houston? I feel guilty about keeping you away from your practice for so long.”

“Nothing to feel guilty about,” he assured her. “The choice was mine. And my practice is part of a group. We all pitch in and cover for one another if something comes up.”

“And this qualifies as ‘something?’” she asked him, a touch of amusement entering her voice.

“Oh, most definitely ‘something,’” Everett assured her.

My lord, she was flirting with him, Lila realized. She really wasn’t herself.

The next moment, there was further proof. “Lila, you’re passing my car,” Everett pointed out.

Preoccupied and trying to get a grip on herself, she hadn’t realized that she had driven right by the navy blue sedan.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “Just double-checking the schedule in my head.”

“Schedule?” he questioned. But she’d said there was no one left on today’s list, didn’t she? Was there some secondary list he didn’t know about?

“The list of patients,” she clarified.

“Did we miss anyone?” he asked, wondering if she was going to find some excuse to turn him down at the last minute.

She wished she didn’t feel as if her brain had a fog machine operating right inside her head. It was getting harder and harder for her to think straight.

“Lila?”

She realized that Everett was waiting for her to answer him. “Oh, no, we didn’t. We saw everyone on the list. I was just thinking about tomorrow,” she lied. “Let’s go have dinner.”

“Sounds good to me,” he replied, silently adding, Anything that has to do with you sounds good to me.

Chapter Nine

“On second thought, maybe I should drive,” Everett said to her just as Lila started her car up again.

Putting her foot on the brake now, Lila looked at Everett, confused.

“Why?” she wanted to know. “I know the city better than you do. You said so yourself.”

“True, but I’ve been able to find my way around without much trouble and I don’t mind driving. To be honest, you look like you’re rather tired and you don’t want to push yourself too hard,” Everett stressed.

He was right. She was tired, Lila thought, but her pride kept her from admitting it. Her self-image dictated that she was supposed to be untiring, with boundless energy.

“Is that your professional opinion?” she asked.

“Professional and personal,” Everett replied quietly.

There was that calming bedside manner of his again, Lila thought. But she wasn’t a patient, she reminded herself.

“Tough to argue with that,” she responded. “But you’ll have to drive me back here after dinner so I can pick up my car.”

Everett had already taken that into account. “No problem,” he assured her. Getting out of her car, he took a few steps, then stood waiting for her to follow suit.

After a moment, Lila sighed, surrendering. Since she hadn’t pulled out of the parking space yet, she left her car as it was and got out.

Crossing to his car, Everett unlocked it and then held the passenger side door open for her. After Lila got in, he closed the door and got in behind the wheel. He looked at her and smiled just before he started his car.

Was that smug satisfaction she saw, or something else? Lila wondered. “What?” she asked him.

“I thought you’d put up more of a fight,” he confessed as he started up his vehicle. Within moments, they were on the road.

Lila lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. She realized that her shoulder felt heavy for some reason, like someone was pushing down on it. After dinner, she was heading straight for bed, she promised herself.

“I guess I’m more tired than I thought,” she told Everett.

He accepted her excuse. “You in the mood for Chinese or Italian?” he asked, offering her a choice of the first two restaurants he thought of. He favored both.

“The Italian place is closer,” Lila told him.

And in this case, he thought, closer seemed to mean better, otherwise she would have cited a different criterion first.

“Italian it is.” He spared her one quick glance, coupled with a grin. “Now all you have to do is give me the address.”

Lila dug in just for a second. “I thought you said you knew your way around.”

“I do,” he assured her, then added, “Once I have an address.”

She laughed shortly. “That’s cheating,” Lila accused.

“I’d rather think of it as being creative,” he told her, then asked again, “The address?”

She was much too tired to engage in any sort of a war of resistance. With a sigh, she rattled off the address to the Italian restaurant.

Everett immediately knew where it was. “You’re right, that is close,” he acknowledged.

They were there in less than ten minutes. As luck would have it, someone in the first row of the parking lot was just pulling out and Everett smoothly slipped right into the spot.

Shutting off his engine, he quickly came around to Lila’s side.

Aware that Everett had opened the door for her, she felt a little woozy and it took her a moment to focus and swing her legs out. She really would have rathered that Everett wasn’t holding the door open for her so he wouldn’t see just how unsteady she was.

“You know, I have learned how to open my own door,” she told him defensively.

If she was trying to antagonize him, Everett thought, he wasn’t taking the bait.

“I know,” he responded cheerfully. “I’ve seen you. But I like doing this,” he told her, putting out his hand to her. “It makes me feel like a gentleman.”

The wooziness retreated. Lila wrapped her fingers around his hand with confidence. Maybe she was worrying for no reason.

“Then I guess I’ll humor you,” she said, “seeing what an asset you were yesterday and today.”

His smile sank deep into her very soul as he helped her out of the