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

Closing the door behind her, they crossed to the restaurant.

The homey, family-style restaurant was beginning to fill up, but there were still a number of empty tables available. The hostess seated them immediately and gave them menus.

“Do you come here often?” Everett asked Lila when they were alone.

“Often enough to know that they have good food,” Lila answered.

Everett nodded. “Good, then I’ll let you do the ordering,” he told her, placing his menu on the table.

That surprised her. “Well, you certainly have changed,” she couldn’t help observing. When he raised an inquisitive eyebrow, she said, “There was a time when you took charge of everything.”

He couldn’t very well argue the point. He remembered that all too well.

“I’ve learned to relax and take things light,” he explained. “Somebody once told me I’d live a lot longer that way—or maybe it would just seem longer,” he added with a laugh.

As their server approached the table Lila asked, “Were you serious about my doing the ordering for you?”

“Very.”

Lila proceeded to order. “We’ll have two servings of chicken Alfredo,” she told the young woman. “And he’ll have a side dish of stuffed mushrooms.”

“And you?” the young woman asked, her finger hovering over her tablet.

“No mushrooms for me,” Lila answered.

“And what would you like to drink?” the server asked, looking from Lila to the man she was sitting with.

“I’ll have a glass of water,” Lila answered, then looked at Everett, waiting for him to make a choice himself. She remembered he liked having wine with his meals, but maybe that had changed, too, along with his attitude.

“Make that two,” Everett told the server, then handed over his unopened menu to her.

Lila surrendered hers after a beat.

“I’ll be back with your bread and waters,” the server told them.

“Sounds more like a prison diet than something from a homey-looking restaurant,” Everett commented.

“That’s probably what she thought, too,” Lila said. “She looked like she was trying not to laugh.” She looked around the large room. More patrons had come in moments after they did. “Certainly filled up fast,” she observed, saying the words more to herself than to Everett.

“Worried about my being seen with you?” Everett asked, amused.

“No.” She was actually thinking about how all those bodies were generating heat. “Does it seem rather warm in here to you?”

“Well, when you have this many bodies occupy a relatively small space, it’s bound to feel somewhat warm,” he speculated. And then he smiled. “You remembered I liked mushrooms,” he said, clearly surprised.

“I remember a lot of things,” she said, and then the next moment regretted it. “Like quadratic equations,” she added glibly.

Everett laughed. And then he looked at her more closely. There was a line of perspiration on her forehead, seeping through her auburn bangs and pasting them to her forehead. “It’s not warm enough in here to cause you to perspire,” Everett observed.

“Maybe you make me nervous,” Lila said flippantly.

“If that were the case, then you wouldn’t have agreed to dinner,” he pointed out. The woman he knew wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to.

Lila shifted in her chair, growing progressively more uncomfortable. “It seemed impolite to turn you down after you went out of your way to be my white knight.”

Her terminology intrigued him. “Is that what I am? Your white knight?” he asked.

“Did I say white knight?” she asked, as if she hadn’t heard herself call Everett that. “I meant Don Quixote, not white knight. I always manage to get those two mixed-up,” she said.

“I’ve been called worse,” he said with a tolerant laugh.

Their server returned with their glasses of water and a basket of garlic bread sticks. “I’ll be back with your dinners soon,” she told them, placing the items on the table and withdrawing.

Everett noticed that Lila immediately picked up her glass of water. Drinking, she practically drained the entire contents in one long swallow.

Seeing that Everett was watching her, Lila shrugged self-consciously. “I guess I was thirstier than I thought.”

“I guess you were,” he agreed good-naturedly. Something was up, but he wasn’t about to press. He didn’t want to ruin their dinner. Spending time with Lila like this was far too precious to him. Having taken a bread stick, he pushed the basket toward her. “Have one. They’re still warm.”

He watched her take a bread stick, but instead of taking a bite, she just put it on her plate and left it there, untouched.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You always loved bread sticks, especially garlic bread sticks.”

“I still do,” she answered defensively. And then she relented. “I guess I’m just not hungry.”

Something was definitely off. “I’ve been with you all day. You haven’t eaten since you came in—that’s assuming that you did eat before you came in this morning.”

Lila shrugged, then grew annoyed with herself for doing it. She wished that he’d stop asking questions. Most of all, she wished that she was home in bed.

“I’m not hungry,” she snapped. “What do you want me to say?”

This was not like her. His eyes met hers. “The truth,” Everett told her simply.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lila retorted, irritated. “I’m just not hungry. That’s not a crime,” she protested.

It felt as if her emotions were going every which way at the same time.

“Look, maybe we should—”

Without thinking, Lila started to get up—which was when the world decided to launch itself into a tailspin all around her. She grabbed the edge of the table, afraid that she would suddenly go down and find herself unceremoniously sitting on the floor. The table wobbled as she grabbed it and she stifled a cry, sitting down again.

Everett reached across the table and put the back of his hand against her forehead. Lila pulled her head away. She regretted the movement immediately because the spinning in her head just intensified.

Her forehead was hot, Everett thought. That and the sharp intake of breath he’d just heard her make gave him all the input he needed.

“Dinner is canceled,” he told her. “I’m taking you home and putting you