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

“If that’s your idea of a seductive proposition, you just washed out,” she informed him, struggling very hard to keep the world in focus.

“No, that’s my idea of putting a sick woman to bed where she belongs.” He looked around and signaled to the server. The latter was just approaching them with their orders. “Change of plans,” he told her. “We have to leave.”

Without missing a beat, the young woman told him, “I can have these wrapped to go in a few minutes.”

Everett was about to tell the woman that they wouldn’t be taking the meals home with them, but then he had a change of heart. Lila was going to need something to eat once she was feeling better. As for him, he was hungry and he could always take the food to eat later once he had Lila situated.

“There’s an extra tip in it for you if you can get it back here in two minutes,” Everett told her.

Taking his words to heart, the server was gone before he finished his sentence.

“You’re making a scene,” Lila protested weakly.

“No,” he retorted. “I’m trying to prevent making a scene. You’re sick, Lila. I should have seen the signs. But I was so eager just to have dinner with you, I missed the fact that you were steadily growing paler all day.”

Just then, the server returned. She had their dinners and bread sticks packed in two rather large paper sacks.

“Your salad is packed on top,” she told him.

“Great.” Taking out his wallet, Everett handed the young woman a twenty, then put a hundred-dollar bill on the table. “This should cover it,” he told the server. When he turned to look at Lila, his concern grew. She was almost pasty. “Can you walk?”

“Of course I can,” Lila retorted just before she stood up—and pitched forward.

Thanks to his quick reflexes, Everett managed to catch her just in time. Had he hesitated even for just half a second, Lila’s head would have had an unfortunate meeting with the floor.

The server stared at them, wide-eyed. “Is she all right?” she asked, clearly concerned.

“She will be,” Everett told her. He had perfected sounding confident, even when he wasn’t. “I think she just has the flu,” he added. In one clean, swift movement, he picked Lila up in his arms as if she was weightless. Turning toward the server, he requested, “If you could hand me her purse.”

The woman had already gathered Lila’s purse. “Don’t worry, I’ll take it and your dinners and follow you to your car,” she volunteered. Looking at Lila, who was unconscious, she asked again, “You’re sure she’ll be all right?”

Reading between the lines, Everett told her, “Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything she had here.” Then he made his way to the front entrance.

Seeing them, the hostess at the reservation desk hurried to open the front door for them, holding it open with her back. “Is everything all right?” she asked Everett.

“She has the flu. She’ll be fine,” he answered crisply. “You do know how to make an exit,” he whispered to Lila in a hushed voice. Speaking up, he said, “The car’s right in front,” directing the server who was hurrying alongside of him.

Still holding Lila in his arms, Everett managed to reach into his pocket and press the key fob to open the car doors.

The server moved quickly to open the passenger door for him, and Everett flashed a grateful smile at her. “Thank you.”

The server waited until he buckled Lila into her seat, then handed the purse and the dinners she was holding to him.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call the paramedics for you?” she asked one last time, eyeing Lila.

“Very sure,” Everett answered. “I’m a doctor. She’s been out in the field, visiting sick people for the last two days and it looks like she came down with the flu for her trouble.” Closing the door, he looked at the young woman and tried to set her mind at ease one last time. “Thanks for all your trouble—” he paused to read her name tag “—Ruth.”

The young woman grinned broadly when he addressed her by her name. “My pleasure, Doctor.” With that, she quickly hurried back into the restaurant.

Everett’s attention was already focused on Lila. She was still unconscious. How the hell could he have missed all those signs? he thought, upbraiding himself again.

“I’m sorry, Lila. I should have realized what was wrong this morning in the parking lot.”

And then it suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea where Lila lived. Getting her purse, he went through it until he found her wallet with her driver’s license in it. Looking at it, he repeated her address out loud in order to memorize it.

“Let’s get you home, Cinderella.”

Chapter Ten

Everett was able to locate the development where Lila lived with only a minimum of difficulty.

Finding her house was a little trickier. Driving slowly and trying to make out the addresses painted on the curb, he finally drove up toward her house.

Pulling up into her driveway, he turned off his engine and then sat in the car, looking at Lila. She hadn’t come to once during the entire trip from the restaurant to her house.

“Okay, I got you here. Now what?” he wondered out loud. “The logical step would be to get you into the house, wouldn’t it?” Everett said as if he was carrying on a conversation with the unconscious woman sitting next to him. “But for that to happen, I’m going to need either a roommate who’s living in your house or a key to the front door.”

He looked back toward the house. There weren’t any lights on, which meant that either Lila lived alone, or if she did have a roommate—which she hadn’t mentioned—the roommate was out.

He opened her purse again. This time he was rummaging through the purse looking for her keys. He found a set of keys at the very bottom of her purse. There were five keys on the