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

in Austin for a few hours,” he explained, “so I thought, if you’re free, you might want to get together.”

There it was, she thought. Her way out. He was handing it to her.

If you’re free.

That was all she had to say to him. That she wasn’t free. That her evening was already spoken for and she had somewhere else to be. And knowing Everett, he would accept that, murmur his regrets and that would be that.

The problem was, she didn’t want to take this way out that he was handing her on a silver platter. She wanted to see him. The truth of it was, after seeing him every day for almost a week, she missed him.

She knew that she shouldn’t feel this way. Knew that she needed to cut Everett out of her life before he became a habit. But then on the other hand, this was only going to be dinner. And dinner would last for a few hours at most, nothing more. She knew that Everett was far too conscientious to lie to her, especially for some ulterior motive. If he said he was only here for a few hours, then he was in Austin only for that time.

Those few hours might as well be spent with her, she thought in a moment of weakness.

“I am free,” she heard herself saying, sealing her fate, at least for the next few hours. “We can do dinner if you like. And I promise not to pass out this time,” she added with amusement, remembering the last time they were in a restaurant together.

“Oh.” He pretended to sound as if he was sorry to hear that. “Too bad,” he told her. “I was looking forward to playing the hero, sweeping you into my arms and carrying you to my car.”

“I think being the hero once would be enough for any guy.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Everett speculated. “It’s kind of addictive if the hero has the right damsel in distress to save.”

That definitely conjured up an image, Lila thought. “I never envisioned myself as a damsel in distress,” she told Everett.

“I wouldn’t have thought of you as one, either,” he admitted. “I guess the world is full of surprises.” Then he changed topics. “Well, like I said, I’m only in Austin for a bit, so where would you like to go?”

“Seeing what happened the last time when we went to the Italian restaurant, how about Chinese food?” Lila suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” he told her. He would have said the same thing if she had suggested strolling through the park, eating ice cream cones. He just wanted to see her. It had been six long days during which time he had forced himself not to call her just to see how she was doing. Or to hear the sound of her voice. He didn’t want Lila to feel as if he was crowding her, or worse, as if he was stalking her.

But it hadn’t been easy.

He had spent six days with her when she’d been ill with the flu and he had quickly gotten used to seeing her everyday. Not seeing her was hell now, but he couldn’t behave like some privileged adolescent who was accustomed to having his every whim indulged—no matter how much he wished.

This was too important for him to risk messing up again. So he treaded lightly.

“If it’s okay, I can be at your place in half an hour. Or is that too soon? Do you need more time?”

“Actually, I need less if you’re close by. I just got home from work and I still look very businesslike, so I don’t need to change.”

He preferred the temptress look he’d seen on her, but to remain safe, he thought that it was best to go along with the business suit.

“You always look good no matter what you have on.” And sometimes even better the less you have on, he added silently. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lila felt as if she had suddenly blinked and just like that, found herself going back to square one all over again. She was experiencing feelings of excitement and wariness and that in turn had created knots in her stomach.

Big ones.

But not quite big enough for her to call Everett and tell him that she’d changed her mind about having dinner with him.

Despite saying that she didn’t need any extra time to get ready because she was still dressed for work, Lila impulsively flew into her bedroom for a quick change of clothes. She didn’t want to look as if she was going to a business meeting. She wanted to look as good as she could possibly look.

Like a woman who was going out to dinner with a man who had once owned her heart.

Not that she planned on letting him own it again, she maintained as she quickly pulled the pins out of her hair. Instantly, the changed hairstyle made her appear more carefree. Her auburn hair cascaded around her face instead of being neatly pulled back, out of the way.

Her practical attire gave way to an attractive, form-flattering dress. She had just slipped on a pair of high heels that could have never, by any stretch of the imagination, been called sensible, when she heard the doorbell ring.

The sound instantly had her heart accelerating.

Showtime, she thought.

Hurrying to the front of the house, she stopped just short of the front door in order to catch her breath. She pulled herself together, doing her best to look as if she was totally nonchalant about the evening that lay ahead of her.

Everett would probably see right through her, she thought. Even so, she felt that she still had to keep up the charade.

Taking in one more deep breath and then slowly releasing it, she opened the door.

“When you say fifteen minutes, you really mean fifteen minutes,” she said as she smiled up into Everett’s handsome face.

“A man’s only as good as his word,” he responded. “You know, we don’t have to