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

she nodded. And then she looked up at Lucie. “How did you do it?” she asked, silently begging the other woman for guidance.

“Do what?” Lucie asked.

“With Chase,” Lila said, hoping that Lucie had some sage, magical knowledge to impart. Some words of wisdom that could somehow guide her through this densely wooded area she found herself stumbling through. “How were you able to pick up where you left off with Chase?” The two hadn’t just been high school sweethearts, they’d eloped and had been married—for all of five minutes.

“Very easy,” Lucie answered her nonchalantly. “I didn’t.”

Lila stared at her. She didn’t understand. “But you two were just recently married.”

“Actually, we’d been secretly married as teenagers and never had it annulled, but didn’t find out until recently. We had to get to know each other as adults, not as the impulsive kids we once were. And that’s what you have to do,” Lucie told her in all honesty. “You and Everett have to do the work and get to know each other all over again—from scratch,” she insisted. “You have to take into consideration that Everett, in all likelihood, may very well not be the person he was at sixteen or eighteen or twenty.”

Lucie circled to the back of the desk and put her arm on Lila’s shoulder.

“And while we’re at it, why do you assume that history has to repeat itself?” she questioned gently. “What if Everett really means what he says and wants to get back together with you not for a romp or a weekend of lovemaking, but for good?”

Lila rose from her chair and paced about the small office. She couldn’t come to grips with the desperate feeling she was experiencing in her gut.

“Even if Everett’s serious, even if he wants things to be different this time around, the past is still standing between us like a giant roadblock,” Lila insisted.

“By the past you mean the little girl that you gave up.” It wasn’t a question. Lucie was reading between the lines. She knew the truth about Lila’s past. In a moment of weakness, Lila had entrusted her with her deepest secret.

“Yes,” Lila cried, struggling not to cry. “It still haunts me,” she admitted. “Holding her in my arms and then giving her up—some nights I still wake up in a cold sweat, remembering how that felt. To have her and then not have her, all in the blink of an eye,” Lila confessed sadly.

“Does Everett realize how you feel?” Lucie asked.

Lila pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I don’t know,” she answered. “I never said anything about it.”

“Did you ask him if he knew?” Lucie pressed. “Or say anything at all about what giving her up did to you?”

“No,” Lila admitted in a low voice, avoiding Lucie’s eyes.

“Then for heaven sakes, talk to him about it,” Lucie urged. “Tell him how you felt giving up your baby. How you still feel.”

“I can’t,” Lila said. “I just can’t. Lucie, I know you mean well, but just please, please leave me alone right now. It’ll work out.”

It will, Lila told herself as Lucie walked out of her office.

It had to.

Chapter Eighteen

“All right, I’m here,” Everett declared when his sister opened her front door to admit him into her house several days later. “I got Blake to take over a few of my patients, had the rest of them rescheduled and drove right out because you sounded as if this was urgent.” His eyes swept over her and she certainly didn’t look as if she was in the throes of some sort of an emergency. “Now what’s this all about?”

Instead of answering his question, Schuyler said, “I can’t tell you here.” Getting her purse, she took out her car keys. “In order to explain, I need to take you some place first.”

Everett looked at his sister suspiciously. This wasn’t making any sense to him. “Where?” he wanted to know.

Again she avoided giving him a direct answer. “You’ll understand everything once we’re there,” Schuyler told him, hurrying toward her spacious garage.

Fetching her red BMW, she pulled up next to her brother. “Get in,” she told him, leaning over and throwing open the passenger door.

Since he’d all but raced out of Houston, driving at top speed until he’d reached Austin because he was extremely concerned about Schuyler, he went along with her instructions.

“You’re being awfully mysterious about all this,” he accused.

“The mystery will be cleared up before you know it, big brother,” Schuyler promised, mentally crossing her fingers.

Everett suddenly sat up a little straighter in the passenger seat as a thought occurred to him.

Looking at her now, he asked, “Hey, Schuy, you’re not pregnant, are you?” As the question came out of his mouth, he began grinning so widely, his lips almost hurt. He’d thought his sister would get married first before starting a family, but that didn’t negate his happiness for her. “Wow, that’s terrific. How far along are you?” he asked excitedly. “What does Carlo think about this? Have you picked a godfather yet?”

Apparently overwhelmed, Schuyler took a second to speak. “Hey, slow down,” she said then. She slanted a look in his direction before turning back to the road. “So you like the idea of babies,” she said, obviously referring to his exuberant reaction.

“Of course I do. How far along are you?” he asked her again.

“I’m not,” Schuyler told him.

Everett looked as if his bubble had been pierced, sending him twisting in the wind. “Wait, I don’t understand. Then you’re not pregnant?” he asked, more confused than ever.

“No,” Schuyler answered. “I never said I was. You jumped to that conclusion,” she pointed out. “Let me have my wedding first, then we’ll see about babies.”

Everett slumped back against his seat. “Okay, then I don’t understand,” he said, confused. “What’s this all about?”

Schuyler bit her lower lip, stalling. “I already told you—”

“No, you didn’t,” he insisted, trying to keep his voice even. He didn’t like games, especially not at his expense.

“Just hang on a little longer and