Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

Everett nodded, gesturing toward the main doors. “You’re the boss,” he told her.

That almost made her wince. “This’ll work better if you just think of me as your tour guide,” she said, avoiding looking at him.

Holding the door open for her, Everett followed her into the building. “You told me that you manage the department,” he recalled.

“I do,” she answered cautiously, wondering where he was going with this.

“Then that would make you my boss for this,” Everett concluded. “At least for now.”

This had all the signs of degenerating into a dispute. But Everett was doing her a favor by coming in today and he was getting no compensation for it. She didn’t want to pay him back by arguing with him.

“Whatever works for you is fine with me,” Lila told him loftily.

He smiled at her as they headed toward the elevators. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Was he just being agreeable, or was that some sort of a veiled warning, she wondered. This was all very exhausting and they hadn’t even gotten started, Lila thought.

The next moment, as she got into the elevator, Lila told herself that any way she looked at it, this was going to be one hell of a long day.

But then, she had her doubts that Everett was going to be able to keep up. Making house calls to all the people on her list was going to turn into a marathon as well as an endurance test, at least for Everett.

And maybe her, too.

Getting what she needed from her office, Lila led the way back out of the building. “We’ll use my car,” she told him.

“Fair enough,” Everett answered agreeably. “You know your way around here a lot better than I do.”

“At least in the poor sections,” she answered. They had barely gotten out on the road when she said, “Be sure to let me know when you’ve had enough.”

He thought that was rather an odd thing to say, seeing as how they hadn’t even been to see one patient yet. “And then what?” he wanted to know.

She spared him a glance as she drove through a green light. The answer, she thought, was rather obvious. “And then we’ll stop.”

“For the day?” he questioned.

“Well, yes.” What else did he think she meant? They weren’t talking about taking breaks.

“You made it sound like you needed me for the long haul,” he said. And to him, that meant the entire day—with the possibility of more after that.

“I do.” However, she didn’t want to seem presumptuous and she definitely didn’t want to totally wear him out. “But—”

“Well, then that’s what you’ve got me for,” Everett said, interrupting. “The long haul,” he repeated.

Was he saying that to impress her, or did he really mean it, she wondered.

“I just wanted to warn you,” she said as they drove to a run-down neighborhood. “This isn’t going to be what you’re used to.”

He looked at her then. “No offense, Lila, but we haven’t seen each other for a very long time,” he reminded her. “You have no idea what I’m used to.”

Everett was right, she thought, chagrined. She had no idea what he been doing in the years since they had seen one another. She knew, obviously, that he had achieved his dream and become a doctor. She had just assumed that he had set up a practice where he tended to the needs of the richer people in Houston. It never occurred to her that he might concern himself with even middle-class patients, much less those who belonged to the lower classes: the needy and the poor. And she had no idea that he ever volunteered his time to those less fortunate.

“You’re right,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t. I just know that your parents had high hopes for you and that you weren’t the rebellious type.”

Everett was only half listening to her. For the most part, he was taking note of the area they were now driving through. It appeared seedy and dilapidated. It was light out now, which made the streets only a tad safer looking.

He tried to imagine what it was like, driving through here at night. “How often do you come out here?” he wanted to know.

“As often as I need to. I usually accompany the doctors who volunteer at the Foundation. It wouldn’t be right to ask them to come here and not be their go-between.”

“Go-between?”

She nodded. “Some of the doctors have never been to places like this before. They’re uneasy, the patients they’ve come to treat are uneasy when they see the doctor. I’m kind of a human tranquilizer,” she told him. “It’s my job to keep them all calm and get them to trust each other enough so they can interact with one another,” she explained.

“A human tranquilizer, huh?” he repeated with a grin, trying to envision that. “I kind of like that.”

She laughed as she brought her small compact car to a stop in front of a ramshackle house that looked as if it was entering its second century.

“I had a feeling you would.” Pulling up the hand brake, she turned off the ignition. “We’re here,” she announced needlessly. “You ready for this?” she asked, feeling somewhat uneasy for him.

Everett looked completely unfazed. “Let’s do it,” he told her, getting out on his side.

Lila climbed out on the driver’s side, rounded the hood of her car and then led the way up a set of wooden stairs that creaked rather loudly with each step she took. Like the house, the stairs had seen better years and were desperately in need of repair.

Reaching the top step, she approached the front door with its peeling paint and knocked.

“The doorbell’s out,” she explained in case Everett was wondering why she hadn’t rung it. “I’ve been here before,” she added.

“That was my guess,” Everett responded.

A moment later, the front door opened rather slowly. Instead of an adult standing on the other side, there was a small, wide-eyed little boy looking up at them. He was holding on to the