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

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked, trying to understand why she had made this unexpected U-turn.

“Things are moving too fast, Everett,” she told him. Her tone left no room for any sort of attempts to change her mind. “You need to go.”

Chapter Seventeen

Everett sat up. “You’re really serious?” he asked, unable to believe that Lila actually meant what she’d just said to him.

He’d been with a number of women since he and Lila had broken up and although he’d never gotten to the serious relationship stage with any of those women, none of them had ever kicked him out of bed, either, figuratively or literally.

His confidence shaken, Everett had no idea how to react to this totally unfamiliar situation.

Lila had already gotten up off the sofa, wrapping a crocheted throw around herself in lieu of clothing. Her insides were quaking, but she held her ground.

“Yes, I’m serious,” she insisted, her voice rising in pitch. “Very serious.”

Well, he’d tried his best and for a little while there, he thought that he’d succeeded in winning Lila over. But obviously, he’d miscalculated, Everett told himself. He was willing to do anything to win Lila back except for one thing: he was not about to beg. A man had to have some pride, he thought fiercely.

Nodding his head, he quickly pulled on his discarded tuxedo slacks. Securing them, he grabbed the rest of his things and held the clothes against his chest in a rumpled ball of material. He didn’t even bother putting on his shoes. Instead, he just picked them up and held them in his other hand.

“All right then,” he told her, heading for the door. “I’d better go.”

Lila stood like a statue, saying nothing.

Everett let himself out the door, leaving it wide open. As he walked to his car in the driveway, he heard the front door close with finality behind him, obliterating any hope that at the last minute Lila would change her mind and either come running after him or at least call him back into the house.

Forcing himself not to look back, Everett opened his car door and got into his vehicle. He felt so totally stunned and deflated that he could hardly breathe as he started up his car and pulled out of Lila’s driveway.

He stopped at the first all-night gas station he came to. Ignoring the convenience store clerk’s curious looks, he asked for the restroom key. Taking it from the man, he let himself into the single stall bathroom.

The conditions in the restroom were far from ideal, but he managed to put on the rest of his clothes. He wanted to avoid having Schuyler ask him a barrage of questions if he walked in wearing only the tuxedo slacks.

He loved his sister dearly, but he just wasn’t up to fielding any of her questions, however well intentioned they might be. He just wanted to quietly get his things from her guest room and drive back to Houston.

But as luck would have it, a swift, clean getaway was just not in the cards for him.

Despite the hour, Schuyler was up and heard him coming in. Everett had barely closed the front door and walked in before his sister walked out of the kitchen and managed to waylay him at the foot of the stairs.

“What are you doing back so soon?” she asked him in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting you back until around midmorning.”

He offered her a careless shrug in response. “Fund-raiser ended so I came back.”

Schuyler furrowed her brow, as if something didn’t sound right to her. “Why didn’t you go get a nightcap with Lila?”

“I didn’t want to drink and drive,” Everett answered. He looked longingly up the stairs. So near and yet so far, he couldn’t help thinking.

Schuyler’s furrowed brow gave way to an all-out, impatient frown.

“Damn it, Ev, I’m trying to politely tiptoe around the subject but you’re making me have to come flat out and ask.” She paused, waiting for her brother to jump in and say what she was waiting for him to tell her. But he remained silent. Huffing, Schuyler asked, “Why aren’t you over at Lila’s place, picking things up where the two of you left off back in college?”

“It’s complicated, Schuy,” Everett told her.

“That’s what people say when they don’t want to deal with something,” she insisted. She pinned her brother with a penetrating look that went clear down to the bone. “Do you care about this woman?” she asked him point-blank.

Still smarting from his rejection, he really didn’t want to get into this with his sister. “Schuyler, go to bed.”

They had always talked things out before and Schuyler apparently refused to back off now that she had broached the subject. “Do you care about this woman?” she repeated, enunciating each word slowly with intentional emphasis.

He could see that Schuyler wasn’t about to let this go until she had an answer from him. So he gave her one. A short one.

“No.”

Schuyler’s eyes narrowed, looking deep into his. “You’re lying.”

Everett did his best to separate himself from any emotion. He really didn’t want to shout at his sister. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” Schuyler retorted. When he tried to turn away, she grabbed hold of his shoulder, making him face her. “You have this ‘tell’ when you lie. There’s a tiny nerve right under your left eye that jumps every time you don’t tell the truth.”

“Then why even bother asking me?” He came close to biting off his question.

“So you can hear the words out loud for yourself,” she told him. “Ev, when you first told me you were going to win Lila back, I didn’t think you had a chance in hell of doing it. I thought you’d eventually come to your senses and forget the whole thing.”

She shook her head, amused by her preconceived notion. “But you’re not the type to forget the whole thing and you managed to bring me around to your way of thinking. A guy like that doesn’t just give up