The Fortune Most Likely To...
Marie Ferrarella
A powerful first love…an explosive secret…Dr. Everett Fortunado is sitting on the biggest secret to hit Texas–but nothing's more shocking than finding Lila Clark working for the Fortunes. Years ago a teen pregnancy forced her to give up their baby…and Everett. Lila's not one for second chances, but that won't stop Everett from trying. Because this time around, he knows the meaning of family. And he wants his–with Lila!
A powerful first love... An explosive secret...
The Fortunes of Texas: The Rulebreakers continues!
Dr. Everett Fortunado is sitting on the biggest secret to hit Texas—but nothing’s more shocking than finding Lila Clark working for the Fortunes. Years ago a teen pregnancy forced her to give up their baby...and Everett. Lila’s not one for second chances, but that won’t stop Everett from trying. Because this time around, he knows the meaning of family. And he wants his—with Lila!
USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author MARIE FERRARELLA has written more than two hundred and seventy-five books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com (http://www.marieferrarella.com).
Also by Marie Ferrarella
Engagement for TwoA Second Chance for the Single DadMeant to Be MineTwice a Hero, Always Her ManDr. Forget-Me-NotHer Red-Carpet RomanceDating for TwoWish Upon a MatchmakerTen Years Later…Do You Take This Maverick?
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
The Fortune Most Likely To…
Marie Ferrarella
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07735-4
THE FORTUNE MOST LIKELY TO…
© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To
Susan Litman,
with thanks
for her
patience
Contents
Cover (#u6950f369-d11e-5829-9b3e-f41f1676d821)
Back Cover Text (#ubed96fdb-fea3-5588-b67c-41dce6a3251f)
About the Author (#ufa125465-b24a-560c-b479-5000544d1a86)
Booklist (#ulink_b5da5bae-8f3e-595a-9646-fb887ce02820)
Title Page (#u7cff24e6-4a72-5536-a029-e83484214eea)
Copyright (#u3f7106ef-1b90-54c5-9cbf-f354979550fd)
Dedication (#u6914a32d-8a29-5f54-a3dc-2c8fbfa47e70)
Prologue (#ubb4074a7-e606-5676-a6c1-259f774fa4a2)
Chapter One (#u83f46f22-4e19-50c9-bd18-bbcc6fb3a890)
Chapter Two (#u7787f6bc-b96c-5420-9238-3a727a5bbda5)
Chapter Three (#ua8ba7fb8-955c-5b28-a9d6-6e7fbcb7a49c)
Chapter Four (#ud65d1a5f-92c9-509d-a857-b6347069cc64)
Chapter Five (#uebfd8d59-6804-5b13-be04-536845733d4a)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
It was time that he finally faced up to it. He had never gotten over her.
Sitting on the sofa in his living room, Dr. Everett Fortunado frowned as he looked into the glass of expensive whiskey he was sipping. The single glass, two fingers, was his way of winding down. Not from a hectic day spent at his successful, thriving medical practice, but from the stress of terminating yet another less-than-stellar, stillborn relationship.
How many failed relationships did that make now? Ten? Twelve? He wasn’t sure.
He’d honestly lost count a number of years ago.
Admittedly, the women in those incredibly short-lived relationships had all become interchangeable. Now that he thought about it, none of them had ever stood out in his mind. And, if he was being honest about it, Everett couldn’t remember half their names.
As for their faces, well, if pressed, he could give a general description, but there again, nothing about any of them had left a lasting impression on his mind. Strictly speaking, he could probably pass one or more of them on the street and not recognize them at all.
A mirthless laugh passed his lips. At thirty-three he was way too young to be on the threshold of dementia. No, that wasn’t the reason behind this so-called memory loss problem. If he were being entirely honest with himself, he thought, taking another long, bracing sip of whiskey, this cavalcade of women who had been parading through his life for the last thirteen years were only poor substitutes for the one woman who had ever really mattered to him.
The only woman he had ever been in love with.
The woman he had lost.
Lila Clark, the girl he’d known since forever and had barely been aware of until he suddenly saw her for the first time that day in Senior English class. Though a straight A student, Everett had found himself faltering when it came to English. Lila sat next to him in class and he’d turned to her for help. She was the one responsible for getting him through Senior English.
And somewhere along the line during all that tutoring, Lila had managed to make off with his heart. He was crazy about her and really excited when he found out that she felt the same way about him. Not long after that, they began making plans for their future together.
And then it had all blown up on him.
When he’d lost her, his parents had told him that it was all for the best. They had pointed out that he was too young to think about settling down. They wanted their brightest child to focus on his future and not squander his vast potential by marrying a girl from a working-class family just because he’d gotten her pregnant. To them it had been the oldest ploy in the world: a poor girl trapping a rich boy because of his sense of obligation.
But Lila really wasn’t like that. And she hadn’t trapped him. She’d walked out on him.
Everett sat on the sofa now, watching the light from the lone lamp in his living room play across the amber liquid in the chunky glass in his hand. He would’ve given anything if he could go back those thirteen years.
If he could have, he wouldn’t have talked Lila into giving up their baby for adoption.
Because that one thing had been the beginning of the end for them.
He’d been at Lila’s side in the delivery room and, even then, he kept telling her that they were doing the right thing. That they were too young to get married and raise this baby. That they could always have more kids “later.”
Lila changed that night. Changed from the happy, bright-eyed, full-of-life young woman he’d fallen in love with to someone he no longer even knew.
And that was the look in her eyes when she raised them to his. Like she was looking at someone she didn’t recognize.
Right after she left the hospital, Lila had told him she never wanted to see him again. He’d tried to reason with her, but she just wouldn’t listen.
Lila had disappeared out of his life right after that.
Crushed, he’d gone back to college, focusing every bit of energy entirely on his studies. He’d always wanted to be a doctor, ever since he was a little boy, and that became his lifeline after Lila left. He clung to it to the exclusion of everything else.
And it had paid off, he thought now, raising his almost-empty glass in a silent toast to his thriving career. He was a doctor. A highly successful, respected doctor. His career was booming.
Conversely, his personal life was in the dumpster.
Everett sighed. If he had just said, “Let’s keep the baby,” everything would have been different. And his life wouldn’t have felt so empty every time he walked into his house.
He wouldn’t have felt so empty.
Blowing out a breath, Everett rose from the sofa and walked over to the liquor cabinet. Normally, he restricted himself to just one drink, but tonight was different. It was the anniversary of the day Lila had ended their relationship. He could be forgiven a second drink.
At least, he told himself, he could fill his empty glass, if not his life.
Chapter One (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
“Your problem, brother dear,” Schuyler said after having listened to him tell her that maybe he’d made a mistake talking Lila into giving up their baby all those years ago, “is that you think too much. You’re always overthinking things and making yourself crazy in the process.”
“Says the woman who always led with her heart,” Everett commented.
“And that seems to be working out for me, doesn’t it?” Schuyler asked.
He could hear the broad smile in her voice. It all but throbbed through the phone. Everett had no response for that. All he could do at the moment was sigh. Sigh and feel just a little bit jealous because his little sister had found something that he was beginning to think he never would find again: love.
“By thinking so much back then about how everything would affect your future,” Schuyler went on, “I think you blew it with Lila. You were so focused on your future, on becoming a doctor, that you just couldn’t see how badly she felt about giving up her baby—your baby,” she emphasized. “And because you didn’t notice, didn’t seem to feel just as badly as she did about the adoption, you broke Lila’s heart. If it were me, I would have never forgiven someone for breaking my heart that way,” Schuyler told him.
“Thanks for being so supportive,” Everett said sarcastically.
This was not why he’d called his sister, why he’d lowered his guard and allowed himself to be so vulnerable. Maybe he should have known better, he thought, about to terminate the call.
“I am being supportive,” Schuyler insisted. “I’m just calling it the way I see it. I love you, Ev, and you know I’m always on your side. But I know you. I don’t want you to get your hopes up that if you just approach her, she’ll fly back into your arms and everything’ll be just the way it was back then. Not after thirteen years and not after what went down between the two of you back then. Trust me, Lila is not going to get back together with you that easily.”
“I know that and I don’t want to get back together with Lila,” he insisted defensively. “I just want to talk to her.” Everett paused because this next thing was hard for him to say, even to Schuyler, someone he had always trusted implicitly. Lowering his voice, he told his sister, “Maybe even apologize to her for the way things ended between us back then.”
He could tell from Schuyler’s voice that she felt for him. But she was far from optimistic about the outcome of all this. “Look, Everett, I know that your heart’s in the right place, but I really don’t want to see it stomped on.”
“No worries,” Everett assured her. “My heart is not as vulnerable as you think.”
What he’d just said might have been a lie, but if it was, it was a lie he was telling himself as well as his sister.
He had a feeling that Schuyler saw it that way too because he could hear the skepticism in her voice as she said, just before she ended their call, “Well, I wish you luck with that. Maybe Lila’ll listen to reason.”
* * *
Maybe.
The single word seemed to throb in his head as Everett decided to find out as much as he could about Lila and what she was doing these days.
It had all started two months ago when he’d taken the day off, gotten another doctor to cover for him and had driven the 165 miles from Houston to Austin to pick up his sister, Schuyler. At the time, he was supposed to be bringing Schuyler back home.
Given to acting on impulse, his younger sister had initially gone to Austin because she had gotten it into her head to track down Nathan Fortune. The somewhat reclusive man was supposedly her cousin and the ever-inquisitive Schuyler was looking for answers about their family tree. The current thinking was that she and the rest of their brothers and sisters were all possibly related to the renowned Fortune family.
It was while Schuyler was looking for those answers that she decided to get closer to the Mendoza family whose history was intertwined with the Fortunes. She managed to get so close to one of them—Carlo Mendoza—that she wound up completely losing her heart to him.
Confused, unsure of herself for very possibly the first time in her life, Schuyler had turned to the one person she was closest to.
She’d called Everett.
Listening to his sister pouring out her heart—and citing her all uncertainties, not just about her genealogy investigation but about the direction her heart had gone in—he had decided he needed to see Schuyler and maybe convince her to come home.
But Schuyler had reconciled with her man and decided to stay in Austin after all. Everett returned home without her. But he hadn’t come away completely empty-handed. What Everett had come home with was a renewed sense of having made a terrible mistake thirteen years ago. And that had come about because while he’d been in Austin, he had run into Lila.
Sort of.
He saw Lila entering a sandwich shop and it had been a jarring experience for him. It had instantly propelled him back through time and just like that, all the old feelings had come rushing back to him, saturating him like a huge tidal wave. At least they had in his case. However, he’d been struck by the aura of sadness he detected about her. A sadness that had not been there when they were in high school together.
He’d thought—hoped really—that when he got back to Houston, back to his practice, he’d be able to drive thoughts of Lila back into the past where they belonged. Instead, they began to haunt him, vividly pushing their way into his dreams at night, sneaking up on him during the day whenever he had an unguarded moment.
He began wondering in earnest about what had happened to her in all those years since they’d been together. And that sadness he’d detected—was he responsible for that? Or was there some other reason for its existence?
He felt compelled to find out.
Like everyone else of his generation, Everett turned to social media in his quest for information about Lila Clark.
He found her on Facebook.
When he saw that Lila had listed herself as “single” and that there were only a few photographs posted on her page, mainly from vacation spots she had visited, he felt somewhat heartened.
Maybe, a little voice in his head whispered, it wasn’t too late to make amends after all.
Damn it, Everett, get hold of yourself. This is exactly what Schuyler warned you about. Don’t get your hopes up, at least not until you talk to Lila again and exchange more than six words with her.
Who knows, she might have changed and you won’t even like Lila 2.0.
Everett struggled to talk himself out of letting his imagination take flight. He tried to get himself to go slow—or maybe not go at all.
But the latter was just not an option.
He knew he felt too strongly about this, too highly invested in righting a wrong he’d committed in the past. Now that he’d made up his mind about the matter, he needed to make Lila understand that he regretted the way things had gone thirteen years ago.
Regretted not being more emotionally supportive of her.
Regretted not being able to see the daughter they had both lost.
Still, he continued to try to talk himself out of it for two days after he found Lila on Facebook. Tried to make himself just walk away from the whole idea: from getting in contact with her, from apologizing and making amends. All of it.
But he couldn’t.
So finally, on the evening of the third day, Everett sat down in front of his computer, powered up his internet connection and pulled up Facebook. Specifically, he pulled up Lila’s profile.
He’d stared at it for a full ten minutes before he finally began to type a message to her.
Hi, Lila. It’s been a long time. I’m planning on being in Austin soon. Let’s have lunch together and do some catching up. I’d really welcome the chance to see and talk with you.
Those four simple sentences took him close to half an hour to settle on. He must have written and deleted thirty sentences before he finally decided on those. Then it took him another ten minutes before he sent those four sweated-over sentences off into cyberspace.
For the next two hours he checked on that page close to a dozen and a half times, all without any luck. He was about to power down his computer for the night when he pulled up Lila’s Facebook page one last time.
“She answered,” he announced out loud even though there was no one around to hear him.
Sitting down in his chair, he read Lila’s response, unconsciously savoring each word as if it was a precious jewel.
If you’re going to be here Friday, I can meet you for lunch at 11:30. I just need to warn you that I only get forty-five minutes for lunch, so our meeting will be short. We’re usually really swamped where I work.
Everett could hardly believe that she’d actually agreed to meet with him. He’d been half prepared to read her rejection. Whistling, he immediately posted a response.
11:30 on Friday sounds great. Since I’m unfamiliar with Austin, you pick the place and let me know.
After sleeping fitfully, he decided to get up early. He had a full slate of appointments that day. Best to get a jump on it. But the minute he passed the computer, he knew what he had to do first.
And there, buried amid approximately forty other missives—all of which were nothing short of junk mail—was Lila’s response. All she’d written was the name of a popular chain of restaurants, followed by its address. But his heart soared.
Their meeting was set.
If he’d been agile enough to pull it off, Everett would have leaped up and clicked his heels together.
As it was, he got ready for work very quickly and left the house within the half hour—singing.
* * *
The second Lila hit the send button on Facebook, she immediately regretted it.
What am I thinking? she upbraided herself. Was she crazy? Did she actually want to meet with someone who had so carelessly broken her heart? Who was responsible for the single most heart-wrenching event to have happened in her life?
“What’s wrong with you? Are you hell-bent on being miserable?” she asked herself as she walked away from her computer. It was after eleven o’clock at night and she was alone.
The way she was on most nights.
Maybe that was the problem, Lila told herself. She was tired of being alone and when she’d seen that message from Everett on her Facebook page, it had suddenly stirred up a lot of old memories.
“Memories you’re better off forgetting, remember?” she demanded.
But they weren’t all bad, she reminded herself. As a matter of fact, if she thought back, a lot of those memories had been good.
Very good.
For a large chunk of her senior year and a portion of her first year at community college, Everett had been the love of her life. He’d made her happier than she could ever remember being.
But it was what had happened at the end that outweighed everything, that threw all those good recollections into the shadows, leaving her to remember that awful, awful ache in her heart as Emma was taken out of her arms and she watched her baby being carried away.
Away from her.
She’d wanted Everett to hold her then. To tell her that he was aching as much as she was. That he felt as if something had been torn away from his heart, too, the way she felt it had for her.
But all he had said was: “It’s for the best.” As if there was something that could be described as “best” about never being able to see your baby again. A baby that had been conceived in love and embodied the two of them in one tiny little form.
Lila felt tears welling up in her eyes even after all this time, felt them spilling out even though she’d tried hard to squeeze them back.
She wished she hadn’t agreed to see Everett.
But if she’d said no to lunch, Everett would have probably put two and two together and realized that she hadn’t the courage to see him again. If she’d turned him down, he would’ve understood just how much he still mattered to her.
No, Lila told herself, she had no way out. She had to see him again. Had to sit there across from him at a table, making inane conversation and proving to him that he meant nothing to her.
That would be her ultimate revenge for his having so wantonly, so carelessly, ripped out her heart without so much as a moment’s pause or a word of actual genuine comfort.
“We’ll have lunch, Everett,” she said, addressing his response that was posted on her Facebook page. “We’ll have lunch, and then you’ll realize just what you lost all those years ago. Lost forever. Because I was the very best thing that could have ever happened to you,” she added with finality.
Her words rang hollow to her ear.
It didn’t matter, she told herself. She had a couple of days before she had to meet with him. A couple of days to practice making herself sound as if she believed every syllable she uttered.
She’d have it letter-perfect by the time they met, she promised herself.
She had to.
Chapter Two (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
Half the contents of Lila’s closet was now spread out all over her bed. She spent an extra hour going through each item slowly before finally making up her mind.
Lila dressed with great care, selecting a two-piece gray-blue outfit that flattered her curves as well as sharply bringing out the color of her eyes.
Ordinarily, putting on makeup entailed a dash of lipstick for Lila, if that. This morning she highlighted her eyes, using both mascara and a little eye shadow. She topped it off with a swish of blush to accent her high cheekbones, smoothed her long auburn hair, then sprayed just the slightest bit of perfume.
Finished, she slowly inspected herself from all angles in her wardrobe mirror before she decided that she was ready to confront a past she’d thought she’d buried—and in so doing, make Dr. Everett Fortunado eat his heart out.
Maybe, Lila thought as she left her house, if she took this much trouble getting ready for the occasional dates she went out on, she might not still be single at the age of thirty-three.
Lila sighed. She knew better. It wasn’t her clothes or her makeup that were responsible for her single status.
It was her.
After breaking up with Everett, she had picked herself up and dusted herself off. In an all-out attempt to totally reinvent herself, Lila had left Houston and moved to Austin where no one knew her or anything about the past she was determined to forget and put totally behind her.
She’d gone to work at the Fortune Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing assistance to the needy. Through hard work, she’d swiftly risen and was now manager of her department.
And because of her work, Lila’s life went from intolerable to good. At least her professional life did.
Her personal life, however, was another story.
Sure, she’d dated. She’d tried blind dates as well as online dating. She’d joined clubs and had gone to local sporting events to cheer on the home team. She’d gone out with rich men as well as poor ones and those in between.
It wasn’t that Lila couldn’t meet a man, she just couldn’t meet the man.
And probably even if she could, she thought, that still wouldn’t have done the trick. Because no matter who she went out with, she couldn’t trust him.
Everett had destroyed her ability to trust any man she might become involved with.
Try as she might, she couldn’t lower her guard. She just couldn’t bear to have a repeat performance of what had happened to her with Everett.
Rather than risk that, she kept her heart firmly under lock and key. And that guaranteed a life of loneliness.
At this point in her life, Lila had decided to give up looking for Mr. Right. Instead, she forced herself to embrace being Stubbornly Single.
As she took one last look in the mirror and walked out the door, she told herself that was what she really wanted.
One day she might convince herself that was true.
* * *
Her upgraded appearance did not go unnoticed when she walked into the office at the Fortune Foundation that morning.
“Well, someone looks extra nice today,” Lucie Fortune Chesterfield Parker noted the moment that Lila crossed the threshold. “Do you have a hot date tonight?” she asked as she made her way over toward Lila.
“No, I don’t,” Lila answered, hoping that would be the end of it.
Belatedly, she thought that maybe she should have brought this outfit with her and changed in the ladies’ room before going to lunch instead of coming in dressed like this.
Lucie and she were friends and had been almost from the very first time they met at the Foundation, but Lila really didn’t want to talk about the man she was having lunch with.
Initially from England, Lucie was married to Chase Parker, a Texas oil heir who had been her teenage sweetheart. Because of that, Lucie considered herself to be an expert on romance and she felt she had great radar when it came to the subject.
Her radar was apparently on red alert now as she swiftly looked Lila over.
Studying her, Lucie repeated, “Not tonight?”
“No,” Lila said firmly. She never broke stride, determined to get to her office and close the door on this subject—literally as well as figuratively.
“Lunch, then?” Lucie pressed. “You certainly didn’t get all dolled up like that for us.”
Lila looked at her sharply over her shoulder, but her coworker didn’t back off. The expression on her face indicated that she thought she was onto something.
When Lila made no response, Lucie pressed harder. “Well, are you going to lunch with someone?”
Lila wanted to say no and be done with it. She was, after all, a private person and no one here knew about her past. She’d never shared any of it. No about the child she’d given up for adoption or the man who had broken her heart. However, it wasn’t in her to lie and even if it were, Lucie was as close to a real friend as she had in Austin. She didn’t want to risk alienating her if the truth ever happened to come out—which it might, likely at the most inopportune time.
So after a moment of soul-searching, she finally answered Lucie’s question.
“Yes.”
Lucie looked at her more closely, obviously intrigued. “Anyone I know?” she asked.
“No,” Lila answered automatically.
Not anyone I know, either. Not really, Lila silently added. After all, it had been thirteen years since she’d last been with Everett. And besides, how well had she known him back then anyway? He certainly hadn’t behaved the way she’d expected him to. It made her think that maybe she had never really known Everett Fortunado at all.
“Where did you meet him?” Lucie wanted to know, apparently hungry for details about her friend’s lunch date.
“Why all the questions?” Lila reached her office, but unfortunately it was situated right next to Lucie’s. Both offices were enclosed in glass, allowing them to easily see one another over the course of the day.
“Because you’re my friend and I’m curious,” Lucie answered breezily. “You’ve practically become a workaholic these last couple of months, hardly coming up for air. That doesn’t leave you much time for socializing.”
Pausing by her doorway, Lila blew out a breath. “It’s someone I knew back in high school,” she answered. She stuck close to the truth. There was less chance for error that way. “He’s in town on business for a couple of days. He looked me up on Facebook and he suggested having lunch to catch up, so I said yes.”
Lila walked over to her desk, really hoping that would be the end of it. But apparently it wasn’t because Lucie didn’t retreat to her own office. Her friend remained standing in Lila’s doorway, looking at her as if she was attempting to carefully dissect every word out of her mouth.
“How well did you know this guy—back in high school, I mean?” Lucie asked, tacking on the few words after a small beat.
Lila stood there feeling as if she was under a microscope.
Did it show, she wondered. Did Lucie suspect that there had been more than just high school between her and Everett?
“Why?” she asked suspiciously, wondering what Lucie was getting at. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Lucie, it was just that inherently she had trouble lowering her guard around anyone.
“Well, if someone who I knew back in high school suddenly turned up in my life,” Lucie said easily, “I don’t think I’d dress up in something that would make me look like a runway model just to go out to lunch with him.”
Lila shrugged, avoiding Lucie’s eyes. “I’m just showing off the trappings of a successful career, I guess.”
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” Lucie asked, observing her closely.
Lila raised her chin, striking almost a defiant pose. “I’m sure,” she answered.
Lucie inclined her head, accepting her friend’s story. “Well, if I were you, I’d remember to take a handkerchief with me.”
Lila stared at the other woman. What Lucie had just said made absolutely no sense to her.
“Why?”
Lucie’s smile was a wide one, tinged in amusement. “Because you’ll need a handkerchief to wipe up your friend’s drool once he gets a load of you looking like that.”
Lila looked down at herself. Granted, she’d taken a lot of time choosing what to wear, but it was still just a two-piece outfit. “I don’t look any different than I usually do,” Lila protested.
Lucie’s smile widened a little more as she turned to leave. “Okay, if you say so,” she answered agreeably, going along with Lila’s version. “But between you and me, you look like a real knockout.”
Good, Lila thought. That was the look she was going for.
* * *
There were mornings at work when the minutes would just seem to drag by, behaving as if lunchtime would never come. Lila would have given anything for that sort of a morning this time around because today, the minutes just seemed to race by, until suddenly, before she knew it, the clock on the wall opposite her office said it was eleven fifteen.
She’d told Everett that she would meet him at the restaurant she’d selected at eleven thirty.
That meant it was time for her to get going.
Lila took a deep breath, pushed her chair away from her desk and got up.
When she stood up, her hands braced against her desk, her legs felt as if they had suddenly lost the power of mobility.
For a moment, it was as if she was rooted in place.
This was ridiculous, Lila told herself, getting her purse from her drawer.
She closed the drawer a little too hard. The sound reverberated through the glass walls and next door Lucie immediately looked in her direction. Grinning, Lucie gave her a thumbs-up sign.
Lila forced herself to smile in response then, concentrating as hard as she could, she managed to get her frozen legs moving. She wanted to be able to leave the office before Lucie thought to stick her head in to say something.
Or ask something.
This was all going to be over with soon, Lila promised herself.
Once out of the building, she made her way to her car. An hour and she’d be back, safe and sound in the office and this so-called “lunch date” would be behind her, Lila thought, trying to think positive thoughts.
It would be behind her and she’d never have to see Everett again.
But first, she pointedly reminded herself, she was going to have to get through this ordeal. She was going to have to sit at a table, face Everett and pretend that everything was just fine.
She was going to have to pretend that the past was just that: the past, and that it had nothing to do with the present. Pretend that those events from thirteen years ago didn’t affect her any longer and definitely didn’t get in the way of her eating and enjoying her lunch. Pretend that the memory of those events didn’t impede her swallowing, or threaten to make her too sick to keep her food down.
Reaching her car, Lila got in and then just sat there, willing herself to start it. Willing herself to drive over to the restaurant and get this lunch over with.
Not a good plan, Lila. This is not a good plan. You should have never agreed to have lunch with Everett. When he wrote to you on your Facebook page, asking to meet with you, you should have told him to go to hell and stay there.
You’ve got no one to blame but yourself for this.
Lila let out a shaky breath and then glanced up into the rearview mirror.
Lucie was right. She looked fantastic.
Go and make him eat his heart out, Lila silently ordered herself. And then, after you’ve finished eating and he asks if he could see you again, you tell him No!
You tell him no, she silently repeated.
Taking another deep breath, she turned the key in the ignition.
The car rumbled to life. After another moment and a few more words of encouragement to herself, Lila pulled out of her parking space and drove out of the parking structure and off the lot.
* * *
The restaurant she’d selected was normally barely a five-minute drive away from the Foundation. Even with the sluggish midday traffic, it only took her ten minutes to get there. Before she knew it, she was pulling into a space in the restaurant’s parking lot.
Sitting there, thinking of what was ahead of her, Lila found that she had to psych herself up in order to leave the shelter of her vehicle and walk into the restaurant.
To face her past.
“No,” she contradicted herself through gritted teeth. “Not to face the past. To finally shut the door on it once and for all and start your future.”
Yes, she had a life and a career, a career she was quite proud of. But she also needed to cut all ties to the woman she had once been. That starry-eyed young woman who thought that love lasted forever and that she had found her true love. That woman had to, quite simply, be put to rest once and for all.
And she intended to do that by having lunch with Everett, the man who had taken her heart and made mincemeat out of it. And once lunch was done, she was going to tell him goodbye one last time. Tell him goodbye and make him realize that she meant it.
Lila slowly got out of her car and then locked it.
Squaring her shoulders, she headed for the restaurant. It was time to beard the lion in his den and finally be set free.
Chapter Three (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
This was absurd, Everett thought. He was a well-respected, sought-after physician who had graduated from medical school at the top of his class. Skilled and exceedingly capable. Yet here he was, sitting in a restaurant, feeling as nervous as a teenager waiting for his first date to walk in.
This was Lila for God’s sake, he lectured himself. Lila, someone he’d once believed was his soul mate. Lila, whom he’d once been closer to than anyone else in the world and had loved with his whole heart and soul. There was absolutely no reason for him to be tapping the table with his long fingers and fidgeting like some inexperienced kid.
Yet here he was, half an hour ahead of time, watching the door when he wasn’t watching the clock, waiting for Lila to walk in.
Wondering if she wouldn’t.
Wondering if, for some reason, she would wind up changing her mind at the last minute and call him to cancel their lunch. Or worse, not call at all.
Why am I doing this to myself? Everett silently demanded. Why was he making himself crazy like this? So what if she didn’t show? It wouldn’t be the end of the world. At least, no more than it was all those years ago when Lila had told him she didn’t ever want to see him again.
The words had stung back then and he hadn’t known what to do with himself, how to think, what to say. In time, he’d calmed down, started to think rationally again. He had decided to stay away from her for a while, thinking that Lila would eventually come to her senses and change her mind.
Except that, when he finally went to see her, he found out that she was gone. Lila had taken off for parts unknown and no one knew where. Or, if they did know, no one was telling him no matter how much he asked.
That was when his parents had sat him down and told him that it was all for the best. They reminded him that he had a destiny to fulfill and now he was free to pursue that destiny.
Not having anything else to cling to, he threw himself into his studies and did exactly what was expected of him—and more.
He did all that only to end up here, sitting in an Austin restaurant, watching the door and praying each time it opened that it was Lila coming in and walking back into his life.
But each time, it wasn’t Lila who walked in.
Until it was.
Everett felt his pulse leap up with a jolt the second he saw her. All these years and she had only gotten more beautiful.
He immediately rose in his seat, waving to catch her attention. He had to stop himself from calling out her name, instinctively knowing that would embarrass her. They weren’t teenagers anymore.
* * *
Lila had almost turned around at the door just before she opened it. It was only the fact that she would have been severely disappointed in herself for acting like such a coward that forced her to come inside.
The second she did, she immediately saw Everett and then it was too late to run for cover. Too late to change her mind.
The game was moving forward.
She forced a smile to her lips despite the fact that her stomach was tied in a knot so tight she could hardly breathe. It was the sort of smile that strangers gave one another in an attempt to break the ice. Except that there was no breaking the ice that she felt in her soul as she looked at Everett.
All the old heartache came rushing back to her in spades.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured to Everett when she finally reached the table. “Am I late?”
“No,” he quickly assured her. “I’m early. I didn’t know if there was going to be a lot of traffic, or if I’d have trouble finding this place, so I left the hotel early.” A sheepish smile curved his lips. “As it turned out, there was no traffic and the restaurant was easy enough to find.”
“That’s good,” she responded, already feeling at a loss as to what to say next.
She was about to sit down and Everett quickly came around the table to hold out her chair for her.
“Thank you,” she murmured, feeling even more awkward as she took her seat.
Having pushed her chair in for her, Everett circled back to his own and sat down opposite her. He could feel his heart swelling just to look at her.
“You look really great,” Everett told her with enthusiasm.
Again she forced a quick smile to her lips. “Thank you,” she murmured.
At least all that time she’d spent this morning fussing with her makeup and searching for the right thing to wear had paid off, she thought. Looking good, she had once heard, was the best revenge. She wanted Everett to be aware of what he’d given up. She wanted him to feel at least a little pang over having so carelessly lost her.
The years had been kind to him, as well, she reluctantly admitted. His six-foot frame had filled in well, though he was still taut and lean, and his dark hair framed a handsome, manly face and highlighted his dark-blue eyes. Eyes that seemed to be studying her.
“But you do seem a little...different somehow,” Everett said quietly a moment later.
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that and it marred her triumph just a little. Was that a veiled criticism, she wondered.
“Well, it has been thirteen years,” she reminded Everett stiffly. “We knew each other a long time ago. That is,” she qualified, “if we ever really knew each other at all.”
He looked at her, wondering if that was a dig or if he was just being extremely touchy.
It seemed there were four of them at the table. The people they were now and the ghosts of the people they had been thirteen years ago.
The moment stretched out, becoming more uncomfortable. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Everett asked her.
“Just an observation,” Lila answered casually. “Who really knows who they are at that young an age?” she asked philosophically. “I know that I didn’t.”
He sincerely doubted that. “Oh, I think you did,” Everett told her.
Seeing the server approaching, she held her reply. When the server asked if he could start them out with a drink, Lila ordered a glass of sparkling water rather than anything alcoholic. Everett followed her example and asked for the same.
“And if you don’t mind, I’d like to order now,” Lila told the young server. “I have to be getting back to the office soon,” she explained.
“Of course.”
After he took their orders and left, Everett picked up the thread of their conversation. “I think you knew just what you wanted years ago,” he told her. “I’m the one who got it all wrong.”
Was he saying that out of pity for her, she wondered, feeling her temper beginning to rise as her stomach churned.
“On the contrary,” Lila responded. “You were the only kid who was serious when he said he wanted to play ‘doctor.’ If you ask me, ‘Dr. Fortunado’ achieved everything he ever dreamed about as a kid.”
Everett’s eyes met hers. Longing and sadness for all the lost years filled him. For the time being, he disregarded the note of bitterness he thought he detected in her voice.
“Not everything,” he told her.
This was an act. She wasn’t going to fall for it, Lila thought, grateful that the server picked that moment to return with their drinks and their orders. Everett wasn’t fooling her. He was just saying that so that she would forget about the past. Forget her pain.
As if that were remotely possible.
Silence stretched out between them. Everett shifted uncomfortably.
“So, tell me about you,” he finally urged. “What are you doing these days?”
Lila pushed around the lettuce in her salad as if the fate of the world depended on just the right placement. She kept her eyes on her plate as she spoke, deliberately avoiding making any further eye contact with him. She had always loved Everett’s dark blue eyes. When they’d been together, she felt she could easily get lost in those eyes of his and happily drown.
Now she couldn’t bear to look into them.
“I’m a manager of one of the departments at the Fortune Foundation. My work involves health outreach programs for the poorer families living in the Austin area.”
That sounded just like her, Everett thought. Lila was always trying to help others.
But something else she’d said caught his attention. “Did you say the Fortune Foundation?”
“Yes,” she answered. Suspicion entered her voice as she eyed him closely and asked, “Why?”
“Well, it just seems funny that you should mention the Fortunes. My family just recently found out that our last name might very well be ‘Fortune’ rather than ‘Fortunado.’” He pulled his face into a grin. “Crazy coincidence, isn’t it?”
Coincidence. Lila had another word for it. Her eyes narrowed as she pinned him with a look. “Is that why you wanted to get together for lunch?” she wanted to know. “To ask me questions about the Fortunes and see how much information you could get?”
He stared at her, practically dumbstruck. What was she talking about?
“The fact that you work for the Fortune Foundation has absolutely nothing to do with my wanting to get together with you,” Everett insisted. Thinking over her accusation, he shook his head. “I’m not even sure if the family is connected to the Fortunes. It could all just be a silly rumor or a hoax.
“And even if it does turn out to actually be true, my family’s not positive if we want to reveal the connection. It sounds like there are a lot of skeletons in the Fortune closet. Actually,” he confessed, backtracking, “maybe I spoke out of turn, talking about the possible connection. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to anyone at the Foundation.”
Did he think she was going to go running back after lunch and act like a human recording device, spilling every word that had been said between them? Just what sort of an image did he have of her?
Lila found herself struggling to tamp down her temper before she said anything.
“Well, obviously not everyone at the Foundation is a Fortune,” she pointed out icily. “And anyway, the Fortunes are a huge family. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to find out that there’s another branch or two out there. There’ve been so many that have been uncovered already.”
Everett nodded. “Makes sense,” he agreed, even though he still felt a little leery about having the story spread around that the Fortunados believed that they were really Fortunes. Trying to steer the conversation in a different direction, he asked, “I’m curious—what do you think of the Fortunes?”
Lila’s smile was reserved. She remembered hearing a great many unnerving rumors concerning the Fortune family before she began working at the Foundation. But most of what she’d been told turned out not to be true. For the most part, the stories were just run-of-the-mill gossip spread by people who were jealous of the family’s success as well as their money.
“In my experience,” she qualified in case he wanted to challenge her words, “they’re a great family. A lot of people hold the fact that they’re rich against them, but the family does a lot of good with that money. The Fortunes I’ve met aren’t power hungry or self-centered. A great many of them have devoted their lives to the Foundation, to doing as much good as they can,” she emphasized.
“Power-hungry and self-centered,” Everett repeated the words that she had used. “Is that the way you think of most rich people?” he asked. Then, before Lila could answer, he went on to ask her another question—the question he really wanted the answer to. “Is that how you think of me?”
Her eyes narrowed again as she looked at Everett intently. Rather than answering his question, she turned it around and asked Everett a question of her own. “Did I say that?” she asked pointedly.
“No,” he was forced to admit. She hadn’t said it in so many words, but he felt that Lila had implied it by the way she’d structured her sentence.
“Then let’s leave it at that, shall we?” Lila told him.
It was obvious to Everett that he was going to have one hell of a rough road ahead of him if he ever hoped to win her over. And despite what he had told his sister to the contrary, he really did want to win Lila back.
He admitted to himself that Lila was the missing ingredient in his life, the reason that every triumph he had had felt so hollow, so empty. It felt that way because Lila wasn’t there to share it with him.
For now, he changed the subject to something lighter. “You know,” he said as he watched Lila make short work of her Caesar salad, “as a doctor I should tell you that eating your food that fast is really not good for your digestion.”
“And being late getting back from lunch isn’t good for my job approval,” Lila countered tersely. Finished, she retired her fork.
Was she really serious about needing to get back so quickly? Initially, he’d thought it was just an excuse, a way to terminate their meeting if she felt it wasn’t going well. Now she seemed to be waving it in front of her like a flag at the end of a marathon.
“I thought you said that you were the manager of your department.”
“I am. And as manager, it’s up to me to set a good example,” she told him.
If she really wanted to leave, Everett thought, he couldn’t very well stop her. “Can’t argue with that, I guess.”
“No, you can’t,” she informed him, a stubborn look in her eyes as they met his.
He gave it one last try. “I suppose this means that you don’t want to order dessert. I remember that you used to love desserts of all kinds,” he recalled.
“I did,” she acknowledged. “But then I grew up,” she told him crisply. “And right now, I’m afraid I have no time for dessert.”
He nodded. “Maybe next time, then.”
Lila was about to murmur the obligatory, “It was good seeing you again,” but his words stopped her cold. “Next time?” she echoed, surprised and stunned.
She sounded far from happy about the prospect. Everett did his best to ignore the coolness in her voice. Instead, he explained his comment. “I might be spending more time in Austin over the next few months.”
“Oh?” She could feel the walls going up around her. Walls meant to protect her. She could feel herself struggling with the strong desire to run for the hills. She forced herself not to move a muscle. “Why?”
“Well, with Schuyler engaged to Carlo Mendoza and living here, I thought I’d be the good brother and visit her from time to time to make her transition here a little easier for her.” This was harder than he thought it would be and it took him a few moments before he finally said, “I was wondering if it’s all right with you if I call you the next time I’m in Austin.”
His question was met with silence.
Chapter Four (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
Despite the fact that the restaurant was enjoying a healthy amount of business with most of the tables taken, the silence at their table seemed to wrap tightly around Everett and Lila.
Lila realized that Everett was waiting for her to answer him. And unfortunately, the floor hadn’t opened up and swallowed her, so she was forced to say something. At a loss and wanting to stall until something came to her, Lila played dumb.
Clearing her throat she asked, “Excuse me? What did you say?”
Everett had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he repeated, “I asked if it would be all right with you if I called you the next time I was in Austin. You know, so we could get together again,” he added and then watched her, waiting for an answer.
Again? Lila thought, astonished. I’m barely surviving this time.
She debated just shrugging her shoulders and saying, “Sure,” with the hopes that if and when Everett called, she would have been able to come up with some sort of a viable excuse why she couldn’t see him again.
But if she didn’t put him off now, there was the very real possibility that she’d be doomed to go through another uncomfortable meeting in the near future.
Gathering her courage, Lila told him, “Um, I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea.”
If he were being honest with himself, Everett had half expected her to react this way. Still, actually hearing Lila say the words was very difficult for him.
Nodding grimly at her rebuff, he told her, “I understand.”
But he really didn’t understand because he didn’t think it was a bad idea. He thought it was a perfectly good idea, one that would allow him another chance to convince her that they should try making their relationship work again after all these years.
Because they belonged together.
“Well, I really need to get going,” she told Everett, rising to her feet. When he began to do the same, she quickly said, “Oh, don’t leave on my account. Stay,” she urged. “Have that dessert,” she added. And then she concluded coldly, “I wish you luck with the rest of your life.”
Then, turning on her heel, she quickly left the restaurant without so much as a backward glance.
Lila didn’t exhale until the restaurant doors closed behind her.
Her heart was hammering hard and the brisk walk to her car had nothing to do with it. Lila didn’t come anywhere close to relaxing until she reached her vehicle and got in.
Then she released her breath slowly.
She’d done it, she thought. She’d survived seeing him again.
She really hoped that Everett hadn’t realized just how affected she was by his presence. With that in mind, there was just no way she could see him again, Lila thought. She was certain that she wouldn’t be able to endure being face-to-face with Everett a second time, even if it was only for a couple of minutes.
But she’d done it. Lila silently congratulated herself as she started up her car. She’d sat across from Everett Fortunado and she hadn’t bolted. She’d held her ground until she announced that she had to be getting back.
And now, having made it through that and gotten it out of the way, she could go on with the rest of her life.
* * *
Everett left the restaurant a couple of minutes after Lila did. There seemed to be no point in staying. He’d only mentioned having dessert because he remembered how fond of sweets she had always been. The thought of dessert had no allure for him, especially now that Lila had left. So he paid the tab and walked out.
He had barely managed to get into his car and buckle up before his cell phone rang. His first thought when he heard the phone was that it was Lila, calling to say she had changed her mind about having him call her the next time he was in Austin.
But when he answered the phone, it wasn’t Lila. It was Schuyler.
“So how was it?” his sister asked in lieu of a hello.
Trying hard not to sound irritated, he asked her, “Why are you calling? I could have still been at the restaurant with Lila.”
“I took a chance,” she told him. “If you were still with Lila, I figured you wouldn’t have answered your cell. But you did,” she concluded with a resigned sigh. “So I take it that she really did have a short lunch break.”
He didn’t have it in him to lie or make something up, so he just said vaguely, “Something like that.”
He should have known Schuyler wanted to know more. “What was it like exactly?” she asked him.
Everett sighed. There was no point in playing games or pretending that everything was fine. He’d been pretending that for the last thirteen years and it had just brought him to this painful moment of truth. And he knew that Schuyler would just keep after him until he told about lunch.
“I think Lila might hate me,” he said to his sister. He’d said “might” because stating it flatly just hurt too much.
“Hate you?” Schuyler questioned in surprise. “Why? What happened at lunch?” Then she chuckled. “Did she try to set you on fire?”
Everett laughed dryly. “No, she stopped short of that. But when I asked if I could call her again the next time I was in Austin, she told me she didn’t think that was such a good idea.”
“Wait, back up,” Schuyler told her brother. “You asked her if you could call?”
“Yes.” Schuyler was making it sound like he’d done something bad, but he had just been trying to be thoughtful of Lila’s feelings. He didn’t want Lila thinking he just presumed things. He was proud of the fact that he was first and foremost a gentleman.
He heard his sister sigh in disbelief. “Everett, you are a brilliant, brilliant doctor and probably the smartest man I know, but what you know about women could be stuffed into a walnut shell with room for a wad of chewing gum. You don’t ask a woman if you can call her. You just call her.”
He didn’t operate like that. “What if she doesn’t want me to call?”
“Then you’ll find that out after the fact,” Schuyler told him. “Believe me, if she doesn’t want you to call, she’ll let you know when she answers the phone. But if you hold off calling because she said she doesn’t want you to, then you might wind up missing out on an opportunity.”
This was making his head hurt. “Nothing is straightforward with you women, is it?”
“That’s where the aura of mystery comes in,” Schuyler told him with a laugh. And then her voice sobered. “Are you planning on seeing Lila again?”
Lila had as good as told him not to—but he couldn’t bring himself to go along with that. Not yet. Not while he felt that there might be the slimmest chance to change her mind.
“I’m going to try,” he confessed.
“When?” Schuyler questioned. “Now?”
“No.” He was still smarting from Lila’s rejection. “I think I’m going to give her a little time to mull things over. I’ll probably talk with her the next time I’m in Austin.”
“Talk with her about what?” Schuyler wanted to know.
“I want to make things right,” Everett explained simply. “Maybe even tell her—”
Schuyler cut him off before he could say anything further. “Ev, not even you can bring back the past, you know that, right?”
“Yes, I know that,” he said impatiently, “but I just want Lila to know that I wish I’d handled things differently back them. Schuyler, you have your happy ending in the works,” he pointed out, “but I wound up driving away the best thing that ever happened to me and I’ll do anything to get her back.”
“Oh Everett,” Schuyler said, emotion in her tone, “that is deeply, deeply romantic—and deeply, deeply flawed. You’re going to wind up failing and having your heart broken into a thousand little pieces, and then ground up into dust after that.”
“I don’t want to hear about it, Schuyler,” he told his sister with finality. “I don’t need you to tell me how I can fail. I need you to tell me that I’ll get her back. I need to get her back,” he emphasized.
He heard Schuyler sigh, as if she was surrendering. “Okay. Just please, please don’t do anything stupid,” his sister warned.
“I already did,” Everett told her. “I let Lila go in the first place.”
“Everett—”
“I’ll be in touch, Schuy,” he told her before he terminated the call.
Everett gave it to the count of ten, then opened his phone again. He had a call to make and then he had to get back on the road if he wanted to reach Houston before nightfall.
* * *
Lila didn’t need to get back to the office that quickly. She’d just told Everett that she did so she had a way to end their lunch. She’d estimated that half an hour in his company was about all she could take.
She had a feeling that if she came back early, the people she worked with, the ones who seemed to take such an inordinate interest in her life, would be all over her with questions.
Especially Lucie.
But if she timed it just right, she could slip into the office just as they were coming back from their own lunches. That way she stood a better chance of avoiding any questions.
She thought it was a good plan and it might have actually worked—if it hadn’t been for the flowers. Two dozen long stemmed red roses in a glass vase to be precise. They were right there, in the middle of her desk, waiting for her when she walked into the office an hour after she’d left.
And there, right next to the vase, was Lucie. With a broad smile on her face.
“You just missed the delivery guy,” she told Lila. “I signed for them for you.”
“Um, thank you,” Lila murmured, although what she was really thinking was that Lucie shouldn’t have bothered doing that.
“No problem,” Lucie answered cheerfully. Her eyes were practically sparkling as she looked from the flowers to her friend. It was obvious that she had barely been able to curtail her curiosity and keep from reading the card that had come with the roses. “Who are they from?”
“I have no idea,” Lila murmured, eyeing the roses uneasily, as if she expected them to come to life and start taunting her.
“You know a really good way to find out?” Lucie asked her innocently. When Lila glanced in her direction, Lucie told her with great clarity: “Read the card.”
Lila nearly bit off that she knew that. Instead, resigned, she said, “I guess I’ll have to.”
“Boy, if someone sent me roses, I’d sound a lot happier than that,” Lucie commented.
“Want them?” Lila offered, ready to pick up the vase and hand it over to her friend.
“I’d love them,” Lucie said with feeling. “But I can’t take them. They’re yours. Now who sent them?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked directly into Lila’s.
Steeling herself, Lila reached over and plucked the small envelope stuck inside the roses. Slowly opening it, she took out the off-white rectangular card.
Till next time. Everett.
Her hand closed around the card. She was tempted to crush the small missive, but something held her back.
Damn it, why couldn’t the man take a hint? Why was he determined to haunt her life this way? Why couldn’t he just stay away the way he had done for the last thirteen years?
“Well?” Lucie asked, waiting. She tried to look over her friend’s shoulder to read the card. “Who sent the flowers?”
“Nobody,” Lila answered evasively.
“Well ‘nobody’ must have some pretty deep pockets,” Lucie commented, eyeing the roses. “Do you know what roses are going for these days?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Lila answered defiantly. She was debating throwing the card into the trash.
“Well, ‘nobody’ certainly does. Care, I mean,” Lucie clarified. “By any chance, are these flowers from the guy you went out to lunch with?”
Lila closed her eyes. She really did wish she could convincingly carry off a lie, but she couldn’t. Absolutely no answer came to her, so she found herself having to admit the truth.
“Maybe.”
Lucie gave a low whistle as she regarded the roses. “All I can say is that you must have made one hell of an impression at lunch.”
“No, I didn’t,” Lila replied. “He asked if he could call me again and I told him I didn’t think that was such a good idea.”
Taking in the information, Lucie nodded. “Playing hard to get. That really turns some guys on,” she confided. “They see it as a challenge.”
“I’m not playing hard to get,” Lila stressed between gritted teeth. “I’m playing impossible to get.”
“Same thing for some guys,” Lucie responded knowingly. “What you did was just upped the ante without realizing it. Play out the line a little bit, then tell him that you’ve had a change of heart because he’s so persistent. Then reel him in.”
She felt like her back was up against the wall and Lucie was giving her fishing analogies. She looked at the other woman in disbelief. “You’re telling me I should go out with him?”
“What I’m telling you is that you should give him another chance,” Lucie told her.
Another chance. She knew that was what Everett wanted as well, even though he’d started out by acting as if he didn’t, Lila thought. But there was no other reason why he would want to call her the next time he was in Austin unless he wanted another chance. It certainly wasn’t because they’d had such a spectacular time today at lunch and he wanted to continue that.
They hadn’t been spectacular together in a long, long time, Lila thought.
She tried to close her mind off from the memories, but they insisted on pushing their way through, punching through the fabric of the years.
Echoes from the past both softened her and squeezed her heart, reminding her of the pain she’d gone through at the end.
How could she willingly open herself up to that again? She’d barely recovered the last time.
Lila blinked. Lucie was standing in front of her, waving her hand in front of her eyes.
“Hey, Earth to Lila. Earth to Lila,” Lucie called out.
“What?” Lila responded, stopping short of biting off an angry cry.
“I was talking to you and you seemed like you were a million miles away. Where were you just now?”
Lila blew out a quick breath and pulled herself together.
“You called it,” she told the other woman. “I was a million miles away. And now it’s time to come back and get to work,” she announced. “I’ve got a stack of reports to review so I can make the rounds tomorrow.”
Lucie inclined her head. “I can take a hint.”
“I certainly hope so,” Lila murmured under her breath.
Hearing her, Lucie added, “For now,” as she left the room.
Lila suppressed a groan. Glaring at the roses, she moved the vase to the windowsill.
It didn’t help.
Chapter Five (#u87ac6494-0466-5ccd-81c7-c6a2115ac6e2)
“Have you given ‘Mr. Roses’ any more thought?” Lucie asked her a few days later completely out of the blue.
They were each preparing their input to submit for their departments’ monthly budget and, taking a break, Lucie had peered into her office to ask about Everett.
Surprised by the unexpected salvo—she’d thought she was out of the woods since Lucie hadn’t brought the subject up for several days—Lila answered, “None whatsoever.” She deliberately avoided Lucie’s eyes as she said it.
“You’re lying,” Lucie said.
This time Lila did look up. She shot her a look that was just short of a glare, but Lucie wasn’t intimidated.
“You know how I know?” Lucie asked her.
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