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“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
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
“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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