A WHOLE LOT OF LOVE by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis [Davis, Justine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-24T00:40:52.800000+00:00

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Chapter 9

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This had to stop.

Layla had never been given to fidgeting, but she was learning fast. She'd never been so relentlessly restless as she had been in the past few weeks. Not that she didn't have reason.

She'd been wrong. Quite wrong. At least once a week, more often two or three times, she'd gotten a phone call from Ethan Winslow asking if she was free for lunch. For three straight weeks. And each time, over the fierce protestations of her own common sense, she'd said yes.

It wasn't that she didn't enjoy every minute of the time she spent with him. Well, every minute other than those spent noticing the sidelong glances she got wherever they happened to be.

For all they know, she told herself, it's a business lunch. There certainly wasn't anything going on that would indicate otherwise. They didn't flirt or touch or walk out holding hands, nothing that would make anyone think they were on a date. Because they weren't dates, they were just … lunch. No one could really be thinking they were anything more than casual acquaintances. Or maybe relatives. They could be thinking he was her brother or something.

She determined that that was how she would look at it from now on, however long it lasted. It would be the smartest thing she could do. She knew that.

She also knew it was impossible.

But no one else had to know that. Most especially Ethan. He would probably be completely embarrassed if he knew which way her thoughts were wandering. As would she, if he ever found out. So she would make sure he didn't.

She would enjoy these encounters for what they were and stop projecting her feelings onto them, stop wishing they could be more than they were.

Too bad it was so much easier said than done.

Just relax and be yourself. You're smart, you're exceptionally witty, and whether you believe it or not, you're lovely.

Stephanie's words, so often spoken, rang in her head, but they didn't help much. Stephanie wouldn't be in these straits. She would be comfortable seeing any man's undivided attention as her due, simply because she'd never done without it.

"—million miles away."

She suddenly focused across the table on Ethan, realizing he'd been talking and she'd been … fighting old battles. Rather impulsively she said, "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about … uh, Stephanie."

"Your friend whose family owns the boat?"

She nodded, surprised, and pleased, that he remembered. "You should meet her," she said. "I think you would get along. You have a lot in common." You're both gorgeous, she added silently.

"Oh?"

Layla considered his tone. He seemed receptive. Certainly more than Stephanie had been. So she reached into her purse and pulled out her organizer, opened it to the photo she carried and held it out to him.

It was of herself and Stephanie aboard the Willow, drenched in sun and tousled by the wind, and to her mind it captured the essence of her friend, alive, beautiful, joyous, happy.

"Looks like it was a fun day.

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