Read A Summer Romance for Free Online

here.” She remembered her plan and was grateful that she’d
come up with something to say. She may have been turning to mush on
the inside, but she felt like she was holding it together on the
outside pretty well.
    “Sure.” He smiled up at her again. “I’ve
actually got something for you. I’ll be right back.” He turned and
jogged to his truck that was parked in the driveway. She admired
the view from behind.
    She stood perfectly poised on the front
porch as he retrieved a small paper bag from his truck and returned
to the house. He climbed the steps and stopped in front of her,
lifting his sunglasses from his eyes and resting them on top of his
head. His sparkling blue eyes looked straight into hers and stirred
something deep inside her. She had to turn away and walk into the
house before she whimpered out loud. Without question, it was his
eyes. That was definitely what made her forget her own name.
    “How’s our patient doing?” he asked as they
entered the kitchen.
    “What?”
    “Fred,” he said, gesturing to her plant near
the window. She felt absolutely mortified that he not only knew
that she’d named her plant, but actually remembered the name.
Perhaps he was just humoring her the way kind people do when they
meet someone crazy.
    “Oh… um… he seems alright,” she stuttered as
she handed him a glass of lemonade. Why couldn’t she form an
intelligent sentence around this man?
    “I brought this for him,” he said, holding
up the paper sack. Speechlessly she accepted the bag and looked
inside. It held a small brown plastic bottle.
    “It’s rooting hormone,” he explained. “It
should help with re-establishing a new root system. Works well for
re-potting.” He leaned against the counter casually as he sipped
his lemonade. He seemed completely at ease.
    Maggie was so touched that he’d thought to
bring this for her. She didn’t know what to say. Just then the cat
came wandering into the kitchen and jumped onto the counter. He
immediately crossed to the potted plant and circled around it once
before laying at its base.
    “They seem to have made up.” Aaron smiled,
nodding toward the cat curled around the pot.
    “Yeah, Killer’s made himself right at home,”
Maggie muttered irritably. She couldn’t seem to keep him off the
kitchen counter.
    “Killer?” Aaron laughed. “Oh, come on, I
don’t think he quite deserves that name. I mean, Fred did survive
after all,” he teased her playfully. Maggie still couldn’t believe
how easily he’d accepted her silly little name for her plant.
    “I guess you’re right,” she said, watching
the peacefully sleeping cat. “He doesn’t really look like a
Killer.” She hated to admit it, but the cat was growing on her.
He’d taken to sleeping curled up at her feet when she read in the
library and often accompanied her on walks around the property in
the mornings. His company was kind of nice.
    “So what should we name him?” he asked.
    “Maybe Barney?” she suggested. Aaron laughed
loudly. It was such a genuine carefree laugh that Maggie found
herself smiling with him instead of self-consciously analyzing what
she’d said the way she normally would.
    “Fred and Barney? Really?” Aaron
laughed.
    “I think he looks like a Barney,” Maggie
defended. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling.
    “That he does,” Aaron agreed. “Barney it
is.”
    Maggie smiled as she sipped her lemonade.
She wasn’t really sure if he was flirting or just being nice, but
she liked the way he teased her. She liked that there wasn’t a need
for formal etiquette between them. They were just being themselves.
Two people sipping lemonade and naming a cat.
    “I take it you’re a fan of The Flintstones?”
Aaron surprised her with his insightfulness.
    “It was the only cartoon I ever watched as a
child.” Maggie surprised herself even more with her admission.
    “The only one?”
    Maggie nodded. “My mother didn’t approve of
my watching television,” she