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“Oh.” Genuinely surprised, Heidi relaxed her stance in the chair.
“One thing I’ve found when survivors are involved is that there’s something about each other we just get, and so I feel like a bit of a kindred spirit with you.”
Heidi narrowed her gaze, slightly suspicious of Lila and her motives. She had never experienced that understanding with someone else, even through all of her work and the different kids she had met. It could simply be because she was at a vastly different stage of life than they were, having dealt with her trauma for thirty-plus years, but still, what Lila was talking about was a foreign concept.
“I am curious as to why I keep running into you, though.”
Heidi shrugged. “I’m meeting someone for lunch.”
“The same someone you met the other day?”
Raising a single eyebrow, Heidi took a sip of her drink to bide her time in finding an answer to the question. “Yes.”
“Is this a special someone?”
“Why are you asking?” Heidi’s shoulders tensed, and she put her drink down, folding in to protect herself.
Lila must have caught the move because she put her hands out to try and ward off Heidi’s self-defenses. “I didn’t mean anything by it, honestly. I was just trying to get you to open up more.”
“There are easier ways to do that.”
“Are there?” Lila’s face pinched in suspicion.
Heidi thought about it a moment before shaking her head. “Actually, you’re probably right, there aren’t.”
“Right.” Lila sipped her coffee. “I don’t have a special someone in my life, in case you’re wondering.”
“You were talking about a date.”
“Yes. I did have a date, but not a single person I am committed to.”
Heidi was trying to figure out just what Lila was going on about. It was as if there was some sort of subtlety in her phrasing that she was supposed to understand but didn’t. She wasn’t even sure how to ask a question that would get the answer she was seeking, so she just nodded and pretended like she knew what Lila was talking about.
“I’m also here for a date.”
“Well, then, I should leave you to it.”
Heidi smiled lightly. “She’s running late, so I don’t mind the company.”
Lila grinned, the expression reaching her eyes as she took another sip of her coffee. “I do love a woman who lives on the edge.”
“I hardly live on the edge. I’m quite reserved and practical, actually.”
“I gathered.” Lila had a twinkle in her eye.
Surprised Lila had been able to pick up on that in the brief amount of time they had spent together, Heidi canted her head to the side and tried to figure Lila out. What exactly was her game in all of this? Was it just flirting? Flirting Heidi could handle. In fact, sometimes she thought of herself as an expert at flirting. Ann had thought so too at one point in their relationship and somewhere along the way it had changed into something else, something that never quite came off the way she meant it.
“What are you thinking?” Lila asked, curiosity dripping off each word.
“What on earth do you mean?”
“Your look, it went from vacant to teasing to downright depressed.”
Again, she was taken aback by Lila’s ability to read her. She’d always been told she was a hard read, by literally everyone, including her own mother. Therapists had tried for years to crack her open, and it was rare she could find one so talented and tenacious as to accomplish that task. “It’s nothing important.”
“I doubt that, but I’ll let it pass just this once. Next time I ask though, I’ll expect an answer.”
Heidi swung her gaze over Lila’s shoulder, wondering when Ann would be joining, and if it would make any difference in how this conversation was going if Ann would show up right then and there. Then Lila would know what Heidi’s type was, which was not young, bold, cocky, and downright gorgeous. She preferred women who were a bit more reserved than Lila was proving to be.
