The Lake (The Lake Trilogy, Book 1) (16 page)

I did it. My penance is paid and I am…mostly free. Gregory Meyer is the last thing standing in the way of my total and complete freedom. I’m not going to let him ruin this for me. If I can adapt to handle the last five years, I can do anything now
knowing that Will is my prize at the end.

I walk out into the loft and am pleasantly surprised to find Will there, waiting patiently for me on the couch. My heart
skips a beat as he stands and greets me with that brilliant smile of his. He’s sweetly nervous and it makes me smile even brighter.

“Hi,” he says, taking three perfect steps toward me. He has obviously gone home, showered and changed because he’s anything but sweaty and dirty. He’s perfect.
Who am I kidding? Even sweaty and dirty Will is perfect.

“Hi! What’s up
?” I ask full of joy.

“Well, I wanted to ask you something,” he says a bit sheepishly.

“Ok. Ask away.” I bite my lower lip to keep from grinning like a fool.

“Layla, would you please do me the honor of letting me to take you out…on a date…officially…tonight?” He looks at me with a sweet intensity that leaves me breathless.

For a moment I’m speechless. I run through every acceptable answer in my head, from cute to coy to mimicking his intensity. I go for simple honesty and say, “Absolutely.”

Since Will was alone in the loft, I assume he’s already spoken to Luke and Claire about tonight. He’d have to explain why he wanted to wait for me there rather than anywhere else.

It must have been a weird experience for them. I’m sure they expected it at some point, but perhaps not this soon, and certainly not like this. I blame Luke. If he didn’t have Will come to work on the house with him, I wouldn’t have met him again until school started and my plan of pretending to have never met Will Meyer would have gone undisturbed. Not blame, thank.

“Mr. and Mrs. Weston, we’re just going to get some dinner. We won’t be back late, but is there a particular time you’d like Layla home?” Wow. I never thought about this scenario in my whole life. Not the date part, but the old-fashioned chivalry that Will exercises so freely. It fills me with a feeling I’m having difficulty describing. Perhaps this is what being made to feel special feels like.

“As long as she’s home by midnight, I think that’ll be fine.” Luke sounds so parental. I think he likes it. I can tell his caution about my being with Will is not going to wane any time soon, but that’s ok with me. It’s nice being the one taken care of instead of the other way around.

“Thank you…for everything.” I’m so grateful to Luke and Claire for how understanding and supportive they’re being. It is the most important element
in my ability to move on with my life. I felt stunted for so many years, and now it’s like the chains have been released. I’m free to give and receive love, and to reclaim myself.

Will unlocks and holds the passenger side door open of his car for me and I get in. I watch him walk in front of the car, making his way to the driver’s door. As if in slow motion, I see every movement he makes. One arm swings at his side while he runs his other hand through his hair. He smiles and I wonder what just ran across his mind. As his seatbelt clicks into place he looks at me with his irresistible blue eyes and I’m gone.

We drive down the tree-lined streets of the neighborhood and I can’t help but be nervous. This isn’t just
our
first date, it’s
my
first date, and here I am with Will. He’s more than I could have ever dreamed of for myself, and he wants to be with
me
. I’m certain I don’t deserve him, but I’ll ride this out as long as I possibly can.

We get to a light and Will turns to me. “You look beautiful, by the way. I like your hair down like that.”

I smile and say thank you as I realize he’s never seen me with my hair down. I wanted this to be special, so I put some actual effort into how I looked and changed my clothes and did my hair before we left. My pride in having achieved my goal is shoved aside when the awareness of what is happening occurs to me. It makes me so nervous that I consider shielding my face from the window.

“Will, aren’t people going to see us out together? I mean, if someone sees us, and tells your father…”

“We don’t need to worry about that where we’re going. I have an idea for tonight that I think you’ll like.” He glances at me once to see my reaction, but quickly put his eyes back on the road.

“I’m sure whatever you have planned will be great.” I mean it. I really don’t care what we do. I don’t have anything to compare it to anyway. I just want to be there, with him. If Will thinks we’ll be ok, then I trust him. “Am I…dressed ok?” I stutter out.

“You look perfect. Beautiful.” He looks at me for a long time and I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks and my body temperature rising. There’s something about being alone with Will that makes me know that I am being forever changed. I can feel the warmth of his body,
and smell his cologne. It’s comforting, natural.

Will reaches over and quietly takes my hand in his. “Is this…ok?” he asks.

“Always,” I tell him. I can’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t want Will to hold my hand.

We pull into the parking lot of a small shopping center. It isn’t new and trendy like the one I went to with Claire. This one is definitely older. There’s a department store, a hair salon, and a hole in the wall bar, among some other odds and ends places. Will opens my door, as I am learning to allow, and we walk to the sidewalk in front of the stores. He leads us to a grocery store and as we walk in I immediately think,
we’re going grocery shopping?

He stops my thought process in its tracks. “We’re not going grocery shopping.” If he can really read my mind, I’m going to be in big trouble. He picks up a shopping basket and takes us through the store. He obviously knows where he’s going, so I just follow.

“I’m going to give you one tiny glimpse into my plan. This place makes great gourmet sandwiches. Pick out anything you want. They’re all really good.” Whatever his idea is, he is so pleased with himself. He’s grinning from ear to ear and I can see he really wants to make this special.

He points out the ready-made sandwiches and I pick chicken salad with tarragon mayo. I’m not sure if I’ll like it, but it sounds good. Will chooses some kind of ham and cheese. He also puts a big bag of Baked Lays, and fork/knife/napkin packets in the basket.

“Do you like coleslaw, or maybe potato salad? Or maybe just some of these olives?” His coolness is leaving him and he’s starting to act nervous. It makes me nervous, too, so I look around to see if anyone has spotted us. There are only few people in the store, and no one I recognize, of course. No one seems to be looking at us, so I guess we’re in the clear.

Then
I realize he’s nervous because he wants this to be so special for me that it’s making him worried. I make it my goal to spend every minute of my time with Will letting him know that everything he does makes me feel special. I never want him to worry about that.

“Uh…coleslaw is good. And I like olives, so…whatever you want is great.”

“I’ll get both. What would you like to drink?” He directs me to the cooler next to the deli section where I don’t recognize any of the soda brands. I choose cream soda because, well, you can’t go wrong with cream soda.

As we walk back to the car Will’s nervousness
is dissolving. He lets me in on my side and then puts our dinner in the trunk. When he gets back in the car he’s smiling again. His confidence is returning and I feel a wave of peace come over me.

We’ve mixed in with the traffic already when I ask, “So, can I have a clue as to what we’re doing
because so far we just ran an errand.” I giggle.

“No clues. You’ll see soon enough. I think you’re going to love it.” We’re at a red light already so he holds his piercing blue eyes on me a moment longer. Waves of emotion wash over me every time his eyes meet mine. I live for these moments. It’s in these moments that the rest of the world vanishes into nothing, and all I see is Will and
myself. The pain of my past is gone and I see a future ahead of me, filled with joy. “You know, that’s become my favorite sound in the whole world.”

“What sound?”

“Your laugh. The first time I really heard it was the night I stayed for dinner. We sat on the dock together and that was the night that I knew I wanted to be with you.” His tone is smooth and confident, and I am, again, overwhelmed with joy that this is my life now.

“Well…I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot of it.” I can’t control my smile. I’ve come undone and Will Meyer is the source. I want to feel this way forever.

The light turns green and we’re headed back in the direction of home. We take the exit off the highway and then turn into our neighborhood. We’re clearly going back to Luke and Claire’s. I’m confused. Are we going to watch a movie or just hang out? If so, why all the fuss to go pick up food? We could have ordered in.

We pull into the circular driveway and Will parks parallel to the front door. As I get out of the car
, Will retrieves our dinner from the trunk along with a backpack. Closing the trunk he looks me square in the eyes and says, “Ready?”

What I want to tell him is that I’m ready for anything as long as it’s with him. I sum up my feelings and say, “Absolutely.”

Will grabs my hand and I follow him around the side of the house wondering why we aren’t using the front door. It’s beginning to get dark, but there is plenty of light in the backyard. We walk across the patio and follow the flagstone path to the dock, both silent every step of the way. The only sound I hear is the occasional snapping twig and my excited heartbeat. Will stops when we get to where the path ends and the dock begins.

He pauses a moment and then says, “Wait here for a sec.”

I’d wait an eternity for you.

He hands me the bag with our dinner and walks out onto the dock. Taking the backpack off, he crouches down and opens it. From it he pulls a huge red blanket and spreads it out. The deep color against the white painted dock is striking in the light orange hues of the sunset. He sets out two plates, which look like they’re made of glass so I’m impressed they didn’t break in the bag. He takes the food and gestures for me to sit on the blanket.

My heart is racing and my mouth is dry. As I sit down and crisscross my legs, I’m very glad I wore shorts. My first option was a skirt, which would have increased my nervousness by a million percent in this moment. The sun is setting behind the trees and the sky is filled with orange and purple hues. It’s my favorite time of day.

The water is still with the exception of the occasional fish coming up to kiss the underside of its home. Will sits at an angle next to me so that we can face both each other and the lake. I can smell his cologne again. It’s a clean scent that suits him well and only adds to the physical part of my attraction to him.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Will reaches into the backpack and fishes out a flashlight. He switches it on and off to show me that it works. “For later. I can’t have you stumbling all over the place,” he jests.

“Oh, are we going to be here that long?” I tease him back.

“You don’t have to be back until midnight. The lights go out at eleven so I’ve got an hour with you in the dark.” There’s passion in his eyes and I have to catch my breath. This can’t be real. I want to pinch myself and wake up. I’m certain if this dream goes on any longer I’ll somehow mess it up completely. I drop my head in awe and embarrassment, focusing my attention on unwrapping my sandwich. My heart and mind are at war. It feels so natural and right to be with Will like this, but I have no point of reference, no words of wisdom passed down to me to know what to do. I don’t want to look like a fool.

“So…is this ok?” He’s slow in his speech and cautious with his words. He can tell I’m feeling overwhelmed.

“It’s wonderful. Thank you,” I say. “You’re really working on making this
better than nice
, aren’t you?”

“Is it working?” he says.

“It’s definitely better than nice. It’s perfect, Will.” I can feel the rush of heat to my cheeks and I bite my lip again to keep the Cheshire grin I’m fighting from revealing itself.

“Layla, I know that us being together isn’t going to be the smoothest thing. But I want you to know that in every moment, no matter what happens,
you
are where my heart is.” He sighs, frustrated, hesitant to say what’s on his mind. “My father…he corners me into doing a lot of things I don’t want to do. I need you to understand that I don’t want to be with anyone else. I want to be with you.”

Corners him into doing what?
I think, but don’t dare ask aloud. “I understand, Will. I don’t want anyone else either.” Will brushes my cheek with his hand and I feel warm all over.

That’s enough intensity for now so I awkwardly change the subject. “So…we never really talked about our hiking adventure to Grandfather Mountain. I’m glad I went. And I didn’t fall once!” We both chuckle. “I felt like an idiot though. Every time I turned around, someone was catching me staring in awe with my mouth gaping open.”

“We don’t do that enough. We’re so used to the scenery that we take it for granted. Having you around is refreshing…in a lot of ways.” His silky voice makes it hard to concentrate. He could recite the Gettysburg Address and I would still be smitten. “Gwen and Caroline are crazy about you, you know. They’re happy to have another girl in the group so they’re not outnumbered. The guys think you’re pretty great, too. Like I said before, you’re refreshing.”