Troubled Waters (The Lake Trilogy, Book 2) (30 page)

“And if you’re actually daring enough to go to Meyer with it in some ridiculous attempt in getting him to admit his wrong-doing, well pick out a matching headstone next to your father’s because that’s where you’re going to end up.

“So pull yourself together and know that you did the best you could. Let us handle things from here, and I swear to God, if you breathe a word of our secret to anyone, you’ll wish you had faced Gregory Meyer’s wrath and not mine.” Wes always has a way of laying everything out on the table and not holding back. You never have to wonder where he stands.

“How do I know that you’re not going to just cut me out of this all together? How can I trust that you’re going to keep me in the loop?” Eli is pissed off and not ready to back down.

“What difference does it make? The goal is to take Meyer down. The
key
is to be patient. You can’t rush this, Eli. You have to know who you’re talking to, who you can trust, and you can’t go shooting off at the mouth. It’s a process that you’re not ready for.” Furtick sighs and I see him approach Eli in a way I didn’t think he used in situations like this. “Listen, Eli,” he says sitting on the coffee table opposite of Eli again. “I know how it feels to have someone take something so important from you. You’re so filled with rage that you can barely see straight. All you want is for that person to pay for what they’ve done. Trust me – I know.

“I thought Meyer was helping me, but…it didn’t take long to realize that Gregory Meyer doesn’t do anything for anyone that isn’t going to benefit him more in the end. He took more from me than I would have lost if I had never met him. We are on the same side. You’ve done your part. Let us take over from here and I
promise
you Meyer will pay.”

Eli looks at me as if I’m his gauge. He barely knows me but somehow is looking to me for some verification of what Wes has just told him…as if whatever I say is going to convince him of what he should do now. This is clear evidence that Wes is right about Eli not being ready. He’s not patient enough to strategically find out who can and can’t be trusted. Were he to carry this investigation any further on his own, I fear he’d most certainly meet the same fate as his father. He just happened to get it right this time with me.

“You can trust us, Eli,” I say to him.

“Ok,” he says after a deep breath and a long beat.

“We’ll be in touch. And I’ll have one of my guys in Charlotte keep an eye on you. He’ll make contact once so you know he’s with us, but after that he’ll be a ghost.” Wes extends his hand and Eli grips it for a hard shake. “Thank you, Eli.”

I help Eli gather what’s left of the contents of his backpack and walk him to the front door. Since Luke and Wes have taken everything but the blank pages in his notebook, the bag is considerably lighter than when he arrived.

“I’m sorry I lied to you, Layla. I just…” he begins.

“It’s ok, Eli. I understand better than you might think. You really can trust us. If you only knew what we’ve all gone through together this last year, you’d know that for sure. And…I know that Wes already threatened you within an inch of your life, but it really is so important, a matter of life and death, that you don’t tell anyone about Will or his mother. You know what Gregory Meyer did to your father for snooping. Imagine what he would do to Will and his mother if he knew they had pulled the wool over his eyes and gotten away with it.”

“You have my word. I want Meyer to pay for what he’s done not only to us, but to everyone whose life he’s destroyed.”

I close the door behind Eli and breathe a sigh of relief. My gut tells me that we don’t have to worry about him. His commitment is to the destruction of Gregory Meyer. If he exposed us then Meyer would have the upper hand and that is the last thing Eli or any of us wants.

I turn from the door and Will’s eyes lock onto mine. My heart drops recalling his harsh words on the dock. With the exception of when he yelled at me after the whole thing with Marcus on Halloween, Will has never had even the slightest disagreeable tone with me. But tonight, he looked almost disgusted with me. My heart breaks a little thinking about his implication that I didn’t want to marry him and I look down at my hands. I play with my engagement ring, twisting it around my finger. I start to take it off but only as a fidgeting move. I get it just past my knuckle when Will is rushing toward me.

“What are you doing?” he says frantically, shoving my ring back into place.

“What?”

“Why are you taking your ring off?”

“Oh…I wasn’t really…I was just fidgeting. I…I’m not taking it off, Will,” I say to reassure him. “But we need to talk.”

“I’m sorry I was harsh outside. You’re right. We did talk about your reasons for not setting a date, and I do understand them,” he says. “Can we just move on…please?”

“No, we can’t
just move on
. Will, you were really mean out there. You took something that was really difficult for me to talk about and discarded it like some lame excuse to not marry you.”

“I…I can’t talk about this right now. I need to check on my mom.” Will walks away, leaving me standing there, alone in more ways than one.

I follow him into the kitchen after the minute it takes me to pull myself together. Luke and Wes have already explained to Eliana what Eli meant when he said that her husband killed his father. I don’t know if Wes has, or ever will, tell her about his part in Alexander Briggs’ death, but I hope our talk helped him put that in perspective. Regardless, I know it has made Wes determined to follow through with the promises he made to Eli.

“I’m sorry I got so upset,” Eliana says.

“It’s ok, Mom. There’s a lot you may not know about Dad,” Will says, taking his mother in his arms. I know she’s going to be even more at peace now as Will’s arms have that effect.

“I know more than you think I do, William. It was just difficult to hear a complete stranger say the words out loud. But…” she says releasing herself from Will and tugging the bottom of her blouse. “That man is not my responsibility any longer. It’s just unfortunate that I won’t be able to testify against him one day.” Eliana moves from Will’s side into Wes’ arms seamlessly. “I have a new life now and I’m not looking back.”

My heart is full watching Eliana and Wes together. He looks at her in ways Gregory Meyer isn’t even capable of looking at anyone. In his eyes she finds the love and honor she was never granted by her husband. I have such high hopes for these two. I see so clearly the redemption and freedom they find in each other and I know that they’re both so happy.

“I’m going to go,” Will says, pulling me aside.

“Where are you going?” I say, confused.

“I’m going home, Layla.”

“I know we’ve had quite a hiccup in our night, but…I thought we were going to talk about setting a date,” I say, tears filling my eyes. I can’t believe Will is walking out when we have an unresolved issue. I walk out of the kitchen, afraid the others will see my tears, pulling Will with me.

“Layla…” Will says following me outside. “You don’t really want to set a wedding date tonight.”

“Is that a question or a statement? Are you telling me what I don’t want to do?”

“Obviously there are some things that you still have unresolved. We can’t set a date while you’re dealing with those things.”

“The only thing that’s unresolved is the fact that my
fiancé
is acting like a total jerk,” I say half shouting.

“I’m being a jerk? You’re the one looking for any reason to avoid setting a date! Do you even want to marry me, Layla?”

“I can’t believe you just said that!” My head hurts already from the shock of his words. I leave him standing on the patio while I retrieve the unreasonable amount of bridal magazines I bought earlier today. When I return I throw the stack down in front of Will. His eyes get bigger watching them slide across the table. “Does this answer your question? You know what, I think you were right. You need to go. Now. Neither one of us is in the right frame of mind to talk about this.”

I don’t even wait to watch him leave. I storm through the door and poke my head into the kitchen.

“Mom…” I can’t even get a full sentence out to Claire.  She looks at me and nods her head, following me upstairs to my room moments after I land on my bed.

“What happened? I didn’t hear what you said, but it was loud, whatever it was,” Claire says lying on the bed next to me.

“We had a fight.”

“That was obvious. What about?”

“He doesn’t think I want to marry him.”

“Why would he think that?” she asks, sitting up and moving me so my head is on her lap.

“Because I’ve been putting off setting a date. We were supposed to do that tonight but then Eli… He thought I was happy for the distraction.”

“Were you?” Claire runs her fingers through my hair, soothing me.

“No…well, I had been putting it off, but, not any more…you saw all the bridal magazines. Mom, I want to marry Will. I just…” I move and throw my face into my pillow. “He really hurt my feelings tonight. You should have heard him. It was like he was disgusted with me or something.”

“So you two had your first fight. What are you going to do about it?” she says matter-of-factly.

“
I’m
not doing anything. He was the one being a jerk!”

“Hmmm…you know, Luke and I were still in law school when we got engaged. We’d had some disagreements, but no real fights. We were under a lot of stress with finishing school, internships, and planning a wedding, so it was no surprise that one of us finally just broke.

“Luke was at my apartment all the time because it was easier to study there than at the house he shared with an ungodly number of guys. Well, I came home from a particularly hard day of classes and the terrible internship I was in to find dirty dishes and the frying pan in the sink and Luke chilled out on my couch with a beer and the last of the leftover pizza. I flipped out, yelled at him about disrespecting me, and threw the frying pan at him. I
threw
a
frying pan
at him. What kind of a crazy person does that? Do you want to know what he did?” I shake my head, not believing that Claire could ever be capable of something so undignified as throwing a frying pan. “He went back to his house and came back thirty minutes later…wearing his old football helmet. Then he looked at me and told me that if we were going to fight he thought he should be better prepared.”

“Oh, my gosh. What did you do?” I say. That’s actually the sweetest, funniest thing I’ve ever heard.

“I laughed and kissed him like I never had before. You see, Layla, I freaked out over something so stupid because I was stressed out over school and life. You and Will have faced more than anyone ever will, and Luke and I are constantly amazed at how well you’ve handled it. You have to cut
each other
some slack when you’re having a hard time dealing with crisis. What happened tonight was a serious threat to everything Will has done to secure your life together. You have to give him space to sort through the fear that ravages him.

“You have no idea how terrified he is. He is literally petrified of losing you. Now, that doesn’t excuse his hurtful words or behavior, but it should give you a point of reference when he says or does something that is uncharacteristic of him. He left everything behind for you, because he loves you.”

“I didn’t ask him to do that,” I say in some kind of defense.

“Oh, but you did. Will told Luke about you asking him if there was any way he could stand up to his father so the two of you could be together.”

“I…I wasn’t seeing it like that. But…you’re right. I asked Will to make it so we could be together and he did. And after all he’s done…I’ve been so stuck in the past. What do I do?” I can’t believe I’ve been so selfish. I challenged Will to stand up to his father, told him that was the only way we could be together. He did that and then risked his
and
his mother’s life so that we could spend the rest of
our
lives together. And then I’m going to get stuck focusing on the pain of my past, and not allow myself to enjoy and live in the love I begged for?
I’m
the jerk!

“Go talk to him,” she says.

“I can’t. I told him to go home.” I put my face in my hands and rub the tightness from it.

“He’s still here. Luke’s telling him the helmet story.” Claire smirks and I see, once again, just how great a team she and Luke are.

When we walk downstairs I half expect Luke and Claire to high five each other, but Luke just gives her a wink and opens the door to the patio for me. As the door closes behind me I stare at Will, sitting at the table with the bridal magazines now neatly stacked in front of him.

“Seventeen. You bought seventeen bridal magazines?” he says, raising his eyebrows and smiling sweetly.

“I told you I wanted to marry you, and…I couldn’t decide which one to get. They all looked overwhelmingly helpful.”

“I’m sorry I was so terrible.” Will stands up and his arms are around my waist in one smooth move. He pulls me tighter to him and kisses the top of my head. “You know…when I met you, I tried really hard to keep my feelings inside. Letting them out had only gotten me, or someone I cared about, hurt. Every time I was with you, though, you made me feel everything so deeply that there was no way I could keep it all in. I felt
everything
like I never had before – love, hate, lust, joy.