Safe Harbor (The Lake Trilogy, Book 3) Read online

  “I’m sorry things weren’t different for you, Will. You missed out on having a real father for the first 20 years of your life, but you’ve got us now, and I’m happy to share Luke with you. Since he’s my dad now, and you’re going to be my husband, that makes him your father-in-law. So, I know it’s not the same thing, but I hope you’ll embrace it.” My hopeful eyes reach Will’s. He’s smiling and shaking his head.

  “No, it’s not the same thing. It’s better.”

  Chapter 3

  Will and I walk across the quad and somehow the campus feels a little darker now. Our impending departure ahead of us, I take better note of the placement of trees, how many steps from one building to another, and how the steel handle on the door to the coffee shop feels in my hand. Today that handle is warm as I pull the door open and stroll in to find Finn in his usual place.

  He’s smiling, as he always is. My stomach flips and my face contorts a little at the thought of not seeing him again.

  “What’s wrong?” Will asks, noticing the change in my expression.

  “I was just thinking how sad it will be to never see Finn again,” I tell him.

  “Layla, just because we’re moving back to Davidson doesn’t mean we have to say goodbye to everyone here forever. It won’t be like it was when we moved here. Once everything is out in the open, you can tell whomever you want. There won’t be any more threat to us. And...since we’re still getting married in the gardens, Finn will be there.” Will smiles, making my heart swell.

  “Thank you. Hmm…I guess I’m going to have to get used to not hiding things from people. Not everyone will understand, but I suppose that’s how you weed out the real friends from the superficial ones. To be honest, I was starting to feel pretty sad about Finn not being at our wedding…whenever it is.” I’ve grown to really care about Finn. His friendship reminds me so much of my friendship with Tyler. He’s funny and honest and I’ve always felt safe around him.

  “Hey Layla, John! What’s up? You look like someone just ran over your cat, Layla.” Finn’s half-joking, half-serious inquiry into my state of being stings a little. I want to tell him about the drama that has been my existence for the last seven years, and the resolution that seems to be unfolding now, but I can’t…not yet at least. For now we’ll have to concoct a story that will send John, my parents, and me back to North Carolina. It was one thing to withhold information from Finn, but it feels entirely different to have to lie to him.

  “My dad just died,” Will tells him. My eyes just about pop out of my head and Will has to squeeze my hand to calm me down. I suppose that’s one way of going about it! Will was always good about not flat out lying to people about our pasts, but throwing in enough truth to not have to explain the whole thing. I wasn’t expecting him to be so straightforward with Finn, though.

  “Oh my gosh, John! I’m so sorry,” Finn says, leaving his mouth agape. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you already be back home?”

  “We weren’t close at all, but there are some family issues that have to be settled, so Layla and I will be moving back.”

  “Wow…well, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?” Finn’s response is soft and guarded and I can’t help but wonder if he doesn’t believe Will.

  “I’m just going to run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back, babe,” Will kisses my cheek and makes his way to the back of the coffee shop.

  “Ok, tell me what’s really going on,” Finn demands, drawing my eyes away from watching Will walk away.

  “It’s true. His dad died.” My answer is short, like Wes taught me. Never give more answer than someone else’s question.

  “But moving back? Back where? And what about the wedding? Doesn’t this seem a bit extreme?” Finn’s protectiveness is sweet and I almost break down and spill everything to him.

  “It’s a long story, Finn, one I’ll be able to tell you at some point, I promise.” Finn spreads a distrusting smirk across his face. “Trust me. There’s nothing to worry about with John, ok?”

  Finn breathes a heavy sigh of disbelief, but concedes anyway. “Alright, but you have to promise to spill the beans.”

  “I promise.”

  “You’re making promises to other men?” Will asks teasingly, sliding his arm around my waist.

  “I was just promising Finn that I would tell him our whole story one day.” Taking a page from Will’s book of not-technically-lying feels great. I adore Finn and desperately want to tell him everything I’ve been through and conquered, and everything Will has done to make it possible for us to be together. If I learned anything during the time I couldn’t tell Caroline or Tyler what was going on with us, it’s that I’ve undone the damage Gram did. I don’t want to hold my feelings in anymore. I want to share my life with people.

  “I think that sounds like a great plan. Maybe I’ll tell him at my bachelor party,” Will says, smiling his invitation to Finn.

  “Really? You want me to come to your bachelor party?” Finn is shocked and I love it! He’s the kind of guy that is really hard to surprise. I wish I had known Will was going to invite him. I would have taken my phone out and videoed it.

  “Absolutely! Although…I’m not sure if Layla told you, but, with everything going on with my father’s death and us moving, we’re postponing the wedding. It won’t be more than a year, and we’re still getting married in the gardens. Are you in?”

  This is the first I’ve heard Will put a time frame on our rescheduled wedding and I’m put at ease. I haven’t wanted to bring up setting a new date. It’s not because I’m afraid to. We’ve had enough conversations about being open and honest, especially right now. It’s because I didn’t want to overwhelm Will. There are a lot of cogs in this machine that we’re trying to navigate and I didn’t want to throw a wrench in and knock everything out of whack.

  As Will and Finn discuss what constitutes a bachelor party, I start running through seasons and dates in my head, wondering when things really will be settled enough for us to have our own little destination wedding. I chuckle to myself thinking of the absurdity of Tallahassee being a destination wedding location. Fall will be too busy getting back into the swing of things back in Davidson and with school…a new school at that. Winter is too chilly for an outdoor wedding, even in Tallahassee. That brings us to spring next year at the earliest. Well, at least the weather will be beautiful.

  “This is why you need me there!” I hear Finn say as my mind rejoins their conversation. “Neither one of us is interested in seeing some skanky girl grind up on you!”

  “Um…I know I spaced out there for a minute, but…I came in at the weirdest part of this conversation.” I can feel my face scrunch together in confusion. Will immediately recognizes this expression and rescues me.

  “I was just telling Finn about how Tyler has been joking that he’s going to hire strippers for my bachelor party,” Will explains.

  “Oh, really?” I say, pretending to get upset with him. I smile, though, because he knows that I know he would never go for that…which is why Tyler pretends to threaten him with it. Will is literally the most loyal boyfriend out there. Sometimes he even turns his head away during love scenes in movies. One time, we were walking across campus and there was a girl wearing a barely-there bikini top. I said something like, “Whoa! Can you believe that girl?” and Will said, “What girl?” That’s my Will.

  “Great! When we get the date re-set I’ll have Tyler call you and you guys can put it all together. I’m trusting you to keep Tyler in line!” Will and Finn laugh together knowing that there really isn’t anything to be worried about. They’ll probably go bowling or four-wheeling or do some other manly-type activity. “Oh my gosh! We’ve got to go, babe,” Will says checking his watch.

  There’s all this urgency now that we’re moving back to Davidson and trying to figure out how exactly to do that. Will is worried that the press will dig into my past, working to find out who the girl worth faking your death for really is. There isn’t anyt
hing juicy to find, but he said he refuses to let them hurt me by bringing up my parents’ death or my father’s arrest and the details surrounding the explosion that killed three people. He also thinks they’ll start speculating about my interest in Will’s fortune. Most of the time I’m sure I can handle it, but sometimes my imagination runs wild and I have visions of fainting or going Sean Penn on some photographer.

  Finn gives me a wink as we say our goodbyes and I know that Will’s candor and invitation to help plan his bachelor party has put him at ease.

  “I’m not so worried anymore,” I say to Will when we’re about halfway across the quad.

  “That’s good. What were you worried about?” he asks taking my hand in his.

  “Well…I was worried our wedding would be postponed indefinitely. To be honest, it was kind of killing me.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Will stops and turns me to him, locking his serious, blue eyes on mine. He takes the level of our honesty with each other very seriously now that we have promised not to hold back anymore.

  “I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. I was just trying to give your brain some room to move. You’ve got so much going on in there. Between school and working with Luke to navigate how we’re going to bring you back from the dead, my bridal woes are low on the totem pole. It’s ok, Will. It was just nice to hear you tell Finn the new wedding date would be no more than a year away.” I smile trying to make Will understand that it really is ok. I’m not upset that we haven’t talked about a new wedding date, and I truly have just wanted to give him space to figure all the other complicated details out. I just figured that we wouldn’t be able to even approach that subject until everything was under control.

  Will cocks his head to one side and looks to the sky. I can almost see the wheels turning in his head. “Come on,” he says, taking my hand and almost dragging me the rest of the way to the car.

  “What are you doing?” I’m trying to keep up with Will’s long legs. It’s a challenge when he’s walking so quickly.

  “Just come on,” he answers with a smirk.

  We get in the car and I barely have my seatbelt on before Will is out of the parking lot and heading for the highway. He hasn’t wiped that smile off his face and I know he’s got something up his sleeve. It’s the same look he had on our first date when he surprised me with a picnic on the dock, and the same one he had the night he walked me along the dock to my proposal. Of course, the night of my proposal the smirk disappeared and was replaced by a look of passion and hope.

  About ten minutes down the road Will tells me to close my eyes, still having not told me anything about where we’re going or what we’re doing.

  “We aren’t going home? Why am I closing my eyes?” I ask in pouty protest.

  “Stop being such a girl and close your eyes!” he says, giving me a quick poke in my side, causing me to flail slightly from how ticklish I am.

  “Alright, alright! Geez! You got anything back there I can wrap around my eyes like a blindfold? I don’t want to get tickled again for accidentally peeking!”

  “Uh, I might…oh wait…all that’s back there is my gym bag and you do not want any of that on your face. But…if you peek you might suffer the gym sock punishment!”

  “Eww, gross! No! I’ll keep them closed, I promise!” I reach my body across the console and give Will a quick kiss on the cheek. It’s moments like this that I love the most. I feel young and alive and just know that everything is going to work out perfectly.

  The car stops about ten minutes later and I have no idea where we are. I was obedient to a fault, keeping my eyes closed the entire time. At first I tried to gauge where we were by the turns, but gave up after the first one realizing the only way I’d have a clue is if I had seen which exit we took.

  “Keep them closed,” Will instructs as he helps me from the car.

  I take Will’s hand, feeling its strength and the deepest assurance of safety when my hand is enclosed in his. We walk on hard ground for a few minutes, move to softer terrain, and then back to solid ground. I don’t open my eyes when we stop since Will hasn’t told me to open them yet. When he does, I have to close them again in a vain attempt to stop the tears.

  We’re standing in the exact spot in the garden where our wedding is to be held. The round courtyard is as beautiful as I remember. The green, leafy plants and flowers explode with color against the red brink, and make visions of my wedding day run through my mind like a film strip.

  I can picture Caroline in a strapless, pale yellow dress, and Tyler in a white shirt, grey pants, and a yellow tie that matches Caroline’s dress perfectly. Claire is patting tears from her eyes as she watches Luke walk me down the red brick path to Will. My arm is locked with Luke’s and he’s gripping my hand with his. The huge bouquet of white and yellow tulips I’m carrying is wired so they’re all standing at perfect attention as I make my way down the path. When I see Will, dressed so handsomely like Tyler, only with a grey tie, a wave of pure, unadulterated joy washes over me. He smiles at me and I know that despite the tragedy that brought me there, going to live with Luke and Claire was the best decision I ever made.

  “Don’t cry,” Will says as he wipes the tears from my face. I open my eyes, releasing my vision back into my imagination. “I don’t think I can wait a year to marry you, Layla.”

  “It’ll go by fast. I mean we’ve waited this long, right?” I say as I try to fix the mess that I’m sure my eyeliner has made under my lashes. “There’s plenty to occupy our time, that’s for sure.”

  “Hmm…” Will’s lips form a hard line and I recognize this as his thinking face.

  “What’s going through that brilliant brain of yours?” I start to take a step back, just so I can give him a suspicious look, but he takes both my hands in his and steadies me back to him, locking his bluer than blue eyes with mine.

  “I, Will, take you, Layla, to be my wife,” he starts. Tears immediately fill my eyes again as I realize what Will is doing. He’s giving us our own private wedding, right here, right now. “I promise to love you every day more than the day before. I will take care of you, and protect you, keeping you safe from anything that would cause you pain. I’ll be your best friend as you are mine-encouraging you, supporting you, and sharing my life with you. I will live each day with my only goal being to make you happy. I promise to communicate with you, and never leave you out of any decision because we are one. This is my solemn vow to you, and it will never be broken.”

  Tears are streaming down my face and I don’t attempt to stop a single one of them. I am the luckiest girl on the planet. Standing before me is a man who loves me so passionately that he can’t stand the thought of waiting any longer to make his vows to me. I feel like being impetuous and taking him to the courthouse to get married right now. I don’t care about the flowers or venue or even my mother’s wedding dress. I only care about marrying Will and spending the rest of my life as his wife. I’m not impetuous, though, because more than anything I want to be with Will right here, right now, in this moment.

  He spoke so eloquently, as he always does, probably having already thought out, and perhaps written out, his vows. I’ve thought of them some, but not enough to lay them out as well as he just did. I think for a second about not saying anything. That maybe I’ll just kiss him and he’ll know, but I can’t do that. I can’t leave his beautiful words of commitment to me hanging out there without reciprocating, so I open my mouth and decide to let whatever is in my heart come out.

  “I, Layla, take you, Will, to be my husband. I promise to love you every day with a love you never imagined was possible. I will let you take care of me as I will take care of you. I promise to encourage and support you, to be there, all the time, no matter what. I promise to never be afraid because I know you will always be by my side. I’ll be your partner, sharing my life with you, knowing that all my dreams, even the ones I didn’t know I had, will come true. And I will spend my life making sure that we
not only have the best days to come, but that we have the best string of yesterdays anyone’s ever known. This is my vow to you, and it will never be broken.”

  We stand there for only a moment, our eyes locked on each other in this beautiful moment, before Will takes my face in his hands and kisses me. The world around us seems to disappear as our lips move together in perfection. It’s exactly as I imagined the first kiss after our vows would be. It’s beautiful and slow, full of love and every emotion we have for each other. Now I know why the first thing couples do after they say their vows is kiss. It seems to me that there’s no way you can start your marriage with a kiss like this and ever fall out of love.

  Chapter 4

  We hold each other there, both amazed at what we’ve just shared. At this point I almost don’t care if we ever have a real wedding. I’ve been married to Will in my heart since the moment I told him I loved him, and now that I’ve said my vows to him, that union with him is even more solidified.

  Without a word, Will takes my hand and gently tugs, forcing my cemented feet to move. We walk down the brick path that has become my personal cloud nine and don’t stop until we reach a clearing along Lake Hall. It’s perfect, really. All the plans we had for our wedding day, filled with people and music and dancing and food…they were wonderful plans. They are wonderful plans. Standing here with Will right now, though…this couldn’t be a more picture-perfect ending to the day I married Will.

  “You’re not going to apologize now, are you?” I ask. Will has a history of apologizing after we’ve shared some incredibly beautiful moments and I don’t want him to spoil this wonderful memory.