“Oh, come on! If you agree, I’ll pay my speeding tickets,” she said with a grin.
“It might be a good idea to do that anyway. You’re not exactly in a place to negotiate right now.”
Layla’s heart sunk. She should have known that Will wouldn’t help her. He was always making her life harder. Not easier. She chewed on the edge of her bright-red acrylic nail.
“You and I have something in common,” Will said.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t do relationships either. I can’t risk even a fake relationship with you. I just went through a nasty divorce.”
Layla had heard about that. Mrs. Wheaton had given her mom all the details, and Layla had heard about them whether she liked it or not. Apparently, his ex-wife had cheated on him with the town surgeon, one of Taylor’s coworkers. The cheating couple ended up moving to Texas or someplace when the surgeon took a job out of state. But Layla hadn’t thought of that when she’d grabbed Will and kissed him.
Shame burned her cheeks, and she pushed up from the table. “I’m sorry to have bothered you about all of this. I won’t trouble you with it again.”
She walked across the tavern to where Onyx still sat at the bar.
“You look really good with Will,” Onyx told her.
“Think so?” Layla asked.
“When are you coming to my shop to try on a wedding dress?” Onyx asked. “Ooh! You need to see this gorgeous vintage lace dress that I just got in. It would look fantastic with your skin tone.”
“We’re not quite to that point yet,” Layla said. “But you’ll be the first to know when we are.” Was she going to have to tell Onyx the truth? She really didn’t want to. Humiliation from Will’s rejection burned on her cheeks.
She looked over her shoulder at Will. He’d moved back to the pool table and had started a game with Taylor and a few other guys.
Just then, Will’s words sunk into her mind. He’d said he didn’t do relationships. Did that mean he’d been thinking this might turn real? Or that it was already getting too real for him? Their kiss had been pretty incredible, and it had definitely caught her off guard. But with her mom on her case so heavily, she hadn’t allowed herself to stop and think about their kiss and what it might have meant to Will.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She refused to allow her mind to go down the road of wondering how Will felt about their kiss. Because wherever it led, she couldn’t go. She just couldn’t.
Chapter 3
Will said goodbye to Ryan Seal, the owner of Accounting Solutions, and stepped out onto Main Street. Ryan had just reported a robbery, and Will was investigating it. Directly across the street, with an excellent view of the accounting firm, stood Fresh Cut Flowers, the floral shop Layla owned. Will had promised himself at the tavern last night that he was going to steer clear of Layla. But duty called.
He walked through the crosswalk to the other side of the street and opened the door to Layla’s shop. A cheerful bell rang as he entered, and the scent of flowers hit his nose immediately. Layla stood behind the counter, looking up at him in surprise.
“Change your mind?” she asked with a hopeful expression. Her brown waves were partially pulled back with a few tendrils framing her face. Why did she have to look so beautiful? He’d spent the night tossing and turning, thinking about the kiss they’d shared.
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t changed my mind. I’m here because of a robbery across the street at Accounting Solutions. Were you here last night? Ryan’s office was broken into sometime after nine, and we’re looking for witnesses.”
“Oh, no!” Layla said. “Poor Ryan. I’ll have to take him some flowers to cheer him up. He always does such a great job on my taxes. And my books would be a disaster without him. But to answer your question, I wasn’t here last night. I was at the tavern with you, remember?”
“Of course, but you didn’t stop by here or even drive past?” Will asked.
“No. I went straight home. I didn’t even pass by here. I keep telling Ryan he needs to install a security camera at his office.”
“If there’s anything you can think of that may help Ryan’s case, please give me a call.” Will pulled a business card from his pocket and placed it on the countertop before Layla.
She picked it up with a coy smile. “You sure you don’t just want to give me your number?”
Will cleared his throat. “That’s my business number.” He looked back into Layla’s brown eyes. They were so full of life. Always dancing with laughter and fun. “You know, if you’d wanted to convince your mom that we were actually together, you should have told her we had just gone on a first date. That would have been a lot more believable than an engagement. You could have added in the engagement later.”
“Are you saying you’re considering it?” Layla asked, a teasing glint in her eyes.
“No, I’m not saying that at all.” Then why did he bring it up? Was there a part of him that wanted to play along with Layla’s fake engagement? Maybe it could be fun. He’d been so focused on work, a little bit of fun couldn’t hurt, could it?
But who was he kidding? He was the chief of police. He couldn’t go around pretending to be engaged to someone. Could he?
On Tuesday night, Will went to Dixie’s to shoot some pool with Taylor before heading home. He aimed carefully and then knocked a ball into the corner pocket. He’d been working all day to find a list of suspects for Ryan’s robbery. He’d been scouring lists of Ryan’s clients and employees, checking to see if any of them had criminal records. Ryan said he didn’t normally store large amounts of cash at the office, but a client had just dropped off forty thousand dollars in cash. Ryan’s employee Joe had handled the transaction on a day Ryan was out of the office. Joe had meant to deposit it in the bank for the client immediately but had gotten caught up with several other clients, and the bank had closed for the weekend. When Ryan got back to the office Monday morning, the glass door was shattered, and the money was gone.
One of the clients, Judson Carter, had a criminal record. The guy was a real creep, and his alibi hadn’t checked out. He’d been convicted of a couple of robberies and was a known wife beater. It just so happened that he was at the bar and had been drinking heavily that night. Jud was his number one suspect.
He made another shot, knocking three more balls into various pockets simultaneously. He really was on top of his pool game tonight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jud leaning toward the gorgeous brunette next to him. Her back was to him, so he couldn’t see her face. She angled her body toward Jud, and Will’s stomach clenched as he recognized her. It was Layla. As she took in whatever Jud was saying, her expression changed from her usually bubbly persona to disgust.
“You okay?” Taylor asked, glancing at Will.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Will’s hand tightened around his pool stick, and he had to put it down so he didn’t charge across the room to beat Jud upside the head with it. He glanced across the room again to where Layla sat with Onyx just in time to see Jud reach out and touch a lock of Layla’s hair.
“I’ll be right back, Taylor,” Will said, zeroing in on Layla. “I need to take care of something. Police business,” he added. He didn’t want Taylor to get on his case again after the teasing he’d given him after Layla had pulled him aside at Dixie’s the other night.
“Oh, sure,” Taylor mocked. “Police business, huh?”
Will didn’t answer him. Instead he crossed the room to Layla and Onyx.
“Step away from Layla, Judson.”
“Chief Vance,” Judson gave him a toothy smile. Several of his teeth were discolored, crooked, or missing altogether, and even from several feet away he could smell the rotting-garbage odor wafting from his mouth.
“Will,” Layla put her hand on his arm, and his body tensed. Her touch sent a jolt though him, and he immediately thought about how amazing their kiss had been. Both kisses. He turned toward her.
“I can take care of myself, Will. You don’t need to protect me,” Layla said.
“Is Judson bothering you?”
She pulled her hand away. “I was handling it just fine.”
“So, in other words, yes,” Will said, turning to Jud with a threatening look. He clenched his fist at his side, ready to put the creep in his place, but Layla’s hand was back on his arm and he uncurled his fist.
“Just go back and enjoy your game of pool with Taylor. I’ll be fine over here, okay?” Layla assured him.
Will took a step back. “Okay.” It took everything in him to return to the pool table.
As he walked away, he heard Onyx say, “That was the sweetest thing ever. You really do have an amazing guy.”
Did Layla tell Onyx that they were engaged? He shook his head and chuckled to himself. Layla was something else. He wondered how long Layla was going to be able to keep up the lie if he didn’t play the part.
For the next hour, he kept glancing over to where Layla was sitting. Guy after guy came to hit on her. And for some reason, Will couldn’t concentrate on his game anymore, and he ended up losing three times in a row.
“Someone’s distracted tonight,” Taylor teased.
“No more distracted than you. I’ve seen you check Onyx out more than once tonight,” Will shot back.
“I think she hates me,” Taylor said. “She keeps giving me death glares.”
“Why?” Will asked.
“I have no idea. She’s a weird girl.”
“A weird girl you can’t keep your eyes off of,” Will pointed out.
A few minutes later, Will went to the bar to get a refill and saw Chris Trapp hovering around Layla with his dorky striped polo shirt and buck teeth. Wasn’t that the guy Layla said her mom wanted to set her up with? He was all over her. And she was laughing at something he’d just said. Then, like her laughter had given him the courage, he reached out to stroke Layla’s hair. She shrunk away from his touch, and her face turned a bit green. That was it. Will couldn’t take another second. And that was when he made a snap decision to act on an impulse.
He walked up to Layla and put his arm around her shoulder. She turned to him, her eyes wide with surprise, and he pressed his lips to her head. Her hair smelled fresh, like vanilla shampoo. He could get lost in that smell forever. “Just play along,” he murmured against her ear, repeating the words she’d said to him Sunday morning. Then he raised his voice for all to hear. “You ready to get out of here, baby?”
“Baby?” Chris scoffed. “What, are you guys, like, together or something?” Will could hear the anger lacing his tone. Clearly, Chris had wanted Layla all to himself.
“Yeah,” Will said, entwining her fingers with his. “We’re ‘like, together.’”
Chris looked back and forth between them like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. As much as he didn’t like the guy, he couldn’t really blame him for questioning their relationship status. He’d basically ignored Layla all night. He would never have treated a real girlfriend so terribly. But it couldn’t be helped. All he knew was he couldn’t stomach one more guy putting his hands on Layla. And especially not this guy. And he could tell Chris was making her uncomfortable.
Layla turned to him with a triumphant smile. “I’m ready to go if you are.”
Will pulled some cash from his wallet and paid for their tabs. Layla looked like she wanted to protest but then noticed Chris scrutinizing her and clamped her mouth shut. She hopped down from her barstool and followed Will as he led her out to the parking lot. “Did you drive tonight?”
“No, I walked. I just live around the corner,” Layla said.
“Would you like me to walk you home?” Will asked.
“Sure.” They walked together in silence for a moment before Layla spoke up again. “I know I told you I can take care of myself, but I want to thank you for coming over when you did. Chris creeps me out. I can’t really put my finger on it, but there’s something about him that just feels off. I don’t know. I’m probably overthinking it. He’s probably harmless, just a little pushy. It’s like he doesn’t understands social cues.”
“Oh, I think he understands them just fine. He just doesn’t respect boundaries.”
“You think so?” Layla asked.
How could she be so naïve? The guy had predator written all over him. Will had spent his entire adult life studying criminals, and the more he saw of Chris, the more he began to see red flags.
“I’ve decided to take you up on your offer of a fake engagement.”
“Why now?”
“I don’t like the way Chris looks at you.”
“I told you I can take care of myself.”
“I know. Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, I thought about it, and it sounds like it could be fun.”
“You? Fun? I didn’t know you had that word in your vocabulary.”
“Are you saying I take life too seriously?” Will asked.
“Obviously. You’re the definition of serious.”
“That’s not true. I know how to have fun just like anyone else,” Will said defensively.
Layla rolled her eyes. “Sure, whatever you say. My grandma is eighty-seven, and she knows how to have more fun than you do.”
“I know this about your grandma. I’ve been called more than once on a noise complaint connected with her in one way or another.”
Layla giggled, and Will found it so endearing he wanted to pull her into his arms and tickle her relentlessly.
“So let’s talk about how this fake romance is going to work,” Will said.
“Yes. We need some ground rules,” Layla agreed.
“What did you have in mind?”
“We need a ring. Because I sort of told my mom it was getting sized.”
Will scowled. “A ring? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“We can just get one of those cubic zirconium ones.”
“Ok, fine. I’ll get you a ring.”
“Great. Next, we need to pick a time for us to break up. Don’t think this thing is turning into anything real. I don’t do relationships. Nothing has changed,” Layla said.
“That won’t be a problem. Remember, I’m fresh out of a divorce. I’m not looking for a relationship either. So let’s plan to break up before Christmas.”
“That works for me.” Layla crossed her arms as they walked in the dim light the occasional streetlamp gave off. “Oh, one more rule.”
“What’s that?” Will asked.
Layla turned and looked at Will with a flirty smile. “No kissing.”
The girl was a tease. “How are we supposed to convince anyone that we’re a real couple if we can’t kiss?” Will asked.
“We’ll just tell them we don’t like PDA,” Layla said like it was the answer to everything.
“Ok, fine.” He didn’t like it, but he understood why she would come up with a rule like that. Because when they kissed, it curled his toes and left his heads spinning. And he wasn’t sure his heart could handle another kiss like that.
Chapter 4
When Layla got to work the next morning, the back door was hanging ajar, and the place was a disaster. Heart pounding, she raced to the room where she kept the money locked up, but nothing was amiss, and the office door was still locked up. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the business number Will had left for her.
“Layla, is everything okay?”
“Someone broke into my shop.”
“I’ll be right there.”
The door to her shop swung open, and Onyx strolled in with two cups from Josie’s. She took one look at Layla’s terrified face and she said, “Girl, you’re as white as a sheet. What happened?”
“Someone broke into my shop last night.”
“What? That’s awful!” Onyx said. “I brought you the herbal detox tea from Josie’s. Maybe that can help soothe your nerves.”
“You’re so sweet,” Layla said as she gratefully took the cup from Onyx. She sippe
d the hot liquid. “You know me so well.” Onyx was the one who had gotten her into healthy eating. Layla loved all her recommendations.
“It looks like your man just got here,” Onyx said.
“Will?” Layla said, glancing out to see Will’s police cruiser pulled up in front of her store. He stepped from his vehicle, and Layla’s heart beat even faster. But this time it wasn’t from fear. Will looked good enough to savor in his police uniform. He pushed open the door and stepped inside the shop.
“Good morning, ladies,” he greeted them. “I’m sorry I’m not visiting you under better circumstances.”
After a quick search of the premises, they confirmed that nothing was missing except for the VCR tape she used for her outdated surveillance system.
“Will, I think whoever robbed Ryan was worried about the footage I may have of them from my cameras.”
“I’m sorry you got caught up in this mess.” Will reached out for her, and she fell into his embrace. Normally she wouldn’t have agreed to so much physical contact, but she was scared and she welcomed the safety and comfort of his arms.
Layla pulled out her oil paint and set up her easel the following Saturday afternoon at Maple Creek Park. There was a lovely duck pond, and the afternoon sunlight was hitting the water just right. Layla loved that duck pond. As a little girl, she used to squeal with delight when she fed the ducks little pieces of torn bread. Now, as an adult, she loved to visit to escape from everything. She’d painted the pond many times, but each painting seemed to tell a different story. Sometimes it reflected pain or loneliness. But today, the canvas begged to tell a new story.
“You’re pretty talented,” a familiar voice said from behind her.
She twisted around to see Chris standing there.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. She couldn’t help the irritation that came into her voice. Something about the way he talked felt like nails on a chalkboard to her.
“Not much. Just out enjoying the beauty of nature.” He gave her a pointed look, and Layla got the impression that he included her as part of nature. Her skin crawled. Everything about him repulsed her. Her mom liked Chris because he was wealthy. He owned several houses in the area and rented them out all over Maple Creek. Normally, Layla would have respected that, but his creepy nature canceled any level of admiration she might have felt for him. She wasn’t attracted to him at all, and even worse, he constantly got on her nerves.
Oops, I Kissed Him Again: A Maple Creek Romantic Comedy Page 2
