“Yeah, I’m ok. The past likes to creep up at the most interesting times,” I tell her. There’s no need to go into all of it again, not now at least. Maybe we’ll chat about it later tonight when we’re in our room. “Have you two ordered yet?” I pick up a menu and immediately get sticker shock.
“Order whatever you want, Layla. Pretend the prices aren’t there,” Will says noticing my wide eyes.
“What’s going on with you,” I whisper to him. “You’ve got this ridiculous honeymoon planned…you told me to get ready for change and not to argue about how much money you spend on me…and now you’re telling me to order whatever I want when half of the things on here say Market Price. I don’t even know what Market Price means!”
“I took the money,” he says.
“I know, but I thought you were going to disperse it to the exes and to some charities.”
“Well, I thought about what you said, and I talked with Luke and my mom, and I decided that you were right. It doesn’t matter so much how he earned it. It matters what I do with it. Yes, I’m going to give a lot of it away, and Luke is helping me invest quite a bit of it, too. But, what good is having an insane amount of money if I can’t splurge once in a while, especially when it comes to you.” Will smiles at me and I can see how at peace he is with his decision.
“I won’t argue with you because I know it will be futile.” I kiss Will softly and then hold his gaze so he really hears me. “I won’t ever take advantage of you. I don’t care about the money. I think you know that. I’ll even sign a pre-nup if you want me to.”
“We’re not having a pre-nup, Layla. Pre-nups are for people who go into a marriage thinking there’s a chance it could end. We’re forever. What’s mine is yours. I don’t care about any of it. I only care that you’re going to be my wife. Any thoughts on when that’s going to happen? I mean you are the one who suggested we move the wedding date up.” Will tucks my hair behind my ear and sends a shiver across my body as his hand grazes my skin and I recall the day on the dock when I told Will about wanting a church wedding in Davidson.
“It just so happens that I have. How does October 25th sound? I was thinking that the weather could be really nice, and the leaves would be changing,” I tell him.
“It’s perfect. You’re perfect, and I love you.” Will leans in for another kiss but Caroline stops him.
“Alright you two! Calm down! I would tell you to get a room, but you know…” Caroline winks at me and I feel the heat of my embarrassment from our earlier conversation rush to my cheeks.
“Ok, ok…” Will says. “Let’s just spend the evening enjoying some great food and great music. Tonight, we’re not on a mission. Tonight, Ryan and I are two incredibly lucky guys out with our gorgeous women.”
We all smile and settle in for a night of normalcy. I’m glad to see Will so relaxed right now. We have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring. We could walk away with every question answered, or we could discover that we drove six and a half hours only to come up empty. Whatever happens tomorrow, Will and I are in this together.
Chapter 19
Will picks at his breakfast, barely consuming anything but a cup of coffee. He’s been staring at this file with Cheryl’s name and address on it for the last 15 minutes. I know he’s nervous so I leave him to his quiet contemplation. He may be considering backing out, but I won’t let him. Just like he told me last night, I’m not going to let him run away from this. He felt strongly about coming to Virginia to talk with Cheryl and I can’t let him forget that.
“I’m going to check on Caroline. She said they were going to have a rental car delivered so we didn’t have to take them anywhere,” I say. I begin to stand but Will grabs my arm.
“Please don’t leave,” he says softly. His eyes are dark and I can read the stress on his face.
“I know you’re nervous Will, and that’s ok.” I sit down, scooting my chair closer to Will in the process. “The worst thing she’s going to do is tell you she doesn’t want to talk to you, and then we’ll be no worse off than we are right now. Have you thought about what you’re going to ask her? How you’re going to find out why there was such a discrepancy between her settlement and the others?”
“The best I can think to do is to tell her the truth. I’m going to compensate the ex-wives and I want to be fair. Based on her payout she should get more than the others, but I just want to know if there’s an error or what the reason behind the difference is.” Will puts his face in his hands and slumps over. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this before. It’s disconcerting.
“That sounds reasonable,” I say. “There’s something else, though. You’re more nervous than I think you were expecting to be. What it is?”
“I’m afraid she’s going to describe the man I could become. A man just like my father.”
“That could never happen, Will,” I say reassuringly.
“You don’t know that, Layla. Look at how Marcus turned out…and he wasn’t even raised by our father! What if learning more about my father from Cheryl and the others just makes me see how much I’m like him…what I’ve really been fighting? What if I can’t fight it forever? What if…”
“Will, stop it. You are nothing like your father. You have a heart beating inside your chest, and blood running through your veins. Look at everything you did for me, for us! Your father never loved anyone the way you love me. You are not him, and you never will be. You said it yourself last night: filling in the pieces of this puzzle only ensures you don’t become him.”
“I hope you’re right.” Will twists his body and we embrace each other. I knew this was going to be hard, but I didn’t think it was going to take this kind of toll on Will.
Before I can get up, Caroline finds us in the restaurant. She tells us the rental car is already there and they are heading out.
“I thought you had be 25 to drive a rental car?” I ask.
“Wes took care of it,” she says with a smile. Of course he did. That’s Wes’ specialty. He takes care of things.
We say our goodbyes for the day and Caroline gives Will an extra-long hug. She whispers something in his ear and I can only assume it is words of encouragement from a dear friend.
Will and I take a silent ride up the elevator to our rooms to make sure we have everything we need. I take a few extra minutes in the mirror making sure I’m fully composed. I’ve been strong for Will about all this, but in reality, I’m scared out of my mind. I have no idea if we’re going to find another angry and bitter ex like Marlene, or not. I’m just concerned for Will. He’s been through so much. It seems that once we digest one piece of startling information, another, bigger piece emerges. It was one thing to find out Marcus was his brother, but since then Will has had to deal with the discovery of three more siblings, the knowledge of which his mother kept from him.
I know he’s scared. He wants nothing more than to be the antithesis of his father. I see that he is succeeding, but I think Will is pulling apart every minute flaw he has and examining it for origins in his father. I don’t know what we’ll find today, but anything we find out about Gregory Meyer is going to prove that Will is on the right path to becoming a man of his own.
“Are you ready?” I ask Will as I find him in the lobby of the hotel. He’s pacing and I know I’ve got a long road ahead of me in talking him off this particular ledge.
“Yeah, as ready as a person can be when they’re about to ambush one of their father’s ex-wives. I just said one of.” Will takes a cleansing breath and then my hand and we’re making our way through the parking lot to his car.
We follow the GPS to the address in Cheryl’s file. After a while I think we have the wrong address or are lost because we’re driving down a very long, dusty road. There are pastures on either side of the narrow road and I can help but yell “cow!” when I see a heard of storybook looking black and white cows grazing.
We make another turn and the GPS voice tells us that we’ve reached our de
stination. Will and I look at each other, both with puzzled faces. Our ignorance about Virginia Beach is blaring. Having never been here before, I think we both assumed we’d find Cheryl in a comfortable suburb or near the beach…certainly not in the country on a farm.
The dirt road to our destination ends and we’re facing a beautiful farmhouse. It’s picturesque, painted white with brown shutters. It reminds me of our home in Davidson, but this home has a huge wrap-around porch with white rocking chairs everywhere. The view from any angle is breath taking. It’s easy to see why there are so many.
“You’re sure you put the right address in?” Will asks, putting the car in park.
“I’m sure. This is it, babe.” I take Will’s hand and squeeze my support into it.
We get out of the car and start walking toward the house. I don’t think Will’s ever walked slower. As I take his hand I notice a huge barn to the rear of the house. It’s only now that I see the fenced in pasture to the side and rear of the house along with the horses majestically existing in the fields. I remember Will’s father saying that he grew up on a farm and wonder if Cheryl’s love for that life initially drew him to her. Then I remember that by the time he got to Cheryl he had already been through two wives, so I put away any thought that it was anything but her beauty that would have attracted Meyer.
Before we’re anywhere near the front steps to the house a younger woman appears from the side of the house. She’s everything a good cowgirl should be: jeans, yellow plaid shirt, cowboy hat and boots. She’s beautiful and I immediately know that this is Cheryl’s daughter, Sarah…Will’s sister.
“Can I help y’all with something?” she asks cordially. “Folks don’t usually come ‘round her unannounced unless they’re lost.”
I wait for Will to speak, but I think he’s too stunned.
“We’re not lost,” I say kindly. “We’re looking for Cheryl Brinkley. Is she here?”
“Who wants to know?” the woman responds. She’s short and protective of her mother and that actually makes me smile. I’m glad to know that Cheryl has someone the way Eliana has Will.
“I’m Will Meyer. I just wanted to ask her a few questions…about my father,” Will says breaking his silence.
It takes her a moment to speak, move, breathe, and I wonder if Will’s name means anything to her. A smile breaks across her face and she motions us to follow her. Up the steps to the house and then across the threshold Will is squeezing my hand so tight that I think he might break it.
“Can I get y’all somethin’ to drink? Water? Lemonade? Sweet tea so sweet it’ll give you a cavity?” she asks with a little laugh.
“Lemonade would be lovely, thank you,” I say. Will nods indicating he’d like the same.
I stand there silently with Will, not sure if there’s anything I can say in this moment to ease his nerves. There are moments he’s actually shaking, and that’s when I wrap my arm around his and hold him tightly to my side.
“I’m sorry for being so rude. I realize I haven’t introduced myself to you. I’m Sarah. Cheryl is my momma,” she says returning to the front room where she left us. She sets a tray of glasses filled with lemonade on the coffee table and sits. We follow her lead and sit next to each other on the couch.
“I’m Layla Weston, Will’s fiancée,” I tell her.
“I know,” she replies. We give her quizzical looks and she fills in the blanks for us. “I knew who you were when I saw you standin’ like dear in headlights out in front of the house. And since you came lookin’ for us, I can only assume that you knew who I was, too.”
“I don’t understand,” Will says. “How could you know who we are?”
“Before you meet Momma, you need to understand a few things. She doesn’t know that I know about her past. She worked real hard my whole life to keep me from knowin’ about my, well, our, father. Once I met him, I knew why.” Sarah hands us our lemonade and sits back in her chair. It’s like she’s been waiting for this moment and she’s relishing in it.
“You met him? When?” Will asks a bit excitedly.
“Four years ago I was sortin’ through Momma’s things, purging what needed to go, sortin’ things into new files. It was a mess up there! Well, I came across an envelope I’d never seen before. It wasn’t sealed so I pulled everything out so I could sort through it like all the rest. Inside were her divorce papers and the settlement agreement from Gregory Meyer. I knew she didn’t want me to see them. I asked a few times when I was a kid about who my daddy was and all she would tell me is that he was a bad man we had to stay away from. I never even knew his name until I found those papers. She treated his name as if it were a curse if uttered.
“I let her words of caution sit for a long while, mullin’ them over and over again in my head for years. I just couldn’t believe that my momma would ever be involved with someone we had to stay away from forever. I thought maybe that was just somethin’ she said to me when I was a kid. Now that I am an adult, married and all, I thought I could actually meet him. So, about a year after I found those divorce papers my husband and I took a little weekend trip to Davidson. We told Momma we were going to Asheville for a romantic getaway ‘cause we knew she’d never question that. I didn’t want to upset her by tellin’ her what we were doin’. Austin, that’s my husband…he’s always been real supportive.” She takes a sip of her lemonade and Will takes the opportunity to say something.
“I still don’t understand how you knew who we were,” he says.
“Well, we drove into town and right into the middle of some kind of concert, right there in the town square! I had looked Meyer up online and printed out a picture. I thought maybe if I showed it around town someone could point me in the right direction. It seemed like he was some big wig around there. When we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like the whole town millin’ around I thought we’d hit the jackpot. We started walking and the first person I showed his picture to knew who he was immediately and pointed him out. When I asked, they were even kind enough to tell me who you were, Will…along with your momma.”
“So how did you know who I was?” I ask. What she’s describing could be one of a dozen nights at the Concert on the Green. Where do I come in?
“I saw Will watchin’ you. The way he was lookin’ at you? It was clear he was smitten. Austin and I followed Will to the coffee shop thinkin’ I might be able to talk to him, but by the time we got there you two were hoverin’ over a puddle of somethin’ on the ground, just laughin’.” Oh my gosh! She was there the night Will and I met!
“So what did you do? I mean, did you talk to my…our…father?” Will stumbles over his words. I don’t think we ever imagined that Sarah would have a clue about who we were, let alone be so hospitable about it. She actually seems pretty excited that we’re here.
“I didn’t talk to him. I did come face to face with him though. The concert was over and the crowd was movin’ out. I made a beeline for him, plannin’ on tellin’ him who I was, but…” Sarah pauses as she recalls the moment she faced the Devil. Having had my own run-ins with him, I know what’s running through her head right now. “All it took was one look in his eyes to know that Momma was right. His eyes were dark, almost dead, and frightenin’. I knew there was nothin’ in him that I wanted, so I pardoned myself like I was just another person tryin’ to get out of the crowd, and we left.”
“I wish you had introduced yourself to me,” Will says softly. He’s having a hard time holding in his emotions. Knowing that he was so close to meeting his sister is difficult for him.
“You know…I’ve worked with animals my whole life, and when you work with them the way I do you have to be able to read them. You work with them long enough and you figure out how to read people, too. One look at the two of you standin’ there on the sidewalk and my gut told me that the timing wasn’t right. I could see somethin’ was startin’ with you and I had to let it be. I knew if I told you then who I was, I was gonna disrupt whatever was gettin’
started. It wasn’t my time, but I knew my time would come…and here you are,” Sarah smiles.
“So you’ve just been sitting on this knowledge for three years?” Will asks. He looks confused and I know exactly why. As soon as Will found out about his siblings he acted. There was no way he could have sat on this for three years. I think we’re both shocked that Sarah was able to contain herself, considering how happy she is that he’s here right now.
“All my life I felt like somethin’ was missin’. Not the “I don’t have a daddy” thing, but somethin’ else. The day I looked at you and knew who you were…that you were my brother, the hole in my heart seemed to fill. Just the knowledge of you was enough for me because I knew, eventually, this day would come. I didn’t know when or even how, but I knew it would come.” Sarah chuckles and smiles. “I used to think about what you were doin’…imagine you were the star of the football team or class president…how you two were doin’, hopin’ it was all workin’ out ‘cause I’d never seen a brighter spark between two people. It was just comfortin’ to know that you were out there.”
“Sarah!” a woman’s voice calls.
“Here she comes,” Sarah whispers. “Y’all ready?”
Chapter 20
Entering the living room where we’ve been talking with Sarah is a lovely woman in her mid-50s. She has shoulder-length brown hair and her skin has seen its fair share of the sun. She’s dressed similarly to Sarah in working-ranch garb, from cowboy hat to boots.
“Oh, I’m sorry…I didn’t realize you had company,” she says to Sarah. “I’m Cheryl Brinkley, Sarah’s momma.” Cheryl extends her hand like a respectable and hospitable southerner does, and Will and I both stand as we reciprocate.
“They’re actually here to see you, Momma,” Sarah tells her as she also stands. “This is Will Meyer and his fiancée, Layla.”
Safe Harbor (The Lake Trilogy, Book 3) Page 16
