I stared into his blue eyes until I couldn’t breathe. His arms around me were so strong. I realized I did feel secure about it all. Even the parts that scared me. “No, I’ve changed my mind about that. It’s your job to increase your knowledge, to feed your genius mind. I’m to do the rest. I’ll pay the bills and worry about the here and now. It’s up to you to get us to the future.”
David’s forehead scrunched as he scanned my face. “Are you sure? I thought you wanted me to grow up more?”
“You will. We both will.”
He lifted his hand and grazed my cheek with his fingers. “I can’t believe I get a future with you. I’m the luckiest man in the world.” Then he moved his hand away, and his mouth met mine. The emotions were electric. All the ones I’d suppressed were released. The good, the bad, the wonder, the unknown and the known, and I gave myself to the kiss and the future that came with it. I grabbed hold of his neck for support, letting my fingers weave into his dark hair and pulled him closer. His lips left mine and trailed down my cheek to my jaw and then to my neck, sending bolts of electrically charged energy down that whole side of my body. I gasped for air, grasping at his hair with my fingers, hoping I wasn’t hurting him. He pushed me against the wall and pressed into me.
“What in the world is going on here?” David’s mom’s voice cut through the moment. She stood in the entrance to the kitchen.
David moved away from me and stepped between his mother and me. “Mom, what are you doing here?”
The angry middle-aged woman stood akimbo, her jaw muscle strained. “I’m asking the questions here.” His mom glanced over at me, her look toxic. “What is she doing here? Why is the blanket from out guestroom on the sofa?” His mom reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. “I noticed the power bill for the old office was high for an empty building and came to see what was going on.”
I stepped in front of David to address his mom. “Mrs. Foster, David has been helping me out. We met at the beach when…well, I was abandoned by my ride and he gave me a place to stay there while I figured things out. He brought me back here and has been letting me stay while I got back on me feet. And I have now. I have a job and plan to pay you back for the electricity and back rent.”
David’s mom went silent as her lips tensed into a straight line before she finally spoke again. “David, go get in your truck and go to school.”
“Did you forget I graduate on Friday? Today’s senior skip day.”
“Then go in your truck to wherever all the other KIDS YOUR AGE are gathering today and let me speak woman to woman with your friend here.”
“Her name is Layla, and I’m not leaving you here with her.”
I pushed David toward the door. “Go. I can handle this.”
He shook his head. “I’m not abandoning you.”
I sighed and looked back at his mom. “David is a wonderful young man. You should be very proud. I don’t want to drive a wedge between you two, but…”
His mom only glared at me. “Then don’t drive one between us. Find someone your own age to play house with.”
David interrupted, “Mom, stop it. I won’t let you talk to her that way.”
“I’ll talk to her however I please.”
“Layla is my future, whether you like it or not.”
His mom turned to face him with her finger in his face. “You’re just a kid. You don’t know who or what your future is yet.”
“No, I’m an adult.”
“You may be a legal adult, but as long as you live under my roof…”
David threw his hand up in exasperation. “Then I won’t live under your roof.”
She gestured to the walls. “What, live here? This too is my roof.”
I shook my head at them both, feeling sick at being the cause of the discord. “I’ll move out today.” I walked over to a cabinet and pulled out some cash from where Mr. Duke had been paying me and placed it on the counter. “This should cover the use of the place. David was just helping me. I promise. Nothing has happened here between us. Please don’t fight because of me.”
His mother threw the money back at me. “Keep your money, if it will get you out of here faster.”
She looked at David. “Have her out by this evening.”
His mom stomped toward the door before turning around and pointing at him. “And be done with her for good or you don’t have a home to come back to.”
“Then I won’t come home.”
“We’ll see if you’re ready to be an adult and pay your own way in life.” She turned and stormed out the door.
David
I STARED AFTER MY MOTHER, clenching my jaw. Then I turned back to Layla. Liquid emotions pooled in the corners of her eyes. I stepped closer to her. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She shook her head and stepped away.
I followed after her. “No, it’s not okay. She’s still treating me like a kid. Like she can pick who I hang around with. I’m not a kid.”
Layla still hadn’t turned around to face me. I was afraid for a moment that she was realizing what a kid I really was— thinking of how my mom had ordered me about. What if she realized she could do better if she left and forgot all about me?
Instead she turned around, threw her arms around me, and rested her chin on my shoulder. “You’re not a kid. Your mom loves you, and she really is trying to do what’s best for you. But being a dentist isn’t it. We are meant to be together. We have to be together.” She pushed away from me. “I need to shower and get dressed. I wish the computers at work were connected to the internet.”
“What for?”
“So I could look for apartments when I have a moment.”
“I don’t think most rentals around here would be on the internet. We aren’t like that here yet.” I backed away from her. “I’ll grab us a couple of newspapers and be right back. We can both look. I’ll give you a ride into work and then come back with some boxes and get you packed.” I glanced around. “At least you don’t have much.”
Layla stepped closer and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. Even with it being a quick kiss, I felt the bolt run through me like always happened when we kissed. “See you when you get back.”
After I dropped Layla at work, I drove over to Michael’s bungalow style house by the train tracks. I took the cinderblock steps two at a time and knocked on the door, sending black paint chips flittering down to the porch.
Michael yanked the door open. “You’re late.” He bent down and grabbed his guitar and wrapped the strap over his neck. “I asked Deana Thompson to meet me by the big rock down by the water tower. She said she would if I wrote her a song. I told her I would have her one by this morning.”
I pulled the house door shut behind him. “I thought she and Jason Martin were together.”
“That’s history as of yesterday. I saw her out with her friends last night at the Bantam Chef. She was putting money in the jukebox while I was beating your score on Street Fighter. Anyway, she and I got to talking about music. She’s all into Pearl Jam. I told her Head Trauma was just as good as Pearl Jam. I followed her out to her car, playfully arguing that fact, and ended up making out a little in her car before her friends came out, and she had to leave. I got her number and called her when I got home and told her that I wrote her a song.”
I shook my head as I asked, “That fast, you wrote her a song?”
“Pfft… no. It’s that piece of crap thing Travis made up”
We stopped at my truck while I unlocked it. “The one where he rhymed pansies with panties?” I snickered as I remembered the day Travis played it for us.
“Yeah, I had to come up with something original that sounded like a love song. Besides I figure as long as I do that thing with my eyes that makes the girls go wild, she won’t notice what a load it is.”
“Good luck with that.” We got in the truck, and I closed the door. “Listen, plans have changed, and I can’t stay at the party. Can you find a ride back?”<
br />
“What? Why?”
I backed up and pulled into the street. "Mom found out Layla’s been living at the old office. She flipped and kicked her out and told me to dump her or find a new place to live.”
“Oh, man. What are you gonna do?”
“I’m packing and looking through this.” I lifted the newspaper. “To find us an apartment.”
“You mean you’re moving in with a girl before I do? Man! How in this universe has this happened?”
“It’s the next step, and I’m not ending it with Layla just because of my mom. I’m a man now, and she’s got to accept that.”
Michael looked my way, “Get a house instead of an apartment. We can throw house parties there. Charge a cover and the band can play.”
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes at him.
“It’s a great idea. You’ll get your cut plus venue rental, and you can use that toward rent.”
“That could actually work.”
I pulled in behind the water tower where all the other cars were parked. Michael grabbed his guitar and opened the door. “Happy house hunting.”
“Yeah and good luck with the panty song.”
“Getting lucky and panties are my specialty.”
“Whatever, man.”
He slammed the door and I drove off. I stopped at the grocery store and asked the manager for some boxes. I took what they had and got a few more at the dollar store before heading to the old office. I carried them in and looked around, trying to decide where to start first.
Bathroom. The lotions and shampoo smelled a little like Layla, but they were missing the essence she added. I closed my eyes and thought of her. This was it. We were moving in together. I gulped as I considered what that would mean. It wasn’t how I was raised. How would Mom tell Grammy Taylor about this? I could just hear it: “Little David’s now shacking up with some grown woman.”
It wasn’t like other people didn’t live together first before they got married. It was getting to be the norm actually. But to the older folks and the people of standing, it was still considered trashy. I loaded up the boxes and took them to the truck. I didn’t want Mom coming back and finding anything there at the old office that didn’t belong.
I got it all in the truck in about an hour, then headed to the Bantam Chef, and went in with my newspaper. After I bought a large Cheerwine, I sat in a booth scanning the classifieds. I started circling ones that sounded promising. It soon occurred to me that we would need more than an apartment. We’d need furniture and pots and pans and all kinds of things. I sat back and took a deep breath. Maybe Mom was right. I shook the thought out of my head.
Time to grow up.
I got up with my newspaper and drove down to the bank to check my balance. I really wasn’t a big spender and made pretty good money from the band’s gigs along with all my years of tutoring and Grammy Taylor’s birthday and Christmas money.
I thought again about Grammy. We were always close. When Papa died, I spent that whole summer at her house. I’d been so worried that she’d be lonely. We played cards and she cooked for me. I’d helped her out in Papa’s garden that he’d planted that spring but never got to harvest. I thought about how I would introduce Layla to Grammy. Grammy was a church lady. I wanted her to love Layla when she met her, but I knew she wouldn’t—if things went the way they were going. More than anything, I wanted Layla accepted by Grammy and, hopefully, eventually, Mom and Dad, but this would put a scarlet A on her in their eyes.
I withdrew quite a large chunk of money and got back in my truck. I pulled out the classifieds again, but this time looking for used things we would need. That’s when I glanced up and my eyes fell on the jewelry store across the street. I got out of the truck and looked both ways before crossing the street.
I said out loud. “Time to be a grown up.”
*
I picked Layla up for lunch, and we went through a drive-thru down the street. Layla pulled the newspaper from her purse and flipped the pages to one with lots of highlighter marks. “I think I’ve found a few potential ones that I’ve circled. I called about two of them already. We can go after I get off work.”
I nodded. “Sounds good. I’ve been looking too, and I think I’ve found something, if you want to go take a look right now.”
“Sure.”
I drove a bit and then down a wooded road to an area of the mill village, where folks had started renovating. “I found out about this place today from my dad’s friend who owns the jewelry store. His mom just passed away. The furniture is old but he says he had a lady come clean each week for her as the cancer got worse, so the place is clean, just outdated. The house beside it is empty right now and there’s a wooded lot on the other side.”
I pulled up to the house and opened the truck before running around to open for Layla. She had finally gotten used to that and waited for me.
“Don’t we need a key?”
I pulled one from my pocket and dangled it in front of her. We walked up on the porch. It was wide with a swing to the left. I opened the door and set our bagged lunch on a small table.
Layla stepped in and looked around. “Oh… my. The furnishings are so retro.”
“I know. Maybe we can replace some of it when we have more money.”
She spun to face me, “Why would we replace any of it?”
“So you like it?”
“I love it.”
She rushed over to the gold curtains hanging from the dark rods above the living room window, before moving to the large bookshelf and pulling a book down and flipping through. She was so busy looking around the room, it took her a moment to notice I was down on one knee. When she did, her face turned from glowing to shock. “What are you doing?”
She stared at me and said nothing. In that moment, I was rethinking the whole thing as my palms began to sweat, and I swallowed hard, trying to come up with the answer that would end all the awkwardness. No words came, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out the little black box. “I’m asking you to marry me. I don’t want to try us out and see how it goes. I don’t want to explain to my grandma why I’m shacking up with an older woman and convince her just how wonderful you are. I don’t want to just move in with you. I want to start the rest of our lives together. I want to introduce you as my wife. So will you…will you marry me?”
Layla’s lip trembled a bit as she began to nod frantically. “Yes, I will marry you.”
The air rushed from my lungs in relief. I took her hand and placed the ring on her finger, before standing and taking her in my arms for a long kiss. She ended it and then leaned her head on my shoulder, and I just held her. Then I heard her sniffle.
“Are you changing your mind?” I pushed her away so I could look at the face. Her blue eyes were liquid.
“No, I’m thinking about all that is ahead of us, and how glad I am to be here with you right now.”
“We need to get a marriage license. There is a twenty-four hour waiting period but no blood test or anything. I already called the courthouse. The waiting period isn’t a real waiting period even. You apply today and pick the license up tomorrow.”
“I’ll talk to Drake and see if I can work it out to have an extended lunch tomorrow and go get one.”
“If you call him and ask for more time today, we can be man and wife as early as tomorrow.”
“Let’s not go that fast.”
I brought our food to the kitchen table, and we sat down to eat, but Layla just picked at hers.
“Are you sure you are okay?”
“Yeah, just thinking. I can’t really eat when I’m nervous.
We cleared up our lunch and started walking around the house. We stepped into one of the bedrooms. Layla and I both stared at the bed.
“Is this the room you want us to use tonight? I can bring all your things in here and then go get mine from my house.”
Layla turned to face me. “I thought you didn’t want to shack up first?”
I gul
ped. “I don’t. I mean. We are going to be married before the end of the week so I figured it would be okay.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to be mad at me, but I made my grandmother some promises. Just like you don’t want to shame your grandma, I don’t either. She told me over and over how she wanted me to do life different from the way she and my mother did. She made me promise her that I would get married first before I gave myself body and soul to a man. I really want to keep that promise.”
“Okay. I can probably crash at Michael’s place.”
She sighed. “Good. I’m sorry if I disappointed you.”
I stepped closer and took her in my arms. “You said yes to marrying me. I can wait on the other.”
I took her back to work and then got busy moving her things into the mill house. I put all her groceries in the kitchen and unloaded them. I looked in the cabinets and cleaned out the old groceries that were still in there. The cabinets were very clean, but I wiped them out a bit before adding our things. I opened another cabinet and found a row of cookbooks and had an idea. I’d cook dinner for us. I’d never cooked anything more than a bowl of instant oatmeal in the microwave, but, hey, I could read, right?
I grabbed a stack and sat down at the table with the books in front of me. The first book was a Southern Living cookbook. I started flipping through it. I put it down and found one called Good Cooking with Chesnee First Baptist. I found a recipe that looked good. Grandma Rose’s Spiced Pork Roast. It sounded simple enough. I grabbed my notebook and tore out a sheet of paper and wrote down all the ingredients and headed for the door. It was time to do grownup things.
I picked up Layla in front of her office and worked hard to hold the grin inside. “How was work?”
“It was busy, really busy. Drake is trying to find a new person to help out now that the business is really growing.”
“Did you ask him about time to go get the marriage license?”
“I didn’t get a chance to.”
“What? I thought you were excited.” I felt the excitement over the dinner I’d cooked leave as doubts about our future moved in.
Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance Page 11
