I spun to face her, my finger in her face, a disrespectful stance I’d never taken with my mother before, but she’d crossed a line. “She’s not a stripper, not even close. She has a real job selling insurance for Drake Duke. But I’m sure you have found that out too. This town can’t keep anything quiet. She’s turned his whole office around. That’s what she does. She shows up and gives clarity and direction.”
“Yeah, they say she must be selling something else out the back to bring any business to Drunk Duke. He probably can’t stay sober long enough to keep up with whatever kind of business she is running out of his office.”
I didn’t even turn back to face her as I walked out the door and threw my bags into the back of the truck. “Mom, if you would have bothered to get to know her, you wouldn’t be assuming any of this or listening to stupid gossip. We might even be able to have a conversation.”
I marched to my truck, got in, and slammed the door. I pushed the button for the garage door to open, suddenly realizing I didn’t need the remote anymore. I put the truck back into park and got out and walked to my mother. She was leaning in the doorway, hugging herself as she watched me. I looked into her red-rimmed eyes as tears streaked the makeup down her cheek. For just a moment, I felt sorry for her. I knew she loved me, and all she was doing or ever did was try to take care of me. If she could only see me as a man capable of making my own decisions, it wouldn’t have come to this. If she had bothered to get to know Layla and to trust that she had taught me well—but no, she just couldn’t let go. She only left me with one solution. I took her hand and placed the remote in it. “Goodbye, Mom.”
Her shoulders shuddered as she let out a mournful sob. “David, please. I’ve worked so hard at being a good mom. Have you ever needed me and I not been there for you? I’ve done and I’ve done and I’ve done for you and now you want to throw your whole future away for a girl.”
“I’m not throwing anything away. And I know you’ve always been there for me, but now it’s time to let me go and make my own choices.”
“But you aren’t ready. This foolishness with this girl proves it.”
“I’m going to prove you wrong.”
She only turned away and cried harder. We were at an impasse. There was no middle ground. I walked away and got back in my truck before I let her see my own tears.
*
I SAT IN THE KITCHEN of my new home thinking about the day I’d had. I’d taken my things from my parents’ house and moved them into the house that would be my home with Layla in just a few days. Why did the making of a new family mean the breaking of another? And why did the breaking have to be so painful?
To get my mind off of things, I pulled out my notebooks and looked at the formulas. My mind started skipping ahead of me as new formulas started appearing in my head. I grabbed up my other notebook and started jotting things down. Bits and pieces of how time travel would work were coming together, but not fully there. There was always a wall, blocking the rest of the information. I needed more knowledge to bust through it.
The college I had applied to was all wrong. I wasn’t going into pre-dentistry like my dad. I was going to study physics, and based on the latest formulas rattling about in my head, perhaps biochemistry. My parents had taken charge of the whole college application thing. Dad made a phone call to his old friend at Wofford College and had scheduled the tour he and mom took me on at the campus. It was a beautiful campus, and I’d had no problem picturing myself happy there as Mom and Dad pointed out what had changed since their time. But that wasn’t my path now and I knew it. It was time for me to claim my destiny and make my own trail rather than just following theirs. I ran out and got in the truck and headed to the high school. Maybe the guidance counselors could help me with late applications and how to get my scholarships sent to the right school. I was pretty confident that with my GPA, SAT and ACT scores, I’d get in somewhere with a scholarship.
*
THAT FRIDAY, I STOOD ON the platform preparing to deliver my valedictorian speech. I’d put off writing it until the last minute, and then it came to me:
“Preparation and choices. More than the subjects we have studied and the facts we have memorized, all our lives have been preparation for the choices before us. If we choose to follow one path, we also make the choice not to follow another. When we choose to add some people into our lives, it often means we choose to leave others behind. How do we know if we are making the right choices? In some ways we don’t, until we come to the end of that path or discover what it is like to have those people in our lives or until we have worked in that career for some time. The best way to know what choices to make is to be prepared for those choices and what they bring. Will this choice hurt others? If it is a purely selfish choice, you will figure it out by the collateral damage left in its wake. If it is a quality choice, there may still be damage, but in the end, more good than bad will come from it. I am convinced of that. So as we step out of our roles as children and step into our roles as adults, we need to think of others. But most of all, we need to seek to be the people we were created to be and make the tough and unpopular choices that come with that. Only then will we reach our full potential.”
I went and sat in my spot on the football field, waiting for my turn on the stage. I knew where Layla sat in the stands of the football field, but I had made sure not to scan the crowd too closely for fear of who else I might see, or not see.
Today I would graduate from high school. Tomorrow I would be getting married, and come late August, I’d be going away from my bride Monday through Friday to go to school at Clemson. I had made my choices, and I was prepared to fight for them, because as far as I was concerned, my notebooks and a girl from the future dropping into my life had pointed me there.
Chapter 13
Layla
I STOOD BY THE LAKE holding David’s hands as Drake spoke the vows for us to repeat. I heard the flash of a camera. Drake had surprised us by hiring a photographer to take pictures so we could always remember the day. David was in a pair of dress pants and a white button-up shirt, and I was in a white mini wedding dress I’d found at a thrift store for twenty dollars. I’d fallen in love with the 60s style retro, ultra-mini dress the moment I saw it. It was an A-line dress with a high choker neck with mesh and floral work down the sleeves and bodice that stopped mid-thigh. I’d used a ton of products and a teasing comb to get the bouffant to match the dress, and of course, my false lashes with a bit of liquid liner to create dramatic cat eyes. Drake said I looked like a blonde Priscilla Presley. I had to pretend I knew who he was talking about. I figured it was someone associated with Elvis.
I trembled like I was freezing, but the warm setting summer sun was making sweat form on my neck. With the chills and sweats, my nerves had me feeling more like I had the flu than like a bride. I looked at David under my dark lashes and my heart did somersaults in my chest. I took several deep breaths as it became my turn to repeat the vows. I swallowed hard and looked into David’s beautiful blue eyes under dark bangs, always shaggy and needing a trim. I remember the first time I saw them—I couldn’t speak. I’d stood there staring, and he never even knew I existed, not that version of him. His eyes then were surrounded by more lines and a dark sadness was always there, even when he smiled or laughed. Here those eyes were still cheerful, as he not only looked at me, but into my soul. It wasn’t the way other guys had looked at me. The hunger in his eyes was overshadowed by something more than attraction. It was something bigger than the both of us, and I think we both sensed it.
“I, Layla, take you David to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, for as long as we both shall live.”
David smiled a goofy, lopsided grin just before saying the same words–only at the end, he took a breath and thought for a moment. “And maybe longer.”
My breath caught, knowing what he might mean.
Drake
declared us man and wife, and David lifted my veil and leaned in, his lips pressed into mine. The camera flashed several times as Michael started playing some song I didn’t recognize. I pulled back and looked up at David, and then we turned and faced the photographer and smiled as directed. I leaned over and whispered, “Did Michael just sing about panties at our wedding?”
David smiled. “Would he do something like that?”
I glanced over at him, and he did the eye squinting thing he did to all the girls.
“That doesn’t work on me.”
Michael put down the guitar and came over and slapped David on the arm. “I told you the first night we met her that something wasn’t right about her. Sorry, dude, looks like you got a broken one. Nice wedding, but now I’m off. The guys said sorry they missed it, but they aren’t a bunch of girls so they don’t care about weddings.”
David rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t you at least want to stay and eat?”
“Can’t. Gotta go meet with Lacy Stewart. She’s auditioning as a girl singer to join Head Trauma.” He swaggered off before spinning around for one last remark. “And call me later if you need help figuring out where everything goes.”
David nodded. “Yeah, that coming from the only person I know to flunk sex ed.”
“That’s only because it was all written work. Had they offered a lab, I would have been the star pupil.”
Drake paid the photographer before the man left, and then he headed over to a large grill area and started pulling meat from what looked like an outdoor fridge under a stone countertop, complete with sink.
“You really didn’t have to pay for a photographer. The wedding here was more than enough of a gift.”
He only shrugged in reply. I walked up to him and looked around. “Can I help with anything?”
“No, I’ve got it. Have a seat. It’s your wedding. Soda?” He held out a Coke.
“I don’t usually do the hard stuff, but since it’s a special occasion.” I took it from him and turned to David, “Want one?”
“Sure.” He took it from my hand and plopped down into a cushioned patio chair before he pulled me into his lap. “So Drake, how come you aren’t married?”
“I used to be, but it didn’t work out.”
David coughed. “Sorry to hear that.”
The awkward silence lasted for about a minute it seemed before Drake ended it. “It was a long time ago.”
“What happened?”
I couldn’t believe he’d asked that. I slapped his shoulder and gave him a look, but it was too late.
Drake sighed as he threw the steaks on the grill and the meat started to sizzle. “Let’s see. I was young and stupid. To be honest, we both were, but everyone is stupid when they’re young. I was also a spoiled brat who had never had any responsibility. She couldn’t be pleased no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t do anything right, and she told me so… very often. So I started stopping by the bar on my way home, sometimes not making it home until time to get up and go to work, which I stopped doing altogether until my dad died, and I was forced to be there. Somewhere in the middle of all that she left, and I chose to drown my sorrows.”
David put the Coke down on the table. “Wow. That… sucks.”
“Yeah, it does. How do you guys like your steak?”
“Medium,” David and I said in unison before looking at each other and laughing.
“Look at that. You two already agree on something. Now all you have to do is grow older and less stupid together.”
David eyed me and scrunched his forehead as he said, “Thanks for the cheerful advice there.”
“Neither of you are as stupid as the ex and I were when we got married, so don’t worry about ending up like us. I’d probably still be passed out on my desk or carted off and the office closed by corporate if Layla hadn’t planted herself in my office when she did. I started going to AA when I saw the office had potential again. Made me think I might have potential too.”
My eyes grew wide. “I didn’t know you joined AA.”
“Yeah, kept that on the down low. I didn’t want anyone to know in case I couldn’t clean myself up.”
Dinner was ready and we sat down to eat. Everything was delicious and the conversation became less of a downer. Then it was time to leave. David stood and pulled out my chair before taking my hand.
“Time to go home, are you ready?”
I stood and gazed into his eyes. “I am.”
David
WE PULLED INTO THE DRIVEWAY of our new home. I parked the truck, turned off the ignition, and cut the lights. This was it. I was married to a super hot wife and this was our wedding night.
Crickets and cicadas sang from the wooded lot next to the house. The air in the truck was already turning thick with humidity since the air conditioning stopped. I swallowed and clenched the steering wheel as I thought of the kinds of things said in movies. “Are you ready to go in and go to bed, Mrs. Foster?” I suddenly felt like gagging. “Oh my…” I put my hands over my eyes.
Layla leaned toward me. “What’s the matter?”
“That’s what people call my mother.” I felt like gouging out my eyes as I connected the previous thoughts I was having with the thoughts of Mrs. Foster as my mother.
Layla reached over took my chin in her hand and forced me to look at her. Again, it reminded me of my mother. “David, stop it. I’m not your mother. Would it make you feel better if I kept my maiden name?”
I considered what she was saying. “I don’t think so.” I was having trouble breathing. Like always, she reached into my pocket and handed me my inhaler.
“Calm down and breathe.”
I did as she said and forced the idea that it was exactly how my mother would handle me if she were here. “I’m sorry. I’m not being very manly at the moment.”
Layla leaned back and put her head on the headrest and sighed. “That’s for sure.”
Her words stung, and other images started flashing through my mind. This time it was Drunk Duke’s life but being played out by Layla and me. I pictured her looking at me all disappointed and me cowering at that look. It was like a movie playing in my head of me avoiding her, taking up drinking, and coming home to find an empty house one night. Again I started wheezing and took another puff of my inhaler.
“Why don’t we go in the house and just relax for a bit. Maybe take the pressure off. No one said we had to do anything right now, okay?” Layla opened her door instead of waiting for me and headed for the house. The set of her shoulders and her stride told me she was upset. I jumped out and soon followed. She started digging through her purse, but I already had my key out from the truck. I unlocked the door, but just as she started to walk in, I stopped her.
“I’m sorry I flipped out just now. I didn’t get cold feet before–maybe I didn’t think about what I was getting into before I was in it.”
Her face fell. “Are you sorry already?”
“No, no.” I shook my head and then stroked her cheek. “That was it for tonight’s freak out. I promise. Let’s start over and forget that happened, please.”
She nodded, and I moved closer until my lips made contact with hers. I pulled back sooner than I really wanted to and felt my goofy, one sided smile happening as it always did when I was with her. “There’s something a married couple traditionally does when they enter their house for the first time.” I reached down and swept her into my arms.
“Now this is more like it.” She put her arm around my neck and leaned in to kiss me. It was electric as softness became heated and spread throughout my entire body. I turned us sideways so we could enter. I tried to close the door and still hold her like they do in the movies, but I just couldn’t maneuver it right.
“Just put me down, and we can close it.”
I did as she said and shut the door before turning to face her. “Now what?” I swallowed.
“I got us something.” She ran to the kitchen and I followed. She opened the refrigerator
and pulled out a box. “I ordered us a cake. Just a small one with a bride and groom on it. I’ve always wanted one of those toppers since I was a kid and saw one on display at my neighbor’s house.” She pulled the cake from the box and placed it on the kitchen table. It was just a round white layer cake but on the top was a blonde bride and dark-haired groom.
“You’ve thought about wedding cakes since you were a kid?”
“I’m a girl.” She spun around again and reached into the refrigerator once more. “I don’t usually drink, but again, I only get this one life with you, so I thought a little champagne would be nice.” There was a slight tremor in her voice. Maybe she was nervous too. She pulled the bottle out and put it on the table before she opened the freezer top of the fridge and retrieved two chilled glasses. “I bought a corkscrew. It’s in the junk drawer. Think you can work on the bottle while I grab a knife and some plates?”
I got to work on the bottle, trying to remember how my dad did it. “I still can’t drink legally.”
“You can in your own home; you just can’t buy it. Tonight will be many firsts for you then.”
I got the cork out with a pop and poured us each a glass, trying to cover my shaking. I handed her a glass and looked into her dark eyes under long lashes. She was so beautiful, and she was mine. My wife. A gift sent to me from the future. “To us and to our future.” I started to drink, but then she stopped me.
“Let’s link arms like they do in the movies and take a selfie for our wedding album.” She walked away and brought back a camera.
“What’s a selfie?”
“When you take a picture of yourself.”
I nodded, and we intertwined our arms as we drank from the chilled glasses while she snapped pictures. We sat them down, and then she picked up a plate of cake. “I thought we’d take turns feeding each other too.”
I nodded and took a piece of cake from my plate and pinched off a bite-size portion and held it to her lips. She took a quick picture and then took a bite. Her eyes locked on mine as a new expression shone from them. With a seductive stare, she took the bite of cake from me before grabbing my hand and pulling it closer. Still looking at me, she licked the remaining icing from my finger. I think I might have groaned before I grabbed her and pulled her close. Her lips were sweet from the cake as I kissed her harder and more intensely than she’d ever allowed.
Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance Page 13
