Safe Harbor (The Lake Trilogy, Book 3)

by Grant, AnnaLisa

  “I’m happy for you, Mom. I really am. I’m sorry. It just struck me. I didn’t know you were doing this and it caught me off guard.” Will reciprocates his mother’s embrace and we all stand there and watch as more Gregory Meyer-induced wounds are healed.

  “If it makes any difference,” Wes begins. “I’m hoping her name won’t be Hufford for too much longer.”

  I knew it! It’s so obvious to watch Wes and Eliana together just how in love they are.

  “Really?” Will says to his mother.

  “Well, we’ve only talked about it briefly…and there hasn’t been any formal proposal. But, this is good, William. I love Wesley, and he loves me in a way I’ve never been loved before. I need to know that you’re alright with this.”

  Will thinks for a minute before speaking. It’s one of the things I admire about him. More often than not, he’s slow to respond, which means he actually thinks about what he’s going to say before he says it.

  “I’m great with it. I trust Wes and I believe he really does love you. I’m happy for your fresh start, Mom, really.” Will hugs his mom and shakes Wes’ hand. “I think you and I need to have a conversation soon, though,” he says to Wes.

  “Of course,” Wes says.

  I’m not sure if Wes thinks it’s cute that Eliana’s son wants to have a sit down with him, or if he realizes that there’s a lot that Will needs him to know before he takes such a huge step with her. Either way, they’re respecting the other as men and don’t seem to be letting egos get in the way of what’s best for Eliana.

  “You want to take that slow, deliberate walk with me to the dock now?” Will asks me.

  “I thought you’d never ask!”

  I lace my fingers through Will’s and we walk slower than we ever have before down the flagstone path to the lake. The weather is warm but the breeze whipping through the trees provides just enough coolness to my skin. I brush the loose locks of hair that escaped my ponytail from my face and tuck them behind my ear in vain. Twigs snap beneath our feet and those little spiked balls fall from the trees. It’s a perfect day.

  We near the end of the path and slow our pace to almost a halt. We hadn’t taken the time earlier today to enjoy the moment of our reunion with this place, but we’re here now and plan on making up for that.

  “It’s just as beautiful as I remember,” I say softly.

  “I can hardly believe this is happening,” Will says. “It’s almost surreal.”

  “Your mom’s got the right idea, Will. It’s time for a fresh start for all of us. We can live the life here that we were meant to have. It’ll be crazy for a little bit, but after a while the novelty of the story will die down and it’ll be like it was supposed to be all along.”

  “I know you’re right. It’s just that, well, now that I’m back and free, there are some things I have to do. Some wrongs I have to right,” he says, tugging me to the edge of the dock.

  “What do you mean?” I can’t imagine what wrong Will would have to right.

  “I need to connect with my mom’s family. It’s not right how we left, and I’m not sure if she’s even contacted them yet.” Will sits and rolls up the legs of his khakis and takes off his shoes. I follow suit and take my sandals off, being careful not to let my skirt fly up as I sit.

  “I’m sure they’re going to understand, Will. They know what kind of a man your father was, don’t they?”

  “I suppose so. Still, it feels like we should have told them what we were doing,” he says, rubbing his eyes.

  “What else is going on, Will?” I ask, reading his eyes.

  “I’m going to see Holly,” he says softly.

  “What?” I whisper.

  “I need to see her, Layla. I feel responsible for what’s happening. It was my father who tore her family apart.” Will’s eyes are filled with compassion for Holly, not knowing that everything that happened between them was part of her mother’s scheming.

  “Well, we’ll go see her together then,” I say. I want to be there to make sure she doesn’t lie to him any more than she already has.

  “I need to do this on my own.” Will tucks those loose locks behind my ear again and brushes my cheek with his fingers. “Can you understand that?”

  It takes me a moment but I finally agree. “I understand, Will.” What else am I going to say? I can’t tell him the truth about what Holly told me. She has to tell him. If I tell him I’ll just look like a silly, jealous fiancée who doesn’t want her guy seeing his ex. Actually…that’s exactly what it is. But, considering the circumstances, how can I deny him. I mean the girl is standing trial for murdering his father.

  “You really are so great,” he says, pulling me to him and wrapping his arms around me. “I love you.”

  “I love you more,” I say, tightening my arms around his waist. “You should probably wait a few days, though. I mean, with your press conference today, and all the media swarming the court house and the jail…”

  “Yeah…I’ll give it a couple of days before I go. I’ll see if Luke or Wes can arrange a more discrete visit. Thanks for understanding, Layla.”

  “Of course.” Of course I’m going to see Holly before he does. Now that Will is coming back from the dead, she’s going to tell him every detail she laid out to Claire and me about their relationship. From her mother’s conniving to her insincere pursuit of Will and whatever lies she told him about how she felt about him. She’s going to tell him, or I will. I won’t let Will spend the rest of his life thinking Holly Reynolds was an innocent victim. He has to know that she was a willing pawn in her mother’s game to destroy the Meyer family.

  “So…now what?” I ask.

  “Now…we live.”

  “That sounds wonderful. What should we do first?” I sit up and decide it’s time to fix my ponytail as a whole.

  “We could talk about wedding stuff,” he says sweetly. “It’s less than a year away now.”

  “Yeah, by like, a week! You’re such a romantic.” I lean into Will’s chest and kiss him softly.

  “Or, we could do this,” he says grabbing the nape of my neck and bringing me back to him and kissing me deeply.

  “That’s an idea,” I manage in between kisses. “Actually, we should probably talk about that. Now that you live here we’ll have to be extra careful. Seeing you from sun up to sun down is going to make me feel very much like we’re married…minus the sex.”

  “We are married, remember?” Will murmurs as he moves to kiss my neck.

  “I’m serious, Will! And when did you get so impatient?” It’s not like him to be like this. I spent years being flustered every time Will pulled away from any passion we were sharing and now he can’t get enough?

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I just feel so free. Like I can do anything, be anything, and there aren’t consequences for being me. When I’m with you…I’m everything I was meant to be. Now that there’s nothing threatening our existence together, well, I may find it harder to contain myself.” Will cups my cheek and I lean into the comfort of his hand.

  I know exactly what he’s saying. I’ve never felt as free as I have when I’m with Will. You hear love stories about couples that just knew they were supposed to be together…that with one look they knew the other person was designed just for them, perfectly ordained since the beginning of time. That’s Will and me.

  “Well then maybe we should discuss an earlier wedding date,” I smile.

  “Oh, babe, no. May 25th is your parents’ anniversary. It’s a date that means something. I don’t want to take that from you.”

  “We already said our vows in the same place my parents did. It’s ok, Will. I don’t think either one of us is going to be able to wait another year. And we’ve come this far in showing a ridiculous amount of self-control, I’d hate to ruin that record because we got impatient,” I tell him.

  “If you’re sure, then let’s pull the calendar out and see what the Gardens have available. But only if you’re
sure!” he demands.

  “I’m sure, but there is one other thing,” I begin. I twist my mouth in an effort to tease and make him think I’ve got bad news. The reality is that what I’m about to tell him is going to make his day. “I want to get married in a church, here in Davidson.”

  “What? Really? Oh, babe! Why?” Will is stunned just as I hoped he would be.

  “Well, you already gave me a private ceremony in the Gardens. Now I want to give you the bells and whistles wedding you want.” I smile at Will knowing that this could quite possibly be the best wedding gift I could have ever given him. It had been so important to him that we have a big church wedding with a gazillion people, but he gave that up for me. The day we said our vows in the Gardens really is all the memory I need of the intimate wedding of my dreams.

  “Just when I think that you’ve reach the pinnacle of awesomeness, you do something like this. I totally don’t deserve you, but I’m going to give you the best wedding ever. More than that, we’re going to have the best life ever.”

  Chapter 12

  As much as I want our normal life to start immediately, Holly’s trial is going to dominate our time for a while longer. This means that Luke and Claire have Will helping Eliana get through prepping for her testimony. The trial is still months away, but it's not going to be easy, recounting all the ways Gregory Meyer treated her so poorly like the soulless monster he was. Luke doesn’t think the prosecuting attorney is going to try to discredit her, especially with the other ex-wives testifying, but he still wants her to be prepared. It’s interesting how right she has to get it. The right amount of strength. The right amount of emotion. The right amount of both anger and gratitude toward Holly. I always thought witnesses just got up there and told their side of the story. I had no idea it was so well orchestrated. Wes is working on some security things, which I don’t understand since we’re no longer under any threat. But…Luke keeps him around and it really doesn’t matter why. Since Luke got upgraded to Dad, Wes got an upgrade himself from bonus uncle to just uncle. Then I realized just this morning that Wes will get another upgrade. After Will and I are married and he marries Eliana, he’ll be my father-in-law.

  It does seem that my life just keeps getting better.

  With everyone occupied, now is my chance to go see Holly and make sure she tells Will the truth. Now that Meyer is dead, and Will has come face to face with Holly’s mother, I don’t see why he can’t know the truth, so I’m anticipating this being an easy conversation. I just have to keep myself in check and not let my hatred for what she did to Will in the first place influence my approach. My mom used to say “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” She was very wise that way.

  I park a few blocks away in a residential area and walk up McDowell Street to Jail Central on Fourth Street. It’s a crowded time of day, early lunchtime, and I can’t decide if that’s good or bad. Will anyone recognize me from the press conference the other day? Or will I shuffle in with the other nameless, faceless people on the street? I’m hoping the latter is the case, and when I round the corner onto Fourth Street to the entrance of Jail Central I can see that I should be in the clear. There are no reporters camped out, no one holding signs to release Holly Reynolds and thank her for her service to our community. The coast is clear.

  I approach the security checkpoint, taking my sunglasses off and stuffing them into my purse along with my keys. I keep my head down because the last thing I need is for a mouthy security guard to call the media and tell them I’m here, all for a little extra green in his pocket. They’d be all over me, asking me why I was here, what I said to Holly, what she said to me, and how I felt about Will having been romantically involved with the woman who ended up killing his father.

  Apparently I didn’t warrant much more than a once over from the security guards and I pass through with ease. Collecting my purse I follow the signage that takes me to the visitor check-in.

  I didn’t think I’d be this nervous, but I am. The last time I saw Holly she came to say goodbye after identifying Marcus’ body. I think about how she tried to talk Marcus down from the ledge that day, how her call bought Luke and Wes time in getting to me before Marcus…

  I shake my head to clear the memory of that awful day from my mind. I need to stay focused on my objective to convince Holly that telling Will the truth about their relationship is the right thing to do.

  I sign in and wait uncomfortably for Holly to be brought to her side of our windowed desk area. When she appears she’s surprised to see me, but smiles. I smile back at her tentatively and we both pick up the payphone-looking receivers on our sides of the glass. For a second I feel like I’m in an episode of Law and Order.

  “Layla,” she says. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  “Hi, Holly. How are you?” I ask.

  “I’m ok, I guess. I’d be doing worse if not for Luke.”

  “I think everyone who knows him feels that way.” I look down, searching for how to begin this conversation. I remind myself not to let my anger with her lead, but to be practical about it, and let her know that Will is going to understand.

  “I saw the press conference. I’m really happy for you. What he did for you…that’s really something,” she says softly.

  “Yes. It was amazing.” I don’t know how to read her. I don’t remember her as being one who shows a lot of emotion when she speaks, but something seems off.

  “My mother said she met you the other day,” Holly tells me. “I’m sorry if she was rude to you.”

  “Did she tell you what she said?” I ask.

  “No, but she told me what you said. I can only imagine what she did to get that kind of response from you. She can be, well…I’ve already told you how she can be.”

  I consider telling her what her mother said about Marcus but decide against it. Holly only gets 30 minutes to visit and I don’t want to waste time discussing her mother any further.

  “I want to ask you to do something for me, Holly,” I begin. She looks at me with an understandably quizzical expression. “Will is coming to see you soon, and I want you to tell him the truth about your relationship.”

  Holly is silent and emotionless.

  “Please, Holly. He’s coming to apologize to you. He feels responsible for what his father did to your family. He needs to know what really happened,” I plead. I try hard not to let my voice give too much of my desperation away. In some, sad way, I have to maintain the upper hand.

  “I can’t do that,” she says.

  “Yes, you can,” I respond, not hiding my irritation at her immediate refusal. “He needs to know, and he’ll understand. So, when he gets here, before he can begin even one word of apology to you, cut him off…tell him about your mother’s plot…tell him that you felt like you had no choice…explain that…”

  “Layla, Will’s already apologized to me.”

  “What? When?” I feel my face contort into a squishy mess of confusion and I hate that I’ve shown my emotions this clearly.

  “Will came to see me a few weeks before he disappeared. He told me things were going to change for him and he wanted to make sure he apologized while he had the chance.” Her delivery continues to be emotionless.

  “That can’t be true. Will…Will would have told me,” I stammer. I hate that she has so obviously caught me off guard, but unlike her in this moment, I can’t lie.

  “So he didn’t tell you. Huh.” At first her face reveals nothing of what she’s thinking. I search her eyes in hopes of seeing something, but…nothing. And then…she smiles almost sinisterly. “I believe he said he had just been at prom with you the night before.”

  “Did you tell him then that your relationship was a fraud?” I ask, not addressing the creepy display of her smile. I work to push away the thoughts that are infiltrating my mind that Holly was not an innocent pawn in her mother’s game, but an agreeable part of the plan. It’s difficult when her face is finally showing emotion, and that emotion is disturb
ing.

  “Why would I do that? What Will and I had was…amazing.” She closes her eyes for a moment as if reliving these amazing times.

  “This isn’t exactly the same story I got from you in Tallahassee,” I challenge.

  “Will was dead. I wasn’t going to flaunt our passion in front of his grieving girlfriend. I’m not that big of a bitch.” And there it is: the thing that wasn’t sitting right with me. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and I see now just what a co-conspirator she was with her mother. The same slithering tone that I got from her mother is the same one she’s giving to me now. It was all a front and I fell for it.

  “Passion?” I can’t squeeze out more than one word right now for fear I might start crying.

  “Will’s too much of a gentleman to tell you about his past conquest, I’m sure. It was…incredible. But then Will got all chivalrous and I missed my chance to have a Meyer baby.”

  “You…slept with Will?” I stutter. Meyer baby? She was going to try to get pregnant?

  “I’m guessing by your question that he’s still playing the white knight. Don’t worry. He’ll be worth the wait,” she smirks. She’s loving every minute of torturing me with her lies.

  That’s it! Get out of your head, Layla, and deal with her! Stop letting her lies distract you.

  “You know…I liked you. I thought after everything you told me about your mother that it was by some miracle that you and Marcus escaped relatively unscathed. But I was wrong. You were in on the whole plan to deceive Will from the start, weren’t you?”

  “Gregory Meyer screwed over my mother, and then my brother. We deserved every penny we got from him!” Holly raises her voice and gets a stern look from one of the guards.

  “Why involve Will? He never did anything to you! He genuinely cared about you.”

  “Will…Will was a casualty of war. In another life, he and I could have been good together. But, our mission to take down the Meyer Empire came first. Gregory Meyer kicked his other wives to the curb. What made Eliana and Will so special?” The real Holly has emerged. Her face has twisted into an expression of hatred and disgust. I have to give it to her. She put on a pretty good show in Tallahassee.