Safe Harbor (The Lake Trilogy, Book 3) (2 page)

“Well, then…what are
you
going to do with all that money?” I ask, thinking Will might have some great philanthropic idea. Surely Will has some grand plan to use his father’s money for good, even if just to make Meyer turn over in his grave.

“Nothing. I don’t want it,” he
says with disgust.

“What do you mean you don’t want it? How could you not want it?” I remember
that Will and I had a conversation about his disdain for wealth during our wonderful Day of Nothing. A smile crosses my face as I recall the other activities besides talking that filled that day and have to redirect my thoughts before they get out of hand. Will has never been interested in the monetary legacy that belongs to him. Had his father not been so manically focused on dollar signs, Will may have grown up to feel differently. “Don’t you think you deserve it after everything he put you and your mother through?”

“It’s blood money, Layla. Not a single dime of it was earned with any legitimacy. The law was broken and lives were destroyed. I can’t take that money.”
Will’s face is hard, pained even. Time has not healed the wounds his father using money as a weapon caused.

“How much, Will?” I
ask because I want to know how far down the mental list of all the good that could be done with it I can go. I also have a feeling that the
amount
of money Will is set to inherit is playing into the weight he’s trying so hard not to carry.

It
takes Will almost a whole minute before he answers me, and even then it isn’t a complete answer. “Nine figures.” He sounds almost ashamed.

I silently gasp. I knew Will’s father was insanely wealthy, I just didn’t know how insane it was.
Nine figures. Wow.

“Then do something
great with it, Will. Do something your father would have never done. Start a scholarship. Start a hundred scholarships! There are dozens of non-profit organizations that are on the brink of going under because they don’t have the funding. Find the families he screwed over and help
them
with it. Keep what you think we need, and give the rest away, or give it all away. I don’t care. I just think it would be a waste to let it sit there, or go back into the firm, just because it’s dirty. You can make it clean, Will.”

“I
…I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’ve been so perplexed as to why he wouldn’t have changed his will when as far as he knew we were dead. Then it pissed me off that he left it to me and not my mom. He treated her like crap for years and then she doesn’t even get anything in the end?” Will sighs, showing his heavy heart. “I don’t want to hate him, Layla. It’s hard not to, though, when even after he’s dead and gone he’s still disrespecting my mother.”

“I understand. But…you know you have to forgive him. He’ll keep you trapped in the hate that filled his heart if you don’t forgive him and let it go. I think there might be some extra floating lanterns in the garage
.” I smile and stroke Will’s face thinking about the night I was able to let go of all the pain and unforgivness Gram had planted in me. It was a night of sweet release that Will, Luke, and Claire orchestrated in an act of pure love for me.

“Thanks. That’s not a bad idea.” Will kisse
s me and reciprocates the sweet touch on my cheek. “In the meantime, Luke and I were also trying to figure out the best way to explain about mom and me ‘dying.’ I never thought we’d be going back, so I never thought of having to explain myself to anyone.” Will is changing the direction of our conversation as a means of not having to talk about the feelings associated with his father. We process things similarly in that we both have to take some time in our own heads before we can really articulate anything. If we don’t take that time, we end up a crumpled mess of tears and unintelligible rants.

“So…we’re definitely going back?” I ask. I
don’t mind going back to Davidson, but no one has asked my opinion and I hate that the decision has been made for me.

“
Why wouldn’t we?”

“Because
we’re building a life here? We’re getting married in a few months…here. And what about school?”

“We’ll finish the semester and then move back
. It’s only eight weeks,” Will answers as if the solution is an obvious one.

“I’m supposed to finish the semester, pack a house,
move, and plan a wedding all in a three month time span? Will, honey, you’re delusional. There’s no way! Something will have to give.” I sigh heavily, not knowing just how heavy, and feel the sting of tears starting. I don’t want to cry, but the thought of trying to pull everything off is immediately overwhelming.

I
don’t understand why there is such a sense of immediacy in moving back to Davidson. Will has been gone for over a year, and with Holly’s impending trial I don’t see the need to add more drama to the situation. We could at least wait until after we get back from our honeymoon, letting Luke handle everything in Davidson between now and then. There will be time to finish the semester, get married, and then move back to Davidson if he really wants.

I
ponder this thought and start to see the benefits of moving back to a Davidson as I realize it’s no longer silently run by a devious manipulator. I think about how the newspapers might read a little differently now that they’re free to print the truth about Meyer, possibly recanting stories and setting them straight. I think about how the air might even smell differently, and the crowd at the Concert on the Green might actually intermingle now that there won’t be such heavily drawn lines.

In
this moment I feel like I can get on board with moving back to Davidson. That Will and I could go back as husband and wife, a
new
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer. We could work together to build trust in the Meyer name and start a new legacy, eventually starting a family of our own. A smile spreads across my face and I’m about to lay out my thoughts to Will when he bursts every bubble and shoots down every idea I have with one look.

“You’re right
,” he says, hardening his face. “Something
will
have to give…which is why I think we should postpone the wedding.”

“He really said that?”
Caroline asks through the phone. Living in California she’s lost some of her southern drawl, but when she’s mad, it shows up and does double duty for all the time it’s been away.

“Yeah,” I say sadly after recapping the last 27 days to her. She’s gotten snips and pieces via text, but this is the first time we’ve really
talked. She actually called me after her mom called her this afternoon to tell her Will’s father finally died.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t know what to say so I just got up and walked away. I
still
don’t know what to say. It’s been over a week and we’ve barely spoken. I haven’t said anything about it and he hasn’t mentioned it again. I’m trying to understand, Caroline. Really, I am. It’s not like he thinks we should postpone the wedding on some whim. I get that there’s a lot going on. But then I’m kinda pissed. After everything he put me through about me not wanting to set a date, now
he’s
the one avoiding getting married? No one has to know he’s still alive. I mean, what if Holly hadn’t shot his father? There’d still be a trial going on and we’d be going to school and planning our wedding!”

“Do you think he wanted to postpone it until
he knew for sure what was happening with his dad? I mean, maybe now that he’s dead Will feels differently. I know he hated his dad, but it’s still his dad. Now that his father is dead, has he given you any indication that he feels differently about postponing the wedding?” I both love and hate how Caroline can be on my side and still make me think about the other side. I need the logic, but sometimes I just want to be selfish.

“I don’t know. I haven’t even seen him today. He was already holed up in Luke’s office when I
came downstairs. I know he said I could be included now, but…”

“
You haven’t even seen him today? GO IN THERE!” Caroline demands. “Go into that office and talk to him, Layla. You’re not some weak little girl. You’re his fiancée and he’s opened the door for you to be involved. Now, more than ever, you need to be with him. I don’t care what the circumstances were around their relationship, and I don’t care what you two have left unsaid, his father just died and
you
need to be with him. I’m hanging up now. I love you and I’ll talk to you later.”

Just like that Caroline is gone and I’m left in the wake of
her logical instructions. I don’t know why I’m scared to go in there. Yes, I do. Without waiting or even asking for an explanation I walked away from one of the most important conversations Will and I have ever had, and I haven’t spoken of it since. It was a conversation that left me reeling, questioning my future. Now I’m supposed to go into that office and console my fiancé over the loss of his father, a man who made our lives as complicated as they are right now.

She’s right, though
.
She’s always right.
I make my way downstairs to Luke’s office. The door is still closed so I knock twice before opening it. Will and Luke are seated as I found them the day I pouted my way into their conversation. I don’t say anything this time. I just look at Will, watching to see his reaction to me. This is the first time in over a week I’ve been intentional about seeking him out. Every other day we’ve just happened to find ourselves in the same room.

“I’ll leave you two
alone,” Luke says, excusing himself and closing the door behind him. Will stands and faces me as the door clicks closed.

It takes me a few minutes to say anything, waiting to see if Will has anything to say first. After walking away as I did that day, I feel like Will should have the chance to express his displeasure with me before I make any attempt at an apology.

“I’m so sorry about your dad, Will,” I say, deciding he’s probably giving me a chance to speak first since I’m the one who walked away. I rush to him, hoping his arms will receive me. “I’m so sorry about everything!” Will holds me and strokes my hair, his first sign in telling me not to worry.

“It’
s ok, Layla, it’s ok,” he says softly.

“It’s
not
ok. I’ve behaved so poorly over the last several weeks, and when we had just agreed to work together
I
left the conversation. I left you to figure things out on your own and that was wrong. I’m sorry. I won’t do that again. I promise.” I hope he can hear the pleading tone in my voice because that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m pleading with him to believe that I’m not going to shut down again. “We’re in this together and I will never let anything come between us again. If you think we should postpone the wedding, then we’ll do it.”

“It was unfair of me to spring that on you the way I did. If
I had let you be a part of the conversations I’d been having with Luke you’d have understood my reasons.
I
shut down. I kept you out and then out of nowhere I suggested changing the biggest day of our lives.” Will takes a deep breath of resolve. “What do you say to a
serious
do-over?”

“How far back are we going?” I ask.

“How’s 27 days?” he says.

“I can do that.” I lay my head on Will’s chest, listening to his heartbeat go from pounding to a regulated beat.
“I really am sorry about your dad.”

“I know. Thanks.”
Will rubs circles on my back and rests his chin on the top of my head. I feel his breath ruffle my hair and it gives me chill bumps. He smells divine and I realize how much I’ve missed this over the last weeks. I wrap my arms tighter around Will’s middle and he responds with a kiss to the top of my head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come see you as soon as Claire told me,” I tell him. Caroline is right. Despite what the relationship was like, Will’s father just died. The saddest part is that now that he’s gone, the hope that things could ever be different between them is gone, too.
I remember feeling so hopeful that one day Will’s father would come around. It seems silly now, considering the series of events over the last year and a half, but I was hopeful nonetheless. “How are you?”

“It’s ok, Layla. It’s been a rough few weeks. I don’t know that any of us have been ourselves. I’m ok. I had long enough to prepare for it.” Will releases me and guides me to the leather loveseat. “I thought a lot about what you said, about having to forgive him,” he says as we sit. Will takes my hand in both of his, lacing
his fingers through mine. “I have to forgive him or my life is going to be filled with regret, and I don’t want to live like that. My father lived with the regret of his father, and I’m not going to leave that legacy for our children.”

Our children.
That sounds so wonderful. It’s nice to know that even though he thinks we should postpone the wedding he’s still thinking about our future like this. This makes me immediately want to talk about why he thinks we need to postpone the wedding, but I hold my tongue and wait for a better moment.

“I’m happy to help you with that, if you want me to,” I offer with a sympathetic smile.