You Belong With Me (28 page)

              “Hi there,” Michael said, sounding happy to hear from her.

              Layla smiled, feeling the same thing. “I just wanted to check on you and see if you’re okay.”

              Michael paused and she heard the sound of dishes clattering against each other and she knew he was in the kitchen cleaning up. “I’m okay. I went in to see my lawyer this afternoon. You might know him. Roger Paulsen? Anyways, he says I have nothing to worry about. But there’s no way I’m taking chances. I’ve put him on the clock. He’s having his investigator look up her old roommates and friends so we can have the character witnesses we need if it comes to that. I got the divorce based on abandonment. That won’t look good to any judge. But if she can prove mental cruelty and mental abuse, she’ll have a chance.”

              Layla frowned as she rubbed her forehead. She’d seen a lot of messy court cases with parents fighting for custody. They could be brutal and the truth could be bent in every direction possible.

              “Don’t be surprised if she does. I just hope Stella doesn’t have to be involved in the process.”

              Michael made a growling sound in his throat, obviously hating even the thought of that happening. “Over my dead body.”

              Layla winced and let it go. “Do you think Ashley’s just going through the steps in order to have some kind of leverage over you?”

              Michael sighed. “It’s possible. There’s no telling with her. The sad thing is, I know it’s her parents behind it. She doesn’t care about custody. She doesn’t want to be a full time mother to Stella.”

              Layla nodded silently. She’d seen many grandparents come in at the last second and save children from going into foster care. She’d also seen them make a lot of trouble and get in the way of children being adopted into good caring stable homes.

              “Michael, what will you do if the judge grants Ashley joint custody?” she said, wincing, but knowing that she needed to bring it up so he was prepared for all the possibilities.

              Michael made a huffing sound. “I’ll appeal until I can’t appeal anymore. I won’t have my daughter being raised by someone who doesn’t love her.”

              Layla lay back on her bed and crossed her ankles. “I totally understand honey, but Father’s rights don’t have the same punch in family courts as mother’s rights. It’s just a fact. But on the plus side, the State of Washington is one of the more liberal states as far as Father’s rights and add in the fact of Ashley’s complete lack of involvement in Stella’s life you’ve got yourself a really good chance,” she said, smiling as Michael made a loud whooping sound.

              “I knew there was a reason I loved you. Because you tell me everything I want to hear,” he said blissfully.

              Layla laughed and wished him good night, hanging up just as he was shouting that he loved her. She laughed at the phone and then went to get ready for bed. Tomorrow was a new day, and she wanted to be prepared for whatever life threw at her.

Chapter 22 – Surprises

              Layla waited until after the bakery was closed the next day to start investigating her grandmother’s will and why she’d left their father out of it. Michael called just as she was pulling a box marked Belinda on the side off a shelf in their small storage room behind the kitchen. She promised to stop by later for dessert and hung up.

              She glanced through a few boxes before she came to a box of folders marked with her father’s name. She took out one of the folders and glanced through it quickly. Court papers from when her father was a teenager. He’d been in and out of juvenile court since the time he was fourteen it looked like. The charges ranged from petty theft to possession of marijuana. She frowned as she saw the typical trend in delinquency. The crimes started out so small and just kept escalating every year.

              She picked up the next folder and saw this one contained information on her father in the military. Layla smiled sadly as she saw her father had been given an ultimatum. Jail or join the army. He’d chosen the Army. She glanced through the pictures and the letter written home to his mother. He’d changed and been a different man when he was clean from drugs she noticed. That must have been when he’d met their mom. There was a picture of Landon standing with a bunch of his Army buddies in front of a barracks. He looked so happy, and nice and good. The Army had been a good choice for him.

              She picked up the next file and it had skipped ahead about eight years. She looked through the other folders, but nothing to fill in the blank dates. The file she had laid aside contained new court documents. Her father had fallen back into drugs, being arrested for possession with the intent to sell.

              She stacked the folders and went looking for more information. The missing years were the years of their mother’s marriage to Landon.
The years when they’d been a family
. She went quickly through the boxes and came across letters from Belinda’s lawyer, but she would come back to those later. She put the boxes back and walked back into the small family room. She walked over to the book shelves she had largely ignored and scanned through the books. The top two shelves contained novels and self-help books. But the lower two shelves contained what looked like picture albums.
Ta da!

              Layla sat on the couch and picked the oldest book to begin with. Her grandmother’s child hood pictures. She grinned as she saw picture of her grandmother as a little girl, teenager and young married woman. She went to the next album and looked at the pictures of her grandmother holding a smiling little blond boy on her lap. They both looked so happy and loving. What could have happened? She noticed there weren’t many pictures of her grandfather in the photo book. The few pictures he was in, he wasn’t smiling and Belinda and her father looked stiff, less happy somehow. Hmmm,
interesting
.

              She went to the next album and saw a whole page of pictures of Landon and his mother standing by the grave marker of his father. Gone was the happy, carefree smile. Belinda looked serious, but not heartbroken. It was interesting what you can read from the emotions of a picture. Her father just looked emotionless.

              The next photo album was spotty. It looked like pictures had been taken out. Some of the pictures looked like he was young, eleven or twelve years old. On another page, he had to be at least fifteen. And then page after page of her father in his Army Uniform. She bit her lip and looked at the second to the last photo album.
Finally!
She sighed in pleasure. She opened the pages and saw pictures of her mom in a wedding dress and her father in his dress uniform. She frowned as she realized that at some point her mother had taken down every picture and hidden away every sign that their father had ever existed. Probably why she hadn’t recognized him immediately when he’d sat down by her at the park. She felt sad as she looked at the pictures of her parents in the year before her birth. No one looking at these pictures would ever believe that the happy, beaming man would one day wake up, walk out and never return.

              She turned the next page and saw a picture of herself as a newborn baby. She didn’t even notice when she had to reach up and wipe a tear away. Her grandmother had so many pictures of her. She paused, her eyes wide as she saw a picture of her being held by her grandmother. In the picture her grandmother was smiling and beaming as she had done when she’d been holding her father as a young boy. Layla took in a shaky breath and turned the pages to see pictures of Kit, from new born up through what must have been pre-school. Layla frowned as she turned the page. There were no pictures of Jane. Had her mom blocked out their grandmother in her anger at their father?

              She skimmed through the rest of the blank pages and frowned. She turned and looked at the very last photo album and pulled it over. She opened it and saw a picture of her graduating from high school. It had been taken at a far distance so it was kind of fuzzy, but it was her accepting her diploma with a big happy grin on her face. She turned and saw there was one more picture of her at her college graduation. There were a few articles about her when her name had come up in court cases, but that was it. The next few pages were taken up with Kit and Jane. The very last one was of the three sisters at their mother’s funeral, standing silently by the casket in black dresses and looking devastated. Why hadn’t Belinda contacted them?

              Layla closed her eyes and held the photo album to her chest feeling pain and anger and a huge sense of loss at never having known a woman who had obviously loved her. She put the photo album down and glanced at her watch. She would have to hurry to get to Michael’s in time for dessert. She set all the albums on the couch for her sister’s to find and go through if they wanted to.

              Layla drove her car over to Michaels and hurried up the steps to the front porch. Before she could even knock though, Stella was ripping the door open and jumping up and down.

              “Layla! We made you a super yummy dessert. Daddy says I’ll have to work in your bakery when I get older,” she said grinning proudly.

              Layla laughed, feeling an easing in her heart as she picked up Stella and just held her for a moment, her face against Stella’s hair. “I believe it sweetie,” she said before setting her down. She turned around and saw Michael leaning in the doorway, staring at her with a small smile on his mouth. And right there, in front of his daughter, he walked over, pulled her firmly into his arms and leaned her back, kissing her passionately for a brief but powerful moment.

              Layla gasped for breath, laughing as she blushed and looked down to see Stella looking up at her and her father.

              “Daddy, why are you always kissing Layla?” she asked, looking very interested.

              Michael reached down and patted Stella’s head softly. “I like to kiss Layla because I love her and someday, I’m going to marry her,” he added in a determined voice that had her raising her eyebrows at him.

              “Space,” she whispered in his ear.

              Michael glared at her darkly and then sighed. “But that’s in the future Stella. We’ll just have to be very patient and wait until Layla is ready,” he said not sounding patient at all.

              Layla reached down and grabbed Stella’s hand. “Point me in the direction of this amazing dessert because I am starving.”

              After eating second helpings of strawberry shortcake, she helped Michael get Stella ready for bed and read her a story before kissing her on the forehead. Michael led her out to his back deck and pulled her over to a large porch swing.

              “The perfect ending to a day,” she said snuggling into Michael’s side as soon as he sat down next to her.

              He put his arm around her shoulders and got comfortable, sighing tiredly. “This feels so right Layla. I can see myself sitting here with you every night for the rest of my life,” he said quietly.

              Layla smiled and reached up and kissed his cheek lightly. “Sweet. And I can too. Just sitting here watching the sunset hit the water and surrounded by the scent of flowers . . .,
and being with you
, it feels perfect,” she admitted.

              Michael leaned his head back, turning to look at her. “Do you really need all that space Layla?” he asked.

              Layla snorted. “This is so not space Michael. And yes. I do. You can’t ask me to marry you. Are you crazy? We need to date for a few months before we even discuss it,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

              Michael reached for her hand and kissed her fingertips. “When it’s right, it’s right. Waiting is just waiting. I already know. You already know. Heck, Stella knows. My parents know. I saw Kit today, and she knows. Jane hasn’t said anything but I’m almost positive she knows. So why?” he asked softly. “Are you scared? Is that it?”

              Layla frowned and looked away from Michael’s piercing eyes. “Look, knowing you want something and accepting that you feel a certain way about another person is different for everybody. Maybe if I hadn’t had such a rough year or maybe if my father hadn’t taken off and abandoned us after being the perfect husband and father for five years. But the fact is, when I got here to Fircrest, I was an emotional wreck. Who knows? Maybe I still am. How about if I admit that I do have very strong feelings for you and Stella. I’ll even admit that I want to be here sitting on this porch swing with you for the rest of my life. I’ll admit that you’re amazing and gorgeous and that every moment I’m with you is a moment when the sun comes out and life is just the way it should be,” she said, coming up for breath.

              Michael grinned at her. “But there’s a but, right?”

              Layla smiled and put her arms around Michael’s waist. “
But
. . . , I need time and patience. Give those two things to me and I’m yours. It’s that easy,” she said, feeling her heart beat faster at what she was saying.

              Michael stared at her in surprise, his eyes going wide as his smile took over his whole face. “
Whoo hoo
!” he shouted and stood up, dragging her out of the swing and lifting her in his arms as he swung her around.

              Layla laughed, glad when he finally set her down and hugged her tightly. “You have just made me the happiest man in the world,” he said breathlessly.

              Layla looked up into his face and shook her head. “That’s what you say when you ask me to marry you and I say yes. This is where you say,
yes Layla, I can see that you have valid concerns and I am very willing to take as much time as you need
.”

              Michael looked at her like she was crazy. “Are you kidding? You just basically proposed to me. I heard you do it. My answer is yes by the way. I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t get down on one knee, but I’ll take it. I’m sort of the traditional type. I was kind of picturing us getting engaged on my boat at sunset when we’re on the water, but here in the back yard is okay. Basic, but doable,” he said grinning at her as her eyes widened and her lips thinned in a frown.