Page 16 of Layla Meets Her Match

We chat about her niece, the only family she has, who’s coming to town to do Disneyland and is bringing her three kids—two teenage boys who are twins and their younger sister. She beams with pride as she tells me about their latest accomplishments, and I see the wistfulness that she doesn’t have grandchildren of her own to brag about.

Our time together goes quickly, and the longing in Mrs. Van Buren’s eyes tempts me to stay. If it was anyone but Layla, I might beg off just to keep Mrs. Van Buren company a little longer.

I have the Ziploc bag with the offending cookie in hand when I knock on the door of Landon’s apartment. Eli pulls the door open, holding a rectangle-shaped bag with a handle and another duffel bag under one arm.

“Right on time,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. He tilts his head to the back of the apartment, where I can see Layla coming out of a room with a big box.

If we were in high school, I’d punch Eli and make him drop the boxes just for being so obvious, but I keep my reaction to rolling my eyes and stepping into the apartment.

“What’s that?” Eli asks, looking now to the storage bag I’m carrying with the offending cookie in it.

“Evidence,” I say, holding it out to Landon.

He takes it. “Perfect. I’m going to run this over to Dillon as soon as we’re done taking Layla’s stuff to the new place.”

Behind him, Mila bites her lip.

“You going to be open tomorrow?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “Not until I know what caused the food poisoning. Hopefully Dillon can figure it out quickly.” She glances worriedly toward Layla. She must be thinking about how her friend pays the bills. I cross my fingers that Nick and his director will reach out to Layla soon, then she and Mila can worry a little less about how long the food truck might be closed.

“Let me know if you need help with anything,” I say.

She pats me on the arm. “Thanks, Linc. I will.” But we both know that her brother will handle any financial woes that might come up because of this—if he can convince Mila to let him. Between him and Landon, she’s well taken care of.

“Hey, Lincoln!” Layla grins at me as she comes into the living room, and I take the box from her.

Her smile makes warmth strike through my chest. There’s something bright about it, like she’s my sun and that smile is the Vitamin D I need.

“Let me take this,” I say. “You go and direct all the volunteers.” I grin back, hoping that I can somehow convey how much she means to me. Words aren’t the easiest for me, but even coming up with an awkward confession would be better than holding all this in and just somehow hoping she’ll see my feelings and know they’re genuine.

“There’s not enough stuff to warrant this many people,” she says, gesturing to Court, who comes out of the room with another box.

“We’ll get it done quickly, then,” I say, following Court out the door. We figured between my Bronco, Eli’s SUV, and Landon and Court’s cars, we didn’t need to rent a truck for Layla’s belongings. Mark is coming over later this week with his truck to deliver the big rocker recliner that we can’t fit into any of our vehicles. He wanted to come help tonight, but his kids had a program he didn’t want to miss.

I’ve already folded down the seats in the back of my Bronco, so I put the box inside and push it up against the back of the front seats, then head back in for more.

As Layla said, there’s not a lot, and within an hour, we have it all distributed between the various vehicles and ready to drive over to the new apartment, which is less than a mile away. Sadly, because I filled my Bronco and my seats are down, there’s no room for Margot’s car seat, and Layla ends up riding in Court’s car with her, leading the way on the five-minute drive.

We have everything unloaded even quicker than the loading went, and despite the fact that the only furniture Layla has right now in the small studio apartment is her bed (we tied the mattress to the top of Eli’s SUV for the ride over), we all make ourselves comfortable on the floor, on Layla’s desk chair, and on boxes while we wait for the pizza Eli ordered. Except for Landon, who heads over to his colleague’s house to drop off the cookie.

Mila is, of course, holding Margot, so I settle on the floor next to Layla. “Ready for our date tomorrow night?” I ask, and I wiggle my eyebrows in an over-the-top way so she knows I’m teasing.

She laughs. “Definitely. The restaurant you suggested looks really good.”

“Dinner’s on me,” I say, just to make sure Layla doesn’t feel any stress about that.

She shakes her head. “No. I’m the one who asked you to set them up. Dinner should be on me.”

I nudge her with my elbow. “Then Dalton might make Astrid pay. We wouldn’t want that.”

She bursts into laughter. “He wouldn’t do that.”

I shrug. The sound of her laughter relaxes everything in me, making it easier to tease her a little and not think so much about my words. “Which one of us has a multimillion-dollar contract?”

“How do you know it’s not me?” she asks with a saucy raise of her eyebrows.

“I should have known you’d get the part for that biopic about Trixie Sage. You look just like her.” I nod wisely, as though this is obvious to me.

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