Page 45 of Layla Meets Her Match

Before I can say no yet again, the door to the stairs down the hall slams, and Jack turns toward whoever’s coming home and lowers his cap a little. I peer around the door frame to see Lincoln walking toward us. His eyes meet mine with immediate concern. Everything in my body relaxes at seeing him, and heat rushes to my cheeks as I realize it.

I am falling hard for Lincoln, and I never meant to. Does he feel the same way or are we just friends?

“Layla?” He says my name the same way Isabella did, with the same concern, and yet everything about it is different. Like how heat spreads through my body as I picture Lincoln shifting past me into the apartment to watch Margot while I take care of Jack. Isabella would have done the same thing for me if I’d asked, and yet … Lincoln is the man I picture when I think of someone doting on Margot. Not Jack. Not for a long time.

“Lincoln Knight?” Jack’s tone is surprised as he blinks up at Lincoln. The Phantom Hex movie does a good job of making Jack seem tall and muscled. And he is muscled. He just has nothing on Lincoln. Lincoln also towers over Jack, probably by at least six inches. I’m used to the large difference in our heights, so I can’t explain why when I look at him next to Jack, it’s comical.

“What’s up?” Lincoln asks me, his tone relaxed but questioning. His gaze is taking in the fact that one of the most famous actors in America is standing on my doorstep, and that I am standing in a small gap in the door and haven’t invited him in.

“Just waiting for you,” I say brightly, like I was expecting him to show up. Jack stiffens again as I open the door and shift for Lincoln to come in. “Mind checking on Margot for me?” I ask. I’ve glanced over my shoulder at her a couple times since Jack showed up, so I know she’s still playing on the rug with her toys and practicing her worm crawl.

“Of course.” He brushes his hand along my shoulder as he passes by me, and I can’t help watching him head over to the rug, where he drops onto his stomach and starts chatting with Margot. She turns her attention to him, beaming and inching her way toward him with his encouragement.

I turn back to Jack reluctantly. I don’t think he’ll push this much longer, because every minute is a chance that another neighbor is going to show up and start taking actual pictures with their phones. And more chances for my neighbors to discover Jack Williams in the hallway and use their doorbell cameras to catch all of this and make some serious cash. I hope it’s in the thousands.

“What do you want?” I ask again, making sure my voice is chilly.

“There are some things we need to discuss,” he says, his tone brisk like mine. In private dangles off the sentence even though he doesn’t say it. “How I can help you,” he says when I still don’t move.

“Then act like a normal human who isn’t used to everyone being at his beck and call and text me to set something up.”

“Layla—”

I shake my head. “I’m good, Jack. I’ve been good. I don’t need someone to help me. I’ve got everything handled. This apartment. Food for my daughter. I don’t need taking care of.”

His gaze narrows, and he looks around the hallway again. Yeah, I hope he’s worried about what they’ll record too. He shoves an envelope at me and strides off.

CHAPTER 26

LINCOLN

I roll over to face the doorway as Layla closes it and leans against it, letting out a long sigh. I push Margot’s Rays bear toward her and then stand up, moving across the kitchen area, where Layla has a small table pushed against the wall, and meet her by the door.

“Is everything okay?” I want to pull her close to me. Everything about the way she was hiding in the small gap she’d made with the door when I walked up had me on high alert. To notice that it was Jack Williams at the door only made my concern for her ratchet up. She’s told me that she hasn’t heard anything from him since a couple months after she found out she was pregnant.

She takes a long breath. “He came over, assuming I’d just let him in. I don’t think he wanted to see Margot, but the idea of him just—I don’t know. Just having access to her because he suddenly shows up? It kind of terrified me.”

It’s absolutely a friend thing to comfort another friend, so I pull her into a hug and revel in the fact that she relaxes against me. “He’s kind of a huge jerk,” I say into her hair. I want to kiss the top of her head, but that’s going too far. Especially after she made it clear to Jack just now that she doesn’t need someone to take care of her the way I want to. Despite Dottie telling me that I should just go for it with Layla, I think I need to be patient with her. Let her prove a little longer that she’s fine on her own two feet.

“Thanks, Linc,” she says. My heart kicks a little at the way she says my nickname. I want her to be mine. Waiting longer is going to be the worst.

Especially since that’s the reason I came over tonight. I thought I couldn’t wait another day to tell her. Plus, I was thinking about Margot being with her tomorrow night, and maybe that’s not the best time to have a deep talk. A talk I pictured turning into more than … talking.

Now that I’m here and realizing that Margot is also here …

It’s hard to think things through when it comes to Layla.

I reluctantly release her from my arms, and she smiles up at me. Her gaze goes to an envelope in her hands. She scowls at it, then lifts the flap open.

“What’s this?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Not sure. Jack shoved it at me when I wouldn’t let him come in.” She pulls out a slip of paper from the envelope, and her eyes go wider than the silver eyeholes on the Phantom Hex’s mask. “What?” She blinks at the paper.

“What is it?” I want to lean over and check it out for myself, but I do have some boundaries. They’re wearing thin when it comes to Layla, but I’m trying.

“Jack just gave me ten thousand dollars.” She flips the paper around to show me a check. It’s written out to her, and indeed, there’s a ten with three zeroes following it in the amount box. I almost grin triumphantly. I’m also more than curious about what he thought about me showing up at her house. He knew we were friends the night I talked to him, but considering all the social media mentions Layla and I have been getting, he probably assumes, with everyone else, that it’s more.

“What a cheapskate,” I growl.

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