Discovered (7 page)

“I think you’re
reading too much into it,” Layla responded. “And I love science and figured I’d
never do the Spanish language justice anyway.”

“I don’t know,”
Julie said, shaking her head and ignoring Layla’s last comment. “It was as if
Issy was shocked that he’d be seeing you again.”

Layla shrugged her
shoulders and looked out the side window, feeling irritated at her friend for assuming
the worst. But then she remembered Jay’s strange mood from earlier in the day
and fought back a moment of doubt.  No, Julie was wrong, she quickly concluded.
Jay had asked her to the dance, and everything was fine…wasn’t it?

Jay

Jay grabbed his leather jacket from the coat rack
by the front door and headed out to the driveway.

He turned the keys in the ignition of his SUV,
feeling strange, familiar anxiety. It wasn’t exactly a bad feeling, more like a
nervous excitement, and one that he felt all too often when he was going to see
Layla. He scolded himself inwardly,
‘Calm down; she’s just a girl.’
But
his inner arguing was to no avail; he knew deep inside that wasn’t true. She
wasn’t just any girl. She was the brightest, funniest and prettiest girl he’d
ever met. Nah, who was he kidding, she wasn’t pretty, she was beautiful…gorgeous
in fact. Her pale skin was like peaches and cream.
‘A little cliché,’
he
admitted, but it was the truth. There just wasn’t any other way to describe her
perfect complexion. Her eyes, those hazel-green eyes that glistened with warmth
and intelligence, all but took his breath away when he looked into them. But
despite her air of wisdom, she had a delicate innocence about her, a profound
goodness that was almost child-like.  

Jay’s mind drifted back to the last kiss, and
the softness of her red lips. As much as he knew he should never have kissed
her, not even once, the thought of it still caused his heart to flutter. The
fact that she never pushed him away made the memories sweeter.

Still, he knew it was wrong to involve her in
his life. The realization that she was the only girl he’d been attracted to in
a very long time did not negate the fact that what he was doing was almost
criminal. He could tell that she liked him a lot, and while that feeling was
more than mutual, he knew that he was leading her on to a certain degree. Ben
was right; this was nothing short of crazy.

 His mind replayed the scene from the previous
night.

He pulled
into his driveway after dropping Layla off and killed the ignition.

“Crap!” he
said out loud to no one. He tapped the steering wheel repeatedly, reluctant to
get out of the car. He was well aware of what he was walking into, and it was
going to resemble something very close to a firing squad.

He sighed
deeply, feeling a knot form in his stomach. He ran his fingers through his hair
and got out of the car, knowing that he had to face this scene sooner or later.
What was the point in prolonging the inevitable?

When he
entered his living room, Ben was well and truly fired up, as Jay knew he would
be. “James Morganson’s stepdaughter! Are you freaking kidding me?” he
screeched.

“Ben, give
it a rest,” Jay huffed.

“Give it a
rest?” Ben echoed, fuming. “Have you lost your mind?”

“First
off, she isn’t his stepdaughter. Her mom is only going out with Morganson—”

“She lives
with him!” Ben yelled. “That’s practically the same thing in my book. God, Jay,
when I told you last night that she didn’t belong in our world, I had no idea
the depth of that statement. And you knew that, yet you actually had me regretting
hurting the girl’s feelings.”

“Are her
parents divorced?” Issy questioned innocently, as though she wasn’t aware of
the reason for Ben’s outburst.

“Her
father was in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan a few years back,” Jay said quietly,
wincing against the outburst he knew would come.

Ben’s jaw
dropped. He looked at Jay with astonished disbelief. “Oh, let me guess,” he
said, having found his voice, “William Sparks’ kid. I considered that when she
said that her dad and Morganson owned a company together, but decided to give
you the benefit of the doubt.”

Jay sighed
deeply. “It would appear so, given that her last name is Sparks,” he admitted
with a guilty expression.

“What the
hell is wrong with you?” Ben screeched.

“What’s
the big deal?” Jay yelled back, feeling his temper flare. “She’s not
responsible for their actions. It’s just an uncanny coincidence.”

“Morganson
hooked up with Sparks’ wife?” Issy said disbelievingly. “How weird.”

“I didn’t
know they owned a company together, did you?” Joey butted in.

“No,” Jay
replied. “But when Layla told me that her father owned a small pharmaceutical
company with her mother’s boyfriend whose name just happened to be James, it
took less than a split second to put two and two together.”

“Jay, this
is insanity!” Ben said, shaking his head.

“I know…”
Jay replied quietly.

“Go easy,”
Issy said to Ben in a pleading voice.

“You knew
about Sparks?” Jay asked, looking over at Ben.

“I heard
through the grapevine that he was in a helicopter crash on the northern border
of Afghanistan and Pakistan…yeah,” Ben replied.

Jay
nodded.

“And it
wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that he was probably rooting around the
Hindu Kush,” Ben added.

 “Most
likely,” Jay agreed, then sighed again. Ben was right; he really needed to move
on and leave Layla alone.

“I’m
sorry,” Issy piped in.

“For…?”

“You
really like her, I can tell,” she replied.

Jay
shrugged his shoulders.

“But why
wouldn’t you,” Issy added pensively. “She’s lovely in so many ways.”

“No hacer
esta peor, mi amor,” Ben warned.

“I wasn’t
trying to make it worse, only stating the obvious,” she snapped. “Why don’t you
give Jay some credit or at the very least, some sympathy?”

A guilty
look spread over Ben’s face.  “Jay, I apologize but—”

“No,
you’re right,” Jay said, shaking his head. “This is stupid. I knew it was but…”

Issy put
her hand on his shoulder supportively.

“Listen,
guys, I’m going up to my room. I’ll see you in the morning,” Jay announced and left
without another word.

And then
there was his unforgivable and weak behavior from earlier that day.

He had every
intention of finding Layla and making some excuse as to why he needed to back
off from her. But when he heard Hartley ask her to the dance, the green-eyed
monster decided to pay him a visit at that moment and inform Jay that it saw
things differently, and of course, Jay was no match for the demon.

He ran the
conversation that he would have to have with Ben over and over in his mind.
Telling Ben that he really needed to work on the project with Layla would be
partially the truth, that was, of course, unless he just gave up the facade and
went home, which was, more than likely, the smarter option. He’d just have to
stand his ground. That, or come up with a clever lie.

He gazed out the window as he headed up the
road toward Layla’s house.  A low haze of sun bounced off the fall foliage.
North Carolina in autumn was really a sight to behold. The epitome of fall
colors bathed the scenery beyond his windshield.  He lowered the sun visor to
block the blinding rays.

A heaviness settled over him, the irony of the
situation apparent: part of him was so tired of being alone all the time, yet
he hadn’t realized that until he met Layla, the one girl he could never justify
being with. All he’d thought about in days was how much he wanted to spend time
with her, not letting more logical thoughts take root. Doing so would have
forced him to face the fact that his infatuation was already spiraling out of
control, threatening to consume every circumstance in its path until things
ended in a pile of smoldering ash. Still, he drove toward her house, eager to
spend the evening with her, trying to block out all other thoughts for the time
being.

He pulled up in front of Layla’s home and
thanked heaven that she was already outside, standing by the mailbox along with
her mother. She looked breathtaking in a salmon colored hoodie and plain blue
jeans.

Jay did what he did best: pushed out all
negativity and put on his most charming smile for Cheryl. He jumped out of the
car and walked over to Layla’s mother, holding out his hand to her.

“So Layla has
informed me that you’ve asked her to the Thanksgiving dance,” Cheryl stated.

“Yes, ma’am, I hope
that’s okay with you,” he replied.

“I suppose, but I
was kind of hoping she’d join me in New York. I’ve never spent Thanksgiving
without my daughter before,” Cheryl explained. “And James is going to be taking
a flight up north on the Wednesday. I don’t like the idea of her alone for the
holidays.”

“Mom, I’ll be
eighteen at that point, a full-fledged adult. I’ll be fine,” Layla butted in,
rolling her eyes.

“She would be more
than welcome to spend the day with my family and me,” Jay responded.

“Your parents
wouldn’t mind?” Cheryl pushed.

Jay breathed out
through his nose in a quiet chuckle. “Not in the slightest,” he replied,
shaking his head.

“Okay…I suppose,”
Cheryl reluctantly replied.

“Don’t worry, mom,
I’m a big girl,” Layla insisted.

“Alright, then,”
Cheryl muttered. “Have fun, you two,” she added as Jay held open the car door
for Layla.

He climbed into the
driver’s side and stuck his head out the window. “It’s nice to see you again,
Mrs. Sparks,” he said politely before backing out of the driveway.

When they entered
his house, Jay went to the kitchen immediately and brought Layla back a can of
diet coke without her asking. “I stocked up the fridge for you,” he said,
pulling up the tab and pouring the contents into an iced glass before handing
it to her.

“How many do you
think I could drink in one night?” she asked sarcastically. She sat at the edge
of the couch and took a sip then placed the glass on the side table next to
her.

Jay sat beside her
with his arm flung over the back of the couch and his left knee up on the
cushion, facing her, his mood still reflective.  “So about this project…” he
said, but then, as he looked at her, his expression changed. He stopped talking
and was regarding her as though he’d never seen her before. He was aware, by
the change in her demeanor, that he was making her slightly uncomfortable with
the way he was gazing at her, but just couldn’t seem to peel his eyes away.

 “So, about this
project,” she echoed, obviously trying to bring the subject back around to her
reason for being there.

“You’re really
beautiful,” he said, cutting her off, seemingly unaware that she’d said
something.

Her face flushed
scarlet, no doubt from the intensity of his white-hot glare.

He put his knuckle
under her chin and lifted her face so that he could look into her eyes.  A
smile spread across his face. “You’re blushing,” he said, beaming. “I would
have thought that a girl that looks as good as you would be thoroughly sick of
hearing how beautiful you are at this point.”

She shook her head
slightly but said nothing.

Jay narrowed his
eyes and regarded her for a long moment. “God, Layla,” he breathed, his look
turning somber. He swallowed. The way she sat before him, delicate and bashful,
her cheeks burning in the most adorable manner he’d ever seen, utterly affected
by being told that she was beautiful, he wanted to grab hold of her, to fold
her into his arms more than he’d wanted anything in a long time. She looked up
at him, the depths of her eyes taking his breath away. Without even realizing
what he was doing, he ran his finger over her pink cheek, wallowing in the
softness of her skin.

He leaned in and
pressed his lips to hers, completely giving in to the reflex. Tasting the
strawberry of her lip-gloss, he put both hands on either side of her face and
pulled her head closer to him, deepening the kiss, basking in the way that she
yielded to him, reveling in the feel of her little hands on his shoulders.

He pulled away and
looked at her again, knowing that something in him had changed indefinitely.
Something fell into place; a piece that he hadn’t even been aware was missing
until that moment. He shook his head slightly. “Wow,” he said quietly, jerking
his head to the side. And then she blurted out the cutest little giggle,
melting his heart.

He leaned over and
picked the remote off the coffee table and flicked on the TV, fighting the urge
to repeat the kiss, knowing it would be his undoing.

“About our
project,” she said, looking at him with confusion.

“We have time,” he
replied, flicking through the channels. He shook his head. “I’m not really in
the mood at the moment.”

“Oh, okay,” she
huffed.

He put his arm
around her shoulder and pulled her to him.

He stared straight
at the TV deep in thought, torn to shreds by indecision and confusion. On the
one hand, he was unequivocally hooked on the girl; on the other, he knew that
he was being utterly selfish toward her. Sooner or later, he really would have
to end this situation, but he just couldn’t seem to find the strength to do so.
He was beyond disgusted at his own self-centered behavior.