Forever Layla: A Time Travel Romance by Melissa Turner Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

mirror like Michael and rehearsing stupid pick-up lines. 
    I grabbed a beach tow el from my bag, and my notebook, of course. I filled my cooler with Cheerwines and got ice from the machine on my way out the door to the pool. Layla was still there, sunning herself. She’d pulled off the bandages from her knees.
    “Are your legs better?” I pointed at the scabs forming.
    She sat up. “Some. Mainly I didn’t want the bandages making a tan line.”
    I sat down on the lounger beside her and leaned back.
    Layla turned toward me. “Need some sunscreen?” She grabbed the bottle from beside her and handed it out to me.
    I shook my head. “No , thanks, I don’t usually burn.”
    She sat up and pulled her glasses down again to look at me. “Oh my gosh! I had no idea.”
    “What?” I glanced down at myself to see if I had a spider or something on my chest.
    “You are ripped.”
    I spun around to check my trunks, feeling my face grow warmer. “Where?”
    Layla laughed. “No, I’m talking about your chest. You are solid muscle.”
    “Oh.” I felt my face flush. “The guys and I have been working out. Travis is trying to get signed by a college for athletics next year, so his coach has him lifting weights and eating peanut butter sandwiches every few hours. He started bulking up, so we all joined in. I used to be a stick until this year.”
    “Well you are far from a stick now. I like a nice toned body on a guy way better than the overly bulky kind.” She watched me a little longer and bit her lip and leaned back , but I thought I heard her mumble, “He’s eighteen. Too young, too young, too young.”
    I grabbed my notebook from beside me and wrote the date and then under that wrote a quick note. I couldn’t let myself forget anything about meeting Layla. Her ride could show up, or the gag come to an end any moment . But today, I had a beautiful older woman reminding herself that I was too young for her. It might not be directions for time travel, but for an eighteen-year-old guy, it was up there in important things to always remember.
     
    Layla
    UP UNTIL HE TOOK HIS shirt off, this David was a harmless kid. He wasn’t the manly David of my dreams, but I could see glimpses of that David. It was like checking in the oven on a pan of cookies. They might still be warm dough, but the senses could appreciate the process. Besides, cookie dough could be nice too while waiting on the cookies. I turned my head and was trying to get a hold on my breathing. Maybe I needed a puff off of his inhaler. I glanced back over at him as he jotted something down in his notebook. I realized at that moment he didn’t know he was hot. He’d been the gangly, asthmatic geek all his life and probably hadn’t noticed he was beginning to grow into himself. I glanced at his biceps and forearms that flexed as he gripped his pen. He was far from gangly now, and although he was not the man I had always dreamed of, he certainly wasn’t the boy I had mistaken him to be.
    M y heart sped up, and my breathing deepened as I watched him. I looked away again when I saw him about to look at me. It was one thing staying in a room with a little boy overnight. It would be another staying with a hot guy. I pushed the thought from my mind. Maybe my ride would show up before then. Until that moment, I would relax and catch some rays. I glanced at the people walking by on the beach and let the worries fade as I got to be a kid myself for the first time ever.
     

 
    Chapter 5
    David
    AROUND LUNCHTIME WE ALL LEFT the pool to go across the street to eat. Layla used my t-shirt and boxers as her bathing suit cover up, and I had to use my inhaler. Did I pack my other one? I sure hoped so, or she needed to go home before I succumbed to the attacks. I’m not sure why it was affecting me so much. She showed more skin in the bathing suit. I guess it was because her skin was wrapped up in something of mine. I’m not really sure. She had piled her hair up in a sloppy