Free Second Chances: Novella One by Jo Briggs

sad tone not lost on her as they locked eyes.
    Layla knew he was thinking about their dead child. Gulping down her feelings of guilt, she smiled meekly and nodded.
    ***
    Evan
    Evan couldn’t help but enjoy watching Layla work her way through the remaining emails. She did not seem to notice him staring as she hummed along to the songs, while doing a slight upper-body dance when she got right into a verse. He remembered how she’d always enjoyed music, and they had gone to many concerts and nightclubs where her enthusiastic dancing had caused a stir.
    “ Who’s singing this? The voice seems familiar, but I can’t quite place it or the song.”
    Evan woke up from his trance with a bump to find Layla looking at him curiously.  Feeling his cheeks flaming up, he said, “Me,” quietly, feeling quite embarrassed. He had removed the song from his iPod on several occasions, but it always made its way back on when Amber came to stay.
    “ You?” she asked, incredulously, looking quite taken back. “I don't recognise the song. Is it a cover?”
    “ No, it’s a song I wrote myself. A friend of mine from Cambridge is a music producer, and Amber arranged, as a birthday surprise, for me to have some studio time. My friend mixed and recorded this song, and a couple of others, for me,” Evan explained, feeling slightly awkward. He hoped Layla did not recognise that the lyrics were clearly about her.  
    Layla
    Layla listened intently to the rest of the song. “It sounds fantastic, Evan. You can truly feel the emotion of each word.”
    She felt breathless listening to the intensity of his singing voice; it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. As the chorus repeated several times, Layla began to wonder who he had written it about; obviously someone he cared about profoundly. She felt quite jealous that another woman had invoked such emotion in him.
    A sudden thought sprung to mind that it might have been written for Caggie, and the idea made her feel nauseous. “She must be quite a woman to have inspired such a song,” Layla said, trying to sound casual as she spoke the words, but sure he must have noticed the slight waver in her voice.
    Standing up, Evan moved from his desk, knelt beside her chair, and placed his hand over hers. “Yes, she is.”
    Layla tried to pull her hand away. “Evan, please don’t torment me with information like that,” she said abruptly, frustration written all over her face. “I know I’ve no right to be jealous, but I am!” She tried to move her chair backwards to get away, but Evan was too quick and stopped her, instead pulling her into his chest.
    Looking up at him blankly for a few moments, Layla began to feel rather stupid that such a straightforward thing could produce such a strong response in her. There was no reason why he shouldn’t have written the song for another woman, after all.
    “ I’m sorry, Evan, for acting so pathetically. You owe me no explanation,” she said, her eyes smudged with tears.
    “ Layla,” he replied, his voice level and patient; his expression soft with emotion. “It was about you, silly! You’ve always been my muse, and will continue to be so.” He reached over to kiss her tentatively, trying to offer reassurance.
    Layla allowed herself to kiss him back.
    “ Go and put your glad rags on and I’ll take you out to dinner, so we can really start talking,” Evan said quite firmly. Straightening himself from his kneeling position, he closed the lid of her laptop before she could protest.
    She smiled at this course of action. “Okay.”
    Back in her room, Layla headed into the en-suite bathroom where she removed her riding outfit and stepped into the walk-in shower. She let the warm water run all over her body as she leaned against the cool tiles. Why was she acting like an emotional wreck in front of Evan? He had been nothing but kindness personified during the two outbursts she’d had so far. So much for impressing him as being the strong