Loving Lily Lavender

by Deanna Kinney

  After everyone’s plates were eaten clean, Randall leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands on his full belly. “I can’t remember the last time I had a meal so delicious, and your dessert was so good you could make a fortune selling it.”

  “Thank you, but Paula Dean is the responsible chef. In fact, she’s responsible for most of my recipes, except the one’s passed down through my family.” I stood and began clearing the table.

  “Well,” Lucas said, approaching me, “whoever is responsible for the recipe, it was your lovely hands that prepared it, and it was amazing as usual.” He pulled my right hand free, bringing it up to his lips and kissing it gently. Every minute I spent with this man, every time he said and did such things, I was becoming more and more in danger of loving him.

  “Thank you, Lucas,” I murmured as we peered longingly into each other’s eyes. It was a short but beautiful moment, of which no one was aware of but us.

  After dinner, we went into the den and spent the next few hours telling funny stories and laughing uncontrollably. At one point, I was laughing so hard I spilt tea on my blouse, causing everyone to laugh harder, including myself.

  “Um, I’m going to go up to my room and change my shirt. Meagan, why don’t you go to your car and get your guitar so you and Lucas can play for us.”

  “Oh, I forgot I brought it. Good idea, Lily.” She jumped up and headed for the door.

  “Wait,” Lucas called to her. “I brought mine too. It’s in Randall’s car. I’ll go with you.”

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” Randall called to them from the hallway as they headed out the door.

  I ran up to my room, pulling my soiled shirt off over my head and flinging it across the room. I was eager to get back downstairs and hear Lucas play. I thumbed through my drawers, settling on a cute pale green tank top with lace trimming.

  I was coming down the stairs and smiled when I heard Lucas and Meagan just beginning to play something together. It sounded beautiful. I picked up my pace, and as I reached the bottom, Randall came out of the living room, at the base of the stairs. I almost ran into him. “Randall, is everything okay?”

  “Umm yeah. I was just wondering if I could talk to you for a minute.” He looked a little anxious.

  “Of course.” I followed him into the living room. “What’s up?”

  “It’s about Lucas. I don’t quite know how to say this but—well, I can tell you’re falling for him, and I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. After all, he’s leaving next Friday, and you’ll never see him again.”

  I knew that already, but it still hurt to hear him say it. “Yes, I know, but we’re enjoying each other’s company now, while he’s here. Randall, what’s your point?”

  “Well,” he paused as he started toward me, “I’m here now too, and I’m not going anywhere. Maybe you and I could get together after Lucas leaves,” he stated boldly. He stopped right in front of me, his face just inches from mine.

  “Randall, I don’t think of you that way and besides, Meagan’s crazy about you.”

  “I’m not interested in Meagan.” All at once his lips were on mine. He kissed me roughly, almost painfully as he put his hands around me and pulled me against him. I put my hands on his chest and shoved with all my strength. He stumbled backward and, without hesitation, I slapped his face as hard as I could.

  Before he could respond, I bolted across the room, plowing straight into Lucas. Meagan was right behind him. He held me instinctively before pulling back and peering down at me. Tears flooded my eyes, though for Meagan’s sake I tried to fight them.

  “We were wondering what was taking you so long, so we decided to come and see. Is everything okay?” His tone was a little wary.

  I couldn’t respond. When I opened my mouth nothing came out. Only the tears in my eyes could speak for me.

  As they both studied the scene before them, their eyes shifting from me to Randall and back again, I could see reality dawning in their eyes.

  “What’s going on here?” Lucas asked, teeth clenched.

  “We were just talking,” Randall responded, his expression guilty.

  “Then why do you have a red hand print on the side of your face, and why does Lily have tears in her eyes?” His voice was becoming angry. “What did you do to her?!”

  At that moment, everything happened fast as Lucas raced over to Randall, grabbed him by the collar, and punched him in the face. Randall stumbled back, but regained his balance.

  His face turned red with anger. “I was just letting her know she had options,” Randall said, teeth clenched as he swung and punched Lucas in the mouth. Lucas fell backwards and hit the wall. He rebounded, swinging wildly, punching Randall one last time. He fell hard to the floor.

  “All right, all right!” Randall called, lifting one hand up in surrender. “My mistake. I just didn’t know you were that into her.”

  “Well, now you know!” His voice was angry. “You need to leave—now!”

  Randall got up slowly and walked past us, wiping his mouth with his hand. Meagan pulled me into her arms, protectively. He turned to glance at me, “I’m sorry, Lily. You’ve been nice to me—I shouldn’t have done that to you. Forgive me.”

  I nodded once, acknowledging my forgiveness, though I was still visibly shaken.

  When he was almost out the door he turned and said to Lucas, “I’ll call you tomorrow when you’ve had a chance to cool off.” Then he turned and left.

  Lucas rushed quickly to my side, “Lily, are you all right?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. The question is are you alright?” I reached up to touch his face. “Your lip is bleeding. Let’s go to the kitchen and take care of that.”

  “Lily, what did he do to you?” he demanded, changing the subject back to me.

  “He just kissed me.”

  “He must have done more than that for you to slap him,” Meagan added.

  “Okay, he kissed me harder than necessary,”

  “How hard?” Lucas demanded.

  “Honestly—very hard, but it’s over now. He apologized and everything’s fine.”

  “No, everything is not fine.” He took my face in his hands and looked at my lips. “He kissed you against your will. He hurt you. Your lips are swollen—does it hurt?” The anger was still visible in his eyes.

  “No, I’m fine, really. Lucas, he’s your friend. You have to forgive him.”

  “I don’t think I can do that.” But I could see his resolve starting to waiver just a bit.

  “Please just think about it.”

  “Okay, I’ll think about it, but I can’t promise.”

  “Well, I guess that will have to do. Now let’s go take care of that lip.”

  Then I remembered Meagan and turned quickly to address her, “Meagan, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be silly, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve known you my whole life. I know you weren’t responsible. Don’t worry about me, Lily. I’ll be just fine. Besides, I don’t want a guy who’s going to attack my best friend.”

  “I love you.” I hugged her tightly.

  “You’d be a fool not to.” She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. “Now, let’s go take care of your guy before he bleeds all over the place.”

  Minutes later, I had a cold, wet cloth in my hand. “You did good for your first fight,” I teased as I gently wiped the blood from his lip; he winced.

  “Thanks, but now I know why I’ve avoided them all these years. They can hurt….badly.” He laughed, grabbing his jaw. “Only you could make me do something that goes against my nature.”

  “You need to give yourself more credit, Lucas. I think today your true nature was revealed. Your instinct was to protect a woman in need even at your own risk. That’s very honorable.”

  “Very honorable,” Meagan agreed.

  “Well, thank you.”

  “I still can’t believe what a fool I was.” Meagan interjected. “I thought he was interested in me, all the while he just w
anted to get closer to you. The whole night he’s been watching you, and I just didn’t want to see it.”

  I noticed Lucas’s jaw tighten and his hand balled into a fist. It was then that I saw that his hand was bruised. “Lucas, your hand is swollen. Meagan, grab the frozen peas out of the freezer please.” She grabbed them and tossed them to me.

  I laid them gently across his hand. “Once again you’ve come to my rescue. This time with harm to yourself, but I’m very grateful.” I rubbed my hand gently across his cheek. He appreciated the gesture and smiled innocently in response.

  Needless to say, the mood of the evening was altered severely, so we said our goodbyes and Meagan left to take Lucas home.

  I plopped down on the sofa and pondered all the events of the evening. I still couldn’t believe Randall kissed me like that. Why hadn’t I seen that one coming? In that moment, I made a mental note to be more observant.

  But when I thought about how Lucas defended me it made my heart flutter. My heart seemed to be doing a lot of that. I asked myself was it true what Randall said? Was I falling for Lucas? I couldn’t be. It’s true he’s gorgeous, sensitive, brave, and has a good sense of humor. He also has a sweet and gentle spirit, a beautiful smile, and he wasn’t being pushy in the sex department. On the contrary, he generally pulled away from our kissing before me. He said it was because he knows his limits and doesn’t want it to get to the point where it’s too hard to stop. He told me he would never try to persuade me to do anything that would compromise my beliefs. Just that in itself would be enough to love him, and yet I had all the other reasons as well.

  It was easy to see how I could fall for him, but how did he feel about me, I wondered? Well he did bravely defend me, but was he in love with me? I think maybe yes, that or he was a better actor than I realized.

  Chapter Six

  It was Saturday night, and I had just finished up the last of my calls when I heard a knock at the door. I’d spent the entire day running around like a crazed woman with Mad Cow Disease, but everything was starting to come together for Aaron and Josh’s wedding, a mere three weeks away.

  I opened the door, and my face lit up with excitement as I noted the cool Star Wars t-shirt Lucas was wearing. He smiled widely at my expression.

  “Oh my—where did you get that?”

  “Do you like it?”

  “I love it!”

  “After we watched the first movie the other night I called Jane (Jane was his agent) and asked her to find me a t-shirt with Luke Skywalker on the front, since that’s the character I identify with the most. It arrived this morning.”

  “Wow. I want one,” I teased.

  “I thought you might.” He pulled out another shirt from behind his back. “A small, right?”

  “Lucas, thank you!” I jumped up into his arms, wrapping my arms tightly around his neck.

  The gesture surprised him and he laughed. “Wow, if I’d known I would get this kind of reaction from giving you gifts I would’ve been doing it sooner.”

  “Not any gifts,” I corrected, “just thoughtful ones.”

  “So, go put yours on, and I was thinking that maybe we could order pizza again and watch the second movie.”

  “Lucas, you really don’t have to pretend to be interested in watching Star Wars just for me, honestly.”

  “I’m not pretending. I want to know what you’re interested in. In fact, I want to know everything you like.”

  “Oh, that’s easy.” I took his hand and led him into the den. As we sat down on the sofa, I began, “Well—I love the color purple, Paula Dean, cooking, which you already know, Star Wars, which you also already know. Oh, I love the cartoon character Snoopy—don’t ask me why I just always have. I love to take walks in flower gardens, my favorite flower is the rose, I prefer the lavender, or yellow ones, and I love to dance to disco while I cook.”

  Lucas laughed. “Now that, I would love to see.”

  “Stick around long enough and you will.” I grinned.

  “It amazes me that you can tell me those things so quickly. Most people would have to think about it a while, including myself.”

  “Well, I guess I’m different from other people then, because I know what I like. Actually, there’s something else I like.” I turned to gaze at him. His beautiful, hazel eyes were smoldering as he peered down at me.

  “Oh yeah, what’s that?” He face was just inches from mine, and I could feel his breath on my face.

  “You.” I reached up to touch his cheek. He leaned down and kissed me. It was a sweet, gentle kiss, but still I felt warm inside, and it grew as we lingered there. Both our mouths opened and the kiss deepened. Our breathing picked up, and he reached around and put his hand on the back of my neck. The kiss deepened still and we were on the verge of frantic when he pulled away abruptly.

  “I’m sorry, Lily,” he said breathlessly, “I shouldn’t have let it go that far.”

  I sighed. “You are the sweetest man, you know that?”

  “Why do you say that?” He seemed genuinely puzzled by my remark.

  “Because you’re stopping when you would like to keep going, and you’re doing it for me.”

  “Don’t think more highly of me than you should. I stopped for me. The longer we go on the harder it will be for me to stay in control.”

  “Lucas, give yourself more credit, okay? The fact that you’re here and you have the will to stop says a lot about your character. Most guys wouldn’t hang around, or they would be pressuring me.”

  “Well, I happen to believe you’re worth it. I enjoy spending time with you. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to make love to you, but it’s not worth sacrificing who you are. I really respect you, Lily. I’m not just saying that. I truly mean it.”

  “Yes, I know you do, and thank you.”

  “Now, are you going to go put that t-shirt on so we can get this party started?”

  “Yes sir.” I jumped up with excitement and headed to the bathroom.

  By Monday morning, the paparazzi were parked across the street watching the house. I had to leave to meet with Aaron and her florist, but I made sure to wave when I pulled out of the driveway.

  There were three cars parked along the curb. I could see their cameras sticking out of the windows snapping shots as I passed. At that moment, I was glad I had taken the extra time in the mirror.

  When I arrived home, it was a little after three. The cars were still parked across the street. Several men got out of their cars and yelled things to me. I noticed, in particularly, my name being called. “Lilianna, come talk to us,” one man yelled.

  I’m not sure how I felt about the attention, though I understood Lucas a little better as a result.

  When I got into the kitchen, I was reminded of all the baking I had done the previous night in an attempt to narrow down my menu for Aaron’s rehearsal dinner. I had decided to make several different things and let Lucas be my taste tester. He was more than happy to oblige and made the final choice for me.

  I had plates of baked goods spread all about the kitchen counter. Normally, I would’ve taken them to the nursing home, but I had been there the day before.

  All of a sudden, I had an idea! It would probably anger Lucas, but to me it made perfect sense. I wrapped all but a few of the goodies in plastic wrap, put them in bags, and headed out the front door, hearing frenzy as they scrambled out of their cars.

  They began photographing me as I crossed the road and headed toward them.

  “I’m sure you gentlemen already know that I’m a wedding planner. Well, I was baking a trial run for a rehearsal dinner and was wondering if you guys would like to help me finish off these leftovers?”

  “Yes, of course,” the men all agreed. As I handed the bags to them, they began asking me questions.

  “How long have you and Lucas been a couple?”

  “How did you guys meet?”

  “Is it serious?”

  “Is he taking you back to L.A. with him?”
/>   “How are you planning to manage a long distance relationship?”

  That question hurt. “Gentlemen, I’m sorry, but I can’t answer any of your questions. I’m not supposed to be talking to you, but I felt bad for you being out here all day and thought maybe you were hungry. I hope you enjoy it.” I turned quickly and made my way back across the street.

  “Lilianna, who said you can’t talk to us?”

  “Come back and talk to us!”

  “Lilianna! Lilianna! By the way, thank you!”

  I went inside and shut the door, leaving all their cameras and questions behind me. I smiled to myself as I walked down the long hallway toward the kitchen. It felt good to do a nice deed. Hopefully, it wouldn’t bite me on the butt later.

  Lucas came in the door without knocking. One look at his angry face and I knew I was in trouble. “Oh no, here we go,” I whispered under my breath. “Lucas, I just finished dinner. I hope you’re hungry.” I had a feeling my innocent act wasn’t working.

  “Do you mind telling me what you’ve done?!”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” I didn’t look up to meet his gaze. I just continued working on getting dinner on the table.

  “Why were those guys yelling for me to thank you? What did they mean? Lilianna?”

  Uh oh. He called me Lilianna—not good. “It’s nothing. I just felt bad for them being out there all day. So, I took them my leftovers from last night. I didn’t answer any of their questions. They were very polite.”

  “Dammit, Lily! Why would you do that? I told you, you have to stay away from them. You could’ve gotten hurt. These guys aren’t friends, they’re our enemy!”

  “First of all, don’t cuss in my house! Secondly, maybe they’re your enemy, but they’re not mine. Lucas, they’re just men trying to do their job, that’s all.”

  He walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. “No, that’s not all, they’re vultures just waiting for someone to devour. And today it could’ve been you. I know these guys, Lily. They don’t care about you or anybody. They only care about getting the shot, and they’ll screw over anybody to get it. Your good deed today could be turned around to make you look bad.”