She felt they were dating in the middle of a whirlwind because she was always excited to see him, always pleased when he called. They hadn’t had any more glorious nights together. The simple fact was there weren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all that needed to be done.
Lily should have known things were too good. She was too happy with the media blowing up all around, too content for something dramatic not to go wrong. That’s the way her luck had been running lately.
When Max showed up at her office unannounced at noon on Friday, she knew something was wrong. He didn’t kiss her. He didn’t smile. And to think about it, he hadn’t called or texted her since his drive into the office this morning, which should have been her first clue that something was up.
“Max, what’s wrong?”
“Have you listened to the news today?”
No hug. No smile.
Lily braced herself. “No.”
“A terror attack in Afghanistan.”
Lily gasped, reached out to place a hand on his arm. “Your brother-in-law?”
“No, Raymond’s okay. He wasn’t in the village where the bombing took place. But there are civilian casualties, and he’s an officer. They canceled his leave.”
“But he’s okay?”
“Life on the front in war. We’re all praying.” Max exhaled heavily. “I don’t know how my in-laws do it.”
“Are they okay?” They couldn’t be young. Lily ushered him into the viewing room, urged him to sit. He looked shell-shocked. “What about you? Let me get you something to drink.”
She hadn’t taken the first step when it hit her.
The wedding.
“Oh, my god!” She stared at him, saw the truth reflected in his face. “Oh, my god.”
The words poured from her mouth unbidden as her brain tried to process. Would she have to try to salvage some good from the wreckage, turn another wedding event into a charity function? Two in the span of a year?
The media would go berserk.
Max must have known she was about to freak because he was on his feet, arms around her, guiding her to the sofa.
“Seems we’ve hit a snag.”
She sank to the sofa. A snag? A snag? Her chest seized around her lungs, making her fight for breath. She was going to hyperventilate. She knew it. Leaning forward, she put her head between her legs, commanded herself to calm down.
Max sat beside her, stroked her back, her hair. He kept whispering something, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying past the thoughts rushing at breakneck speed through her head.
The wedding. All that work…the media.
Her eyes fluttered closed as if she could block out reality. Simply shut it down.
The media was already going berserk. On the heels of everything with Mara, which some sources were spinning as internal trouble at Worldwide Weddings Unlimited and others were playing up raging jealousy like a daytime television storyline, this would be like the last nail in the lid of Worldwide Weddings Unlimited’s coffin. Okay, maybe not the last nail. “Don’t despair, mon bel amant.”
My beautiful lover.
Lily didn’t think he got that from his kindergarten tutor.
Opening her eyes, she found him watching her, looking tender and somewhat amused. Although she had no idea what he could possibly find amusing.
“Take a deep breath and listen to me,” he said. “I’ve got an idea.”
She couldn’t seem to manage the breath yet, kept telling herself that the most important thing was that Raymond was alive when other innocent people weren’t. A wedding was a wedding. They could plan another. No big deal.
Max pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Listen to me. We’ve got a perfectly good wedding planned. We’ve got everything we need except for a bride and groom. I’ll be the groom.”
It took a moment to wrap her brain around that. Surely he wasn’t suggesting… But Max was already on his feet, staring at her with that dimple flashing.
“Take a chance, Lily Susan. I love you. You’ve loved me forever. You just have to decide what you want then everything else will fall into place. I’m heading down to the clerk’s office right now to get the license.” He held his hand out to her. “Are you coming?”
His expression was all expectation, and Lily’s heart throbbed a single hard beat at the hope on his face, the love.
This definitely wasn’t the romantic proposal she’d dreamed about in her youth, but she was learning that there were times when reality beat fantasy hands down.
She exhaled hard, willed herself to calm down. Then, slipping her fingers into his, she said, “I’m coming.”
EPILOGUE
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. Surprise! Today is my wedding day, so send good thoughts my way. I have so much to be thankful for and I promise to post lots of photos. Peace and blessings to all;-)
LILY SENT THE POST to her Twitter account then tucked her BlackBerry away in her purse. She wouldn’t need it for a while. She glanced in the mirror of the powder room, and was amazed at the reflection.
A bride who looked exactly as a bride should look, with a natural flush in her cheeks and sparkling eyes. The gown… Well, the gown would have made anyone look amazing.
Lily might not have chosen it for herself, but she honestly couldn’t love this gown more, especially since there was a little girl wearing a miniversion right outside the door. An adorable little girl who had already started calling her Maman.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she turned and caught sight of the wrap she’d had made to winterize the gown so Jamilyn would get photos outside after the ceremony.
And in that moment, Lily knew how she would make this wedding truly hers.
She didn’t care that there were musicians set up in the music room. She didn’t even care that it was too cold to be outside comfortably for long. Her fantasy wedding at Overlook had always involved being married on the grounds of the Hudson River.
And this was her fantasy wedding.
It didn’t matter that she’d turned Mom, Caroline, Riley and Camille into her last-minute attendants with gowns that didn’t quite fit. It didn’t matter that Camille was wearing the dress she’d worn as Riley’s maid of honor. It didn’t matter that she’d never met many of the guests before because she and Max had told Jamilyn and Raymond’s guests who still wanted to attend a big Thanksgiving event to join the celebration.
All that mattered was the love.
So when she asked Ginger to direct the guests to grab their coats and head outside, everyone went without complaint. Because there was so much love at Overlook today.
The change of venue took approximately ten minutes, and then Lily was following her wedding party onto the grounds that she’d dreamed about, her lace veil fluttering in the breeze.
And when she saw Max standing on the bank of the river, waiting for her, watching her with that striking gaze that turned her insides into marshmallow—a familiar phenomenon from her youth—Lily knew this was exactly the turn she’d wanted her life to take, exactly the life she wanted forever.
A life with Max.
And Lily’s wedding turned out to be exactly what a wedding should be, a fantasy day that promised a lifetime of real.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-1470-5
NO GROOM LIKE HIM
Copyright © 2011 by Jeanie LeGendre
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* Falling Inn Bed…
No Groom Like Him Page 24
