by Kate Hardy
She felt her eyes widen. ‘You own a plane?’
‘No. I’m chartering a flight.’ He shrugged, as if it wasn’t a big deal. ‘It makes life a lot easier for Gino and the team.’
Security. Of course. She should’ve thought of that.
‘So we’re going to New York tomorrow—just you and me?’ she checked.
‘And three of my security team. You haven’t met Federico and Vincenzo yet,’ he said, ‘but they’re nice.’
‘Right.’
‘They’ve known me for years and they’re as discreet as Gino. You’ll hardly know they’re there,’ he reassured her.
But it brought home to her just how unusual his life was. How odd hers was going to be, once she’d married him. ‘OK,’ she said, the doubts flooding through her.
‘Are you OK with flying?’ he asked.
‘I’ve never been in a private jet,’ she said, ‘but I’m assuming it’s super-safe or Gino wouldn’t let you set foot on it.’
He smiled. ‘Exactly.’
The enormity of what they were about to do filled her head. ‘You’re not having second thoughts about all this?’
‘No,’ he said, sounding perfectly serene and confident. Then he looked at her. ‘Are you?’
‘Yes,’ she admitted. She’d told her parents that Luc was taking her away for a few days, but had told a white lie in saying that she didn’t know where.
‘Your family have met me, and it went just fine,’ he reminded her. ‘I understand that they’ll be upset at not being included in the wedding, but I’ll take the blame for whisking you off your feet. If they want some kind of celebration when we get back, I can organise that,’ he added. ‘And I’ll buy you a dress when we’re out there.’
‘Are you sure this isn’t going to land you in a huge amount of trouble?’ she asked.
‘There will probably be a bit of a row,’ he said, ‘but nothing I can’t handle. Sometimes you just have to step out of a box to help other people think outside of that same box.’ He kissed her lightly. ‘Don’t worry. It’s going to be fine. And I really appreciate what you’re doing for me.’
* * *
On Monday morning, Kelly was packed and waiting when Luc rang her doorbell at six a.m.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
‘Ready,’ she fibbed, and locked the door to her old life behind her.
Luc insisted on carrying her case to the car. ‘Gino you already know; this is Federico and Vincenzo,’ he introduced her swiftly.
‘Good morning,’ she said shyly.
Travelling with Luc’s entourage was nothing like anything she’d experienced before. At the airport, there was no queueing to drop off baggage, or for security and passport control, not even for boarding. Everything was smooth and efficient.
The plane itself was amazing: wide, comfortable seats with plenty of legroom, work tables, a large galley and washroom, and access to all their baggage.
Now she understood why he’d said that luggage wouldn’t be a problem. And she could also understand how the ordinary women Luc had dated had felt overwhelmed by this side of his life, because she was feeling pretty much that way, too.
‘OK?’ he asked.
‘Right now, I’m feeling a tiny bit out of my depth,’ she admitted.
‘I’m sorry. It’s not meant to be that way.’
‘I know.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘You’re not trying to be showy-offy. This is just how your world is.’
‘Thank you for understanding.’ Though his dark eyes were filled with concern.
‘It’s all right, Luc. I know what I’m doing. Ish,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to let you down.’ On impulse, she kissed his cheek, and his pupils were huge as he looked at her.
‘If there’s anything at all I can do to make this easier, just say.’
Short of flying her entire family over to be there for the wedding—and then it would be massively unfair to leave his family out, plus this was going to be a marriage in name only rather than a real one—there was nothing he could do. Though she appreciated the offer. ‘It’s fine,’ she said.
‘OK. Our flight lasts for eight hours and we leave at seven, so we’ll arrive in New York at three p.m. our time—that’s ten a.m. US time,’ he told her.
‘Got it,’ she said.
The flight was the most comfortable Kelly had ever experienced. The captain came to introduce himself and his cabin staff, and then they served the most amazing breakfast: freshly squeezed orange juice, exotic fruit, smoked salmon and scrambled egg on rye bagels, and truly excellent coffee.
They all watched a movie, played several board games—and Kelly really liked the fact that Gino, Federico and Vincenzo all played competitively rather than letting Luc win—and then finally they landed in New York and were whisked through security.
She sent a text to her parents, Susie and Angela to tell them she’d arrived safely.
New York! How lovely. Have a wonderful time, darling, was her mum’s response.
Amazing! Have fun in the Big Apple and fingers crossed you get to see a Broadway show, was Susie’s.
But Angela’s reply made Kelly bite her lip. Are you sure about all this? Not too late to change your mind xx.
Oh, but it was. She’d promised to help Luc. Backing out now would be mean. And he was right—they weren’t hurting anyone. She hadn’t introduced him to Angela yet. Her friend clearly didn’t approve of their plan and she didn’t want to cause any unnecessary friction.
There was a limo waiting outside, which took them to a gorgeous white stone building on Fifth Avenue, twenty storeys stretching up into the blue sky.
She blinked. ‘I recognise this building.’
He smiled at her. ‘As a Tom Hanks fan, of course you would.’
‘Sleepless in Seattle,’ she said. ‘Luc, this is—’
He pressed one finger to her lip. ‘I know. And I can afford it, so don’t worry. If we’re going to elope, I thought we should do it in style.’
And how, she thought, in one of the poshest hotels in New York, right on Central Park. ‘OK. And thank you.’
A bellboy in a black uniform and wearing a black brimless cap shaped like a drum took their luggage up to their room. Again, it was a million miles away from the small and ordinary hotel room Kelly would normally have booked. They actually had a suite, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sitting room overlooking Central Park.
‘Gino, Vincenzo and Federico also have rooms on our floor, and they’ll need to check out our suite first whenever we come back to it,’ Luc said. ‘I’m sorry for the intrusiveness.’
‘Don’t apologise. It’s necessary,’ she said. ‘But it must be hard for you, always having to be aware of security.’
‘I grew up with it, so I don’t know any different,’ he said. ‘Pick whichever room you’d like.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Very sure,’ he said with a smile.
‘Thank you.’
The bedrooms were both gorgeous, but Kelly chose the one with the view of the park. There was a separate bathroom with a mosaic floor and walls; as well as a king-sized bed, the bedroom contained a sofa and a desk with a gilded Louis XIV chair. The decor was white and grey and navy, with accents of gold; though the overall effect was stylish rather than overpowering.
‘This is amazing,’ she said.
‘I’m glad you like it. I’ll give you time to freshen up,’ he said, ‘and then we can go and finalise the paperwork to get our wedding licence. Then we’ll have the rest of the day to explore.’
‘OK.’ Kelly discovered that the shower in her bathroom had jets of water coming out of the wall, as well as a massive shower-head that worked as a spray or as a waterfall. How her mum, sister and best friend would love this.
Mindful of the time, she was quick to shower and chang
e, and she was grateful when Gino handed her a takeaway cup of coffee in the limo. ‘To keep you going, bella,’ he said with a smile.
‘Grazie,’ she said, smiling back.
The limo took them to the Manhattan City Clerk’s Office Marriage Bureau. Luc had already completed most of the paperwork online to save them some time. Their passports acted as their photo ID, and Kelly had brought along the original copies of her marriage certificate to Simon and his death certificate. Taking them out of the folder made her catch her breath.
* * *
Luc looked at Kelly, and it suddenly registered with him what she was holding. Her marriage certificate and Simon’s death certificate.
Of course this was going to be hard for her. Guilt flooded through him. So much for his good intentions. This was hurting her anyway.
He took her hand. ‘Kelly. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to be hard for you.’
‘It’s all right.’
But her eyes were a little bit too bright.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ he said. ‘We can call it off right now.’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘Considering how much planning’s gone into this—not to mention that we’ve flown thousands of miles to get here, and how much money this has cost—it’d be a bit daft for me to back out now.’
‘Money isn’t important. You are.’ It shocked him to realise how important she’d become to him, but he shoved the thought aside. Not now. ‘We can call it off.’
‘I said I’d help you.’
‘But it’s not meant to be at a personal cost to you.’
‘It’s fine. Just...’ She swallowed hard. ‘I guess this is one way to make myself move on.’
‘Not if you’re not ready,’ he said firmly. ‘I won’t do that to you.’
And it was a lesson to him, too, not to get carried away. Not to want what she wasn’t ready to give anyone. He’d really have to keep a lid on the pull of attraction he felt towards her. It would make everything much too complicated.
‘I’m fine.’ She nodded. ‘Really. I made a promise and I’m going to keep it.’ She gave him a small smile.
Finally, the licence was processed and Luc tucked it safely away in his wallet. ‘Time for some shopping,’ he said.
‘Not all women love shopping, you know,’ she pointed out. ‘Though I do need to get some souvenirs for Mum, Dad, Susie, Nick, the twins, Ange and Rod.’
‘I have your mum, Susie and Angela covered,’ he said, ‘and we can find things for everyone else when we do the touristy stuff.’
‘What do you mean, Mum, Susie and Angela are covered?’ she asked.
He wrinkled his nose. ‘I can’t tell you without spoiling a surprise for you. But trust me on this.’
* * *
Kelly realised that she did trust him. She knew the surgeon and it looked as if she was going to get to know the prince.
‘We’ll do just two shops today,’ he said. ‘We need wedding rings and your dress.’
How different it was going to be from her last wedding, when her mum and her sister and her best friend had gone dress-shopping with her and they’d made a day of it, including lunch and afternoon tea. Again, the memory put a lump in her throat. But this wasn’t a real marriage, she reminded herself. She and Luc didn’t love each other the way she and Simon had. They were friends, and they were just helping each other to solve a problem. None of this was real; the marriage would be in name only.
She wasn’t that surprised when the limo took them to Fifth Avenue. On the corner was a store she’d seen in plenty of photographs, with the words ‘Tiffany & Co.’ carved into the door’s lintel, and an iconic statue of Atlas holding a clock above that. Inside was a massive sales floor and a huge sweeping staircase.
‘It’s the first time I’ve ever been here,’ she said. ‘It’s incredible. Just how I imagined it. No wonder Holly Golightly was so entranced by this place.’
He smiled and took her hand. ‘Let’s get what we need.’
With the help of the sales girl, they both chose very plain platinum wedding bands.
‘You should have an engagement ring, too,’ Luc said thoughtfully.
‘There’s no need. We’re not actually getting engaged,’ she reminded him.
‘This is meant to be a whirlwind romance, so you need an engagement ring.’ He smiled. ‘There’s a cafe here now, so maybe we should’ve come here first and had breakfast at Tiffany’s—apart from the fact that we’ve already had breakfast, and our day started in the middle of the night here.’
She smiled. ‘That film always makes me sob buckets.’
‘The bit with the cat. It’s the same with my sisters,’ he said.
Would she ever meet his family? Or would they cast him out for marrying someone well below his social status? Her doubts came flooding back again. ‘What if your parents disown you?’
‘They won’t disown me. I love them and they love me—there’s just this one sticking point, which we’re sorting out.’
And if he’d misjudged this and they did disown him, she thought, then she’d ask for an audience—or whatever you did with royalty—and tell his parents that he was a good man and a brilliant surgeon, and he deserved better from them.
He chose a heart-shaped diamond on a plain platinum shank to go with her wedding band. ‘Given our jobs,’ he said softly, ‘this is appropriate—and I want you to keep it afterwards.’
‘But...’ There hadn’t been a price on it, so she hated to think how much it had cost.
‘No buts. You’re giving me the chance to do what I love, and this is the very least I can do,’ he said firmly. ‘Think of it as a token of my esteem.’
‘Normal people don’t buy their friends super-expensive jewellery. Even if they are a hot-shot heart surgeon.’
‘You’re getting both sides of me for the time being,’ he reminded her. ‘And now, I think, lunch.’
They ended up grabbing a snack in the cafe at Tiffany’s, and then the whirlwind stuff started in earnest.
‘Romantic touristy things are the order of the day,’ Luc insisted, and the result was a horse and carriage ride through Central Park.
Kelly thoroughly enjoyed the carriage ride, and she didn’t have to fake her smile when Luc took a selfie of them with his arm round her shoulders. Right at that moment, she couldn’t think of anyone she would rather have shared it with. Then Luc asked the driver to stop by the entrance to one of the gardens. ‘Let’s go for a little stroll here,’ he said, and helped Kelly out of the carriage. ‘It’s the Shakespeare garden, so all the plants are inspired by his plays. There used to be a white mulberry tree here, that was apparently from his garden.’
It was stunning, with trees covered in pink and white blossom and beds full of late spring flowers. Luc paused by a bed full of bright red tulips. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘this is the place.’ Then he took the duck-egg-blue box out of his pocket. ‘Where better to get engaged than here?’
To Kelly’s surprise, he actually dropped down on one knee.
‘Dr Phillips, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife tomorrow?’ he asked softly.
For a crazy moment, this whole wedding thing actually felt real. As if Luc was asking her to share his life properly, rather than in name only for the short time they agreed to.
‘I...’ Her mouth went dry. ‘Yes.’
He smiled up at her, and it felt as if her heart had done an anatomically impossible backflip. Then he rose to his feet again and slipped the heart-shaped diamond onto her ring finger.
And then he kissed her.
Slow and sweet and heady, and her head was spinning slightly when he broke the kiss. She didn’t think it was the jet lag, either: it was all Luc. Those sensual dark eyes, that beautiful mouth...
She was lost for words, and something about his expression made her think t
hat it was the same for him, too.
It felt odd to have a ring sitting on her finger again. Odd, but strangely comforting.
They walked hand in hand through the gardens. Their first stroll as an engaged couple. And tomorrow they’d be married.
She pushed the nerves away. ‘I love tulips,’ she said. ‘Especially those gorgeous red ones.’
‘I know.’ He smiled. ‘You said so the night I cooked for you.’
She was surprised but delighted that he’d remembered.
‘That reminds me, I haven’t organised your bouquet,’ he said. ‘Would you like tulips?’
‘Are we allowed to have a bouquet in the Clerk’s Office?’
‘Of course,’ he said.
‘Then red tulips would be nice,’ she agreed.
‘I’ll arrange it. And I guess we ought to go and find your dress.’ He paused. ‘I do have an official photographer arranged for tomorrow. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘And they’re the photos we’re going to use to tell everyone?’ she asked.
‘Sort of. When we get back to London, I thought we could tell your family in person and mine by video call.’
‘OK.’ She took a deep breath.
‘It’s going to be fine.’ He stroked her cheek. ‘Actually, I couldn’t have found anyone nicer to be married to.’
Did that mean he wanted to make the marriage real? Or were they both getting carried away by the romance of their ‘elopement’? Because here in middle of Central Park, an oasis of calm in one of the busiest cities in the world, it was starting to feel like a fairy tale.
The horse-drawn carriage took them back to the limo, and Luc asked the limo driver to take them to the best bridal shop on Fifth Avenue.
‘It’s unusual for a guy to come shopping with his bride for a dress,’ the shop assistant said once she’d greeted them and they’d explained what they wanted.
‘It’s not a traditional wedding—we’re eloping,’ Luc explained. ‘We came here for a few days and I guess the place swept us both a bit off our feet. We got a marriage licence this morning, and we’re getting married tomorrow in Manhattan.’
