by Karen Booth
“See you out at the dock in an hour? The boat will be there to take us to the car.” Charlotte turned away for a second. “Oh, Lily. Can you let Noah know that Sawyer and Kendall ended up leaving late last night? She still wasn’t feeling well and the doctor thought it best she get home and see her own physician. Everything’s fine, though. I got a text from him thirty minutes ago.”
“Oh, sure. I’m glad everything is okay.” Noah was going to be so mad he didn’t get that call. “We’ll see you at the dock.” Lily closed the door and padded back into the bedroom.
Noah was on his side, head propped up on his hand, the silky white sheets covering very little of his sun-kissed skin—just everything between his waist and knees. No question about it—Noah was a slice of heaven. That long torso, narrow waist and the alluring trail of hair under his belly button was enough to make her choke on the words she had to say. His come-hither smile and the flicker in his eyes made it so much worse.
“Coming back to bed?” he asked.
Yes. I am. Forever and ever and ever. “No. Sorry. That was your sister. She knows what happened last night.” Lily held up the shoe as proof.
Noah shrugged and patted the mattress. “Charlotte likes you. She won’t say anything to anyone. I promise.”
Lily plucked her dress from the floor, turned it right side out and draped it over her arm. “I’m not worried about discretion, although I definitely do not want Sawyer to know about this.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have to work with your brother and it’s going to be bad enough going into work every day and seeing you, knowing that you know what I look like naked. It’s not professional, Noah, and that’s really important to me.” Every word out of her mouth was a potent reminder of what she was really supposed to be doing at this wedding—securing her professional future, not sleeping with the boss. There was only one future for Lily and it was wrapped up in her 1 percent of Locke and Locke, not with Noah the serial dater. “Last night was fun, but I think we both know that we’re better off if we pretend like it didn’t happen and just move forward.”
He pursed his lips and looked back over his shoulder, out at the gorgeous ocean vista. “You’re right. It wasn’t a good idea. I was serious when I asked if you really wanted to cross that line last night.”
Why did he have to swing so far in the opposite direction? “No. It was my choice and I refuse to regret it. We’re both consenting adults. But I think...” Her voice tapered off as she searched for the right words to say. It was as if the devil was on her shoulder, urging her to ask Noah for one more roll in the proverbial hay. She wanted his hands all over her, his kiss on her lips, his body weighing her down. She wanted him to make her fall apart at the seams again and again.
Noah turned back to her. “Let me guess. What happens in the Florida Keys, stays in the Florida Keys?”
Lily didn’t even bother holding back her sigh. “Trite, but yes. That’s the perfect way to put it.”
He knocked his head to the side and threw back the covers with zero regard for the fact that she now had a full view of everything she wanted so desperately. “Okay, then. I’m taking a shower.” He hopped up from the bed and traipsed into the bathroom. Lily stole her final chance to watch Noah’s perfect butt in motion. She was going to miss that view. She’d rather look at him than the ocean.
“Just start packing,” she told herself. “You had your fun, now it’s time to go back to work.” Lily did exactly that, wondering if she’d ever again wear some of these beautiful designer clothes she now owned. There was no telling when she’d be invited to another event as fancy as this wedding, but now was not the time for pessimism. Knowing she’d never sleep with Noah again was depressing enough.
An hour later, she and Noah made their trek out to the dock, ready to go. Charlotte and Michael were chatting with Lyle and Marcy. Lily could only hope that Noah’s claim that his sister was discreet ended up holding water. Loose lips sink ships, as her mother used to say.
“Where are Kendall and Sawyer?”
“Oh, shoot. I forgot to tell you they headed back early because Kendall still wasn’t feeling well.”
“You’d think my brother would want to share these things with me, but apparently not.”
“I’m sure he was just worried about Kendall and figured Charlotte would tell you.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
Marcy Hannafort turned and caught sight of Lily and Noah. She beelined over to them, looking like a woman on top of the world. “Honestly. What a handsome couple you are,” she said.
“Thank you. That’s sweet of you to say.” Lily shifted her weight uncomfortably. They were a handsome couple. What a waste of two perfectly good people.
“We’re very happy.” Noah pressed a dutiful kiss to Lily’s cheek that nearly knocked her off her feet. “Thank you so much for including us this weekend.”
“I know it was my daughter getting married, but I just love weddings so much.” Marcy Hannafort smiled and stared off wistfully, as if she were reliving the last forty-eight hours.
“It was a lovely event. You and Lyle must be relieved it went so well.” Lily shifted her weight again, glancing at Noah, wishing he knew to change the subject to anything other than weddings. Unfortunately, memories of last night, the ones seared into her memory, were dug up every time she looked at him. She was starting to realize exactly how difficult it was going to be to work with him. She would never be able to forget what his touch was like. She’d probably spend at least the next month avoiding eye contact completely. She never should’ve crossed that line, but she couldn’t have helped herself last night if she’d wanted to. Noah was too irresistible and the wait had been too long.
“Honestly, weddings are like a drug for me, so I’d gladly redo the whole thing over again,” Marcy continued.
Lily merely nodded. Considering her history with weddings, she was proud of herself for having lived through this one. As for drugs, she might prefer a horse tranquilizer to witnessing more marriage vows anytime soon.
“You know, I was a wedding planner for years and years. Before the hotel business really took off and Lyle needed my help.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize that.” Noah acted as though he were genuinely interested.
“I helped Annie quite a bit with planning this weekend, although she’s such a Daddy’s girl. She wanted Lyle’s help much more than mine. Even when it came to things like picking out the flowers and tasting cake. You know, normal mother-of-the-bride things.”
“That’s sweet, though. She loves her daddy very much.” Lily desperately wanted to get out of this conversation. Simply thinking about picking out flowers and cake made it feel like someone was jabbing a knife in her side. The mere mention of it made her feel ill. But she couldn’t be even the slightest bit rude to Marcy Hannafort. The big deal wasn’t even close to being signed.
“To be fair, Lyle didn’t have to do much. Once he came up with the idea of using Key Marly, and she agreed to it, the staff took over most of the planning.”
“That’s wonderful.” Lily tried to send psychic messages to Noah to get his gorgeous mouth working harder so he could charm Marcy into a different topic of discussion. “And now you don’t have to worry about it at all.”
“I know. It makes me so sad.” Marcy flashed her eyes at Lily and rubbed her hands together like she was scheming. “So, tell me what you two have planned for your big day. I understand that yours is the next big wedding on the horizon since Michael and Charlotte opted to get married at City Hall.”
“Oh, I guess you’re right. Well, we haven’t really had a chance to get to the meat of it yet.” Lily laughed nervously. Where was she going with this? Lily and Noah were fake engaged, not fake getting married.
“Noah, you mentioned that you and Lily have been discussing how big of a wedding to have. What’s the d
ate?”
Lily was struck with panic unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She was the prepared one. She was the person who was always on top of things, but she was out of her depth and Noah had apparently thrown them both under the bus by delivering factoids about their non-wedding. Lily had to be very careful here, or everything could go up in smoke. “Oh. Uh. June. I know it’s a cliché, but we liked the idea of it.” She shrugged it off.
Mrs. Hannafort gripped her elbow, her face showing deep concern. “But what’s the actual date? Where are you having it? Have you sent out the save-the-date cards? Have you put together the guest list?”
Lily found herself glaring at Noah like she was drowning and he was the life preserver. She didn’t even know when the Saturdays in June were. “Oh, I forget. So many dates swirling around in my head right now.”
“It’s whatever that last Saturday in June is.” Right then and there, Noah upped the ante. Lily bugged her eyes at him, but the look on his face said he was winging it as much as she was.
“Neither of you knows the actual date?” Enough confusion crossed Marcy’s face to cause Lily more than a little worry. Surely she and Noah were sending mixed signals right now.
Lily grabbed Noah’s arm and cozied up to him, digging her fingernails into his biceps for good measure. If she was going to suffer, he could, too. “You mean June 28. Remember?”
“We haven’t settled on a location yet because we haven’t decided how big the guest list should be. We’re still making up our minds. Lily has been so busy at work,” Noah said.
This is my fault? “Noah won’t admit it, but he’s the real reason we haven’t made any decisions. He’s very hard to pin down.” Although he had no problem pinning me down last night.
Marcy’s face appeared positively horrified. “No. No. No. Lily, darling. This will not do. You hardly know the date of your own wedding? And you haven’t picked a venue yet? We need to straighten this out right away.” She turned to Noah and stuck her finger in his face. “And you need to stop being so indecisive. No bride wants to deal with that. If she wants your two cents, you give it to her.”
“Right. Of course.” Noah looked as though he’d never been scolded so harshly in all his life.
Marcy shook her head. “I swear you two are exactly like Annie and Brad. You need to take this more seriously. Chop-chop.” She popped up onto her tiptoes and waved down her husband, who headed right over. “Luckily, I have an idea.”
Lyle set his hand on Marcy’s shoulder when he reached them. “Looks like we’re having a real confab over here.”
“I was talking to Lily and Noah about their wedding. It’s June 28 and they don’t have a venue yet. What if they did it at the Grand Legacy? And we could use the wedding as part of a publicity plan in conjunction with announcing the joint venture between Hannafort and Locke? Sort of like we used this weekend to have our soft opening of Key Marly.”
Lily could see the gears turning in Lyle Hannafort’s head and that scared her right down to her bones. “My darling, you are a genius. I love it. We’re going to have to light a fire under the lawyers if we’re going to get the deal done that quickly, but you know me. I don’t like to sit around and wait. Plus, I can just see it. A big, fancy Locke family wedding at the newest beauty in the Hannafort Hotels stable. I think it’s a fabulous idea. Lily? Noah? Would you be up for that? It’ll get the deal going on a quicker timetable.”
“Yes,” Noah blurted. “Absolutely. It’s a wonderful idea.”
“Maybe we should talk about it first?” Lily asked, giving Noah’s arm an extra hard squeeze.
Marcy shook her head at Lily while a sweet but condescending smile spread across her face. “I know you’re nervous, darling, but trust me. You need to make these decisions now or you won’t have your dream wedding. You only get one shot at this.”
Or two, if you’re me. Lily did not like this scenario at all. Pretending for a weekend was one thing. This was an entirely new level of deception and lying, all tied up in a bow called mental anguish. Could she do this? Noah shot her a look that said he was sorry, but she’d better fall in line. She hated it when he looked at her like that. She had no good answer for it. She scanned Marcy’s and Lyle’s faces and forced herself to see her nest egg. Her secure future. Everything she’d worked so hard for over the last two years. If this meant the deal happened faster, she and Noah could break things off before the actual wedding happened, and hopefully it wouldn’t have to be that big of a deal since everything would be easily canceled with the Grand Legacy.
“I’m sure Sawyer will be pleased.” Lyle reached over and patted Noah on the shoulder. “And to think I almost pulled out of it after seeing that silly video. Now I know what a good guy you are.”
“Then it’s settled,” Marcy said. “And I want to donate my services as wedding planner. Lyle and I will be back in New York in a few days and we can start working on it then.”
Lily’s heart sprang into a full-on panic. “Oh, no, Mrs. Hannafort. That’s totally not necessary. I’m sure that Noah and I can handle it on our own.”
“But you don’t have my experience. And Noah just told me how busy you are at work. This will save you more time than you can possibly imagine. And you won’t have to worry about making any big mistakes. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Lily looked at Noah’s handsome face, colored by an expression she could describe only as surrender. He was on board. Lyle and Marcy were on board. Lily needed to concede and figure out the rest later. “Okay. That sounds great.”
Except Lily was sure of one thing—the only thing about this that would be great would be her regret.
Nine
Lily was the first to arrive in the office Monday morning. After being away on Friday, she’d have a ton of email to catch up on, as well as faxes, mail and voice mail messages. She wanted Sawyer and Noah to come in to their usual well-oiled machine. She also wanted to be capable, on-top-of-it Lily when Noah arrived. She wanted to avoid the sense that he was imagining her flat on her back and at his mercy.
One thing she could not avoid today. Sawyer was about to learn that Lily and Noah were now planning a fake wedding. Hopefully, he’d appreciate the business side of what had happened—Marcy Hannafort had backed them into a corner, and they’d done the only thing they could to keep moving forward with the deal. Lily also hoped Sawyer wouldn’t give Noah a hard time about it. Until Lily had been folded more fully into the inner workings of Locke and Locke, she hadn’t been quite so aware of the friction between Sawyer and Noah. Noah clearly looked up to his brother very much, and felt dismissed or ignored at least some of the time.
Sawyer arrived fifteen minutes after Lily. “Sorry we missed you and Noah yesterday. I trust Charlotte told you we had to leave early?”
“She did. Is everything okay with Kendall?” Lily got up from her desk.
“Yes, thankfully,” he answered. “The doctor thinks it was a mild case of food poisoning. A bad shrimp or something. Don’t say anything to the Hannaforts. I’m sure they’d be horrified.”
“Yikes. I didn’t hear anything about the other guests getting sick, so hopefully it was a blip on the map.” The mention of the Hannaforts made Lily jittery.
“Any sign of Noah yet?”
Lily was able to assuage her paranoia over whether or not Sawyer might know about recent developments. It was apparent he didn’t. “No. But I’m guessing he’ll be here soon.”
“Did I miss anything important yesterday?”
“Noah can fill you in on everything.” Lily was torn over her answer, but if she told Sawyer now and Noah walked in on them discussing it, he would once again feel out of the loop.
“Were you happy with the way everything went with you and Noah this weekend?” Sawyer took a seat in reception. “I hope it wasn’t too awkward.”
Lily fumbled for her mug and took a swig
of lukewarm coffee. She needed a second to think. A million different answers sat on her lips, none of which she’d ever share with Sawyer. “It was fine. I had a nice time.”
The office door opened and in walked Noah. He stopped dead in his tracks, sights sweeping between Sawyer and Lily. “What’s up?”
“Just chatting about the weekend.”
“Did Lily tell you what happened right before we left?”
She shook her head. “I thought it was better if we were both here for it.”
“Good. I agree.”
“Whoa. That does not sound good. Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” The tone of Sawyer’s voice was unmistakable. The Hannafort deal meant too much for there to be any new problems.
Noah took off his coat and Lily had to ignore the memories that flooded her mind. That moment when she first saw him take off his shirt and she was able to have her hands all over him. “Well, the easiest answer is we have news. Mr. and Mrs. Hannafort want to have the wedding at the Grand Legacy. They want to use it for publicity as part of the official deal announcement.”
Sawyer’s eyes narrowed. “What wedding? Is one of their other daughters engaged?”
“Our wedding. Mine and Lily’s.”
The words our wedding made Lily flinch. Any hope that the state of affairs might appear better in the light of a new day was gone. It only looked worse.
“A wedding? You’re actually getting married? How in the hell did this happen? And why didn’t one of you call me last night?”
“It’s my fault,” Lily blurted. She was prepared to do anything to get Sawyer to stop using words like wedding and married.
“No. Lily. That’s not fair.” Noah was quick to step in. “Marcy had you in a corner. Who knew the woman was so obsessed with weddings?” He turned to his brother. “She asked Lily about the date and kept asking until she finally had to give her an answer. I figured that we had to do everything we could to keep the deal together. We didn’t really have a choice.”