The interior of the plane was straight out of a movie—pure luxury with white leather seats, white carpet and chrome accents. A flight attendant was hanging coats in a closet. The chairs were clustered in fours, pairs facing each other with a table in between. Charlotte and her husband, Michael, were seated across from Sawyer and Kendall. They all waved and said hi, but they quickly returned to their conversation. That left Lily and Noah to sit together across the aisle.
The flight attendant breezed over. “Please, let me take your coats.” The woman hardly looked at Lily, her eyes were so trained on Noah. Lily was used to his effect on women. She endured it every day, although before they’d become fake engaged, she’d tried to think of it as a perk, not a test.
“Want the window?” Noah asked.
“Oh, sure.”
Lily took her seat and Noah settled in next to her. Charlotte leaned across the aisle. “How’s the happy couple this morning?”
“Great,” Noah responded. “Couldn’t be better.”
Charlotte smiled. “Perfect. You look amazing in that dress, Lily.”
Noah turned to Lily and in the light streaming in from the window, his eyes were especially entrancing. “Better than amazing. You look perfect.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see the look on Charlotte’s face. It was exactly the same one she’d given her on the escalator at Saks. Noah was doing everything she’d said he would and Lily needed to prepare herself. At some point this weekend, Noah was going to make his move.
* * *
The flight time from New York to Key West was just under three hours—long enough for Noah to gain a full understanding of exactly how challenging this weekend was going to be. He not only had a front row seat to Lily in that mind-blowing dress, he had his siblings and their spouses watching. He could tell they were scrutinizing everything he and Lily did—talking and drinking champagne, chatting about work, Noah leaning closer to Lily when looking out the window on their approach into Key West. He hated it. They were all in love, they’d all found their soul mates, and they all knew he was faking it.
The instant Noah stepped off the plane in Florida, the humidity and tropical breezes wrapped around him, and he had the most unexpected response. He relaxed. His spine got a little looser, and as he put on his sunglasses, he warmed his face in the sun. They weren’t in New York anymore. Noah hadn’t realized how much he’d been hating the city until the salt air filled his nose and his view became nothing more than palm trees rustling in the wind. He took Lily’s hand as they walked down the stairs, an action that had already become second nature. The timing was perfect. It was showtime.
A black stretch SUV emblazoned with the Hannafort Hotels logo was waiting on the tarmac to take them for the hour-long drive to Key Marly, the private island where the newest Hannafort resort was located. Lily and Noah sat next to each other on one of the long cushy black leather seats.
“I can’t wait to see Key Marly. It’s supposed to be incredible.” Charlotte folded up her sunglasses and placed them in their case. “Private cabanas with plunge pools and everything.”
Sawyer eagerly nodded in agreement. “This wedding is a prime example of why we need to be working with Lyle. The man is a marketing genius. He rolls out his brand-new resort with a private sneak preview weekend for his closest friends and business associates.”
“All while his daughter gets married on the company dime, I’m guessing.” Michael put his arm around Charlotte and tugged her closer.
“Exactly,” Sawyer added.
All Noah could think as he looked over his shoulder at an outside landscape of funky shops and restaurants, with peeks of pristine ocean stretches, was that Lyle might be a genius for an entirely different reason. This was paradise.
When they arrived on Little Torch Key, they were taken to a gated dock where a gleaming white cabin cruiser was waiting. Luggage and passengers transferred, they skimmed through the calm crystal-blue water inside a luxury cabin with 360-degree views. The air-conditioning was a nice break from the heat and they were offered all manner of drinks and snacks by the attentive staff, but Noah was itching for a less contained experience.
“Do you want to go stand out on the deck and look at the ocean?” he asked Lily.
She nearly sprang out of her seat. “Yes.”
As soon as they walked through the cabin doors, the sights, sounds and smells of untamed ocean took over, and Noah couldn’t have been any happier. “It was driving me crazy in there.”
“Me, too. It’s way too beautiful to be sitting inside. I don’t know how anyone could stand to sit in there and listen to that horrible elevator music they were playing anyway.”