The music changed to Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” and the guests all stood. When Lily turned and looked at Annie Hannafort on her father’s arm, her heart plummeted to her stomach. Annie was wearing almost the exact same dress Lily had worn on her day from hell. Matte satin in winter white, strapless, empire waist with a full tulle skirt. Lily watched in shock and awe as they marched past. Noah put his hand on Lily’s shoulder and she panicked for his fingers, squeezing them as the tears began to stream down her face. She closed her eyes, willing herself to keep it together. Her broken engagement was in the past. It didn’t hurt anymore. The trouble was Annie Hannafort was living her dream day right now. And it made Lily want to run away.
Lily forced her eyes open and faced the altar. Annie had joined her husband-to-be and Lyle had taken his place with Marcy. Everything was as it should be. But Lily felt queasy. And uneasy. Why couldn’t they have been invited to a Hannafort funeral? At this point, it would’ve been better. As the guests all sat, Lily sucked in a deep breath, trying to ward off persistent images threatening to make her cry again. Her father’s anger with Peter over dumping his baby girl and causing him to waste a pile of money. Her mother’s face as she tried to be brave for Lily, all while she was obviously crumbling on the inside. The worst was her grandmother, who had never seen such a spectacle in all her life. She passed away two months later. It had been the last time Lily ever saw her.
“You okay?” Noah whispered into her ear.
She could only nod, looking straight ahead. She didn’t want Noah to see how badly this hurt. Let him think she was the girl who choked up at weddings.
He then did something for which Lily was ill equipped. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. He stroked her arm with the backs of his fingers. He leaned closer and kissed her on the temple. “It’s a wedding, Lil. It’s okay to cry if you want to.”
A small smile broke through her tears. What would she do without sweet Noah right now? Sweet, sexy Noah was going to make her lose her mind by the time they left Florida and their fake engagement was over. “I’m fine.” She trained her vision straight ahead.
The minister spoke his first words. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”
Lily choked back the tears. She didn’t want to think about how much she had once hoped to be standing up there listening to those words.
* * *
Two hours later, Lily was doing much better, but it was all because of Noah. She pushed the remaining bites of wedding cake—vanilla layers with a sublime mango mousse filling—around her plate. She didn’t care about food right now. Noah was too entertaining, a few yards away, crouching down and letting two of the flower girls put a flower crown on his head. He stood straighter and the girls giggled, then took his hand, and they turned in a circle in time to the music. Noah was being so charming and adorable right now, it hardly seemed fair.
Lily eyed him as he returned the crown and said goodbye to the little girls, making his way back to her. He was a vision to be sure—all long limbs and swagger. The smile on his face showed nothing but complete relaxation, a glorious change from the previous twenty-four hours. Lily was sure that every single woman at this wedding was jealous of her engagement to him. She hardly cared that it was all a charade. She could count the number of times she’d been in such an enviable position on one hand.
Still standing, Noah reached for his glass of wine and took a long drink, looking down at Lily while he did it.
“Thirsty?” She was unable to disguise the flirtation in her voice. Between enduring the buildup of the last two years, and the sheer exhaustion from keeping her hands off him over the past two days, she wanted him more than she ever had. Logic said that they might as well give in to it while in a setting where it was called for, but as Lily had learned, their arrangement made little sense. Soon they would head back to their room where the kissing and hand-holding would be cast aside in favor of their chaste and platonic real-life dynamic.
“Dancing with flower girls is exhausting.”
“I bet. Probably all tuckered out, huh?”
He crinkled his forehead in that adorable Noah way. “Doesn’t matter. I have yet to take my fiancée out on the dance floor for a spin. That needs to be rectified right away.”
His fiancée. If only.
Noah held out his hand. He even winked at her, but Lily reminded herself this was all about appearances. This wasn’t about wanting to dance with her. It was because Lyle and Marcy Hannafort were out on the dance floor. Noah and Lily needed to finish selling the idea of the two of them as a couple. It was yet another instance where these odd circumstances at least afforded Lily the fulfillment of a fantasy. Dancing with Noah, being in his arms, was one thing Lily had dreamed about more than once.