His Sister's Wedding (25 page)

Lillie watched as sister and brother walked gracefully down the aisle, Luke's tuxedoed
shoulders magnificent next to his sister's delicate beauty. A minute later, everyone
was in place, Melanie and Scott and Luke standing before the minister.

Slipping quickly down the aisle, Lillie sat down in her seat. Glancing up at the front,
she caught Luke's eye. He stood watching her rather than the minister, his eyes dark
and intense.

Lillie felt the faintest breeze feather across her skin, felt her heart accelerate
as if she were running to meet him. In that second as tears clouded her eyes, she
wondered if she were mad to turn him away. Couldn't the power of her own love for
him sustain her?

Looking away, she focused on the scene beside the river. Melanie and Scott stood beneath
an arch festooned with ivy. The giant willow trees made an arch of their own above,
an occasional breeze rustling through the willow limbs.

After Luke took his seat next to his mother, the ceremony passed in a blur as Lillie
replayed the last four and a half months. Never in her life had she been so confused
about love. Her parents' quietly committed marriage, no matter how true, hadn't prepared
her for the tumultuous fire storm Luke ignited in her.

It wasn't until the musicians struck up the recessional that Lillie jerked out of
her reverie. She hurried to her feet, slipping away from the other guests. She should
have been checking the reception area instead of getting lost in her own painful thoughts.

The reception was to be held in the gardens themselves. A head table had been set
up with a dance floor ringed by clusters of round tables for the guests. The day had
turned out to be beautiful. Skies were a clear Florida blue, the gathering breeze
just enough to tug at the skirts of the tables. Luke had been right about the house
and gardens being the perfect place for a wedding.

Try as she might, Lillie couldn't dismiss him from her awareness. Even though she
scurried around assisting the caterers, she was still torturously aware of his every
move.

Nervously arranging the napkins beside the punch bowl, her attention was unwillingly
drawn by the sound of his voice.

Lillie felt her stomach clench as his dark gaze stumbled against hers. Luke held her
stare a second before glancing up briefly at the clear, bright sky.

Frowning, Lillie forced her eyes down to the napkins in her hand. The buffet had been
laid out on a table near the house. When all the guests had filed through the receiving
line, the musicians struck up the first dance.

Soon the dance floor was filled with a happy throng. Lillie caught a glimpse of Luke
dancing with the maid-of-honor. She remembered how it felt to be in Luke's arms, held
close while they moved to the rhythm of their beating hearts. Feeling as if her eyes
were glued to him, she wondered if she would always feel this way. Always know this
slice of pain inside when she saw him.

He glanced up then, catching her watching him and that same intent, bewildering expression
crossed his face.

Lillie turned and left. She hid in the house, unnecessarily straightening the kitchen
and organizing the dressing rooms until it was time to initiate the cutting of the
cake.

Luke stood to the side of the dance floor with several other men, the conversation
ringing out with laughter.

As she passed him, Lillie saw Luke glance up at the sky, a frown on his face. She
followed his gaze. Surely, he didn't think it was going to rain. The sky was perfectly
clear even though the wind had picked up some.

With the cutting of the cake, there were more plates of food to distribute. Even attending
to the reception details didn't distract her from her awareness of Luke.

When Lillie crossed half an hour later with a handful of dirty cake plates, Luke was
still on the dance floor, now swaying to the music with his mother. The sight startled
her. Although he seemed to have gotten over his initial refusal to have anything to
do with Janet, Lillie hadn't realized their rift was mended to this degree.

Had he worked through his anger enough to actually forgive his mother?

As she approached, Luke looked up and met her gaze. Again he glanced up at the empty
sky. Lillie looked up, too, feeling both foolish and compelled.

Nothing. She remembered the old trick when someone stood on a street corner staring
up at nothing just to see how many people he could get to join him.

Maybe the man was trying to make her nuts. Feeling edgy and at loose ends, Lillie
checked on the buffet table again.

"Everything's going very well." Luke's voice jolted her as she picked up a stray cheese
ball from the table cloth.

Lillie glanced up. "Yes," she said nervously.

"You must feel proud of yourself," he suggested, flashing a glance up to the sky.

"Are you expecting rain?" she asked, unable to ignore his preoccupation.

"No," he said shortly. He reached for a plate, glanced at the sky again and swore
under his breath.

"What's wrong?" He was starting to worry her.

"Nothing." Luke dropped the plate onto the buffet table and stalked away.

Lillie stared after him.

"Don't mind him." Janet's voice startled her from behind. "He's just been upset lately."

The woman smiled blandly. "Melanie tells me he lost the corporate contract he was
hoping for. That's probably why he's been in such a bad mood lately."

"He lost the contract?" Lillie repeated. "That must be very disappointing."

"Yes," his mother agreed. "Although how he expected to win it when he missed his appointment
with the vice president of the company, I don't know."

The expression on Janet's face puzzled Lillie, her mysterious smile odd considering
the content of their conversation. "He missed his appointment? That doesn't sound
like Luke."

"Yes, I believe it was a week ago Friday afternoon." Luke's mother said, still smiling.
"Now what do you think could have been important enough to keep him away from a business
meeting he'd been planning for months?"

Friday afternoon. A week ago.

Realization crashed over Lillie like a wave of ice water. "My van broke down last
Friday," she said numbly. "I wondered why he was so dressed up."

Janet leaned forward and hugged her. "Yes, dear. Good luck."

With those words, Luke's mother turned and walked away.

Lillie stared after her, struggling to comprehend the significance of Janet's bombshell.
Luke had lost out on his big contract because he'd chosen to help save her melting
wedding cake?

Finding a nearby garden seat, Lillie sank down, oblivious to the celebration going
on around her. Luke had sacrificed something very important to him. For her. He'd
put her interests before his own.

Why on earth would he have done such a thing? He'd talked about that contract doubling
his business. Yet he'd risked and lost it in order to save
her
business. And he'd done it without a whisper. It didn't make any sense.

"Lillie," Melanie swept up to where she sat. "Isn't it time to throw the bouquet?"

"Of course." Lillie shook off her bemusement and got up to encourage the single women
to vie for the bouquet.

After the bouquet toss and the throwing of the garter, the crowd dispersed then, drifting
back to the dance floor, some returning to the buffet table.

Pushing back an errant strand of hair, Lillie glanced around for Luke. She had no
idea what she would say to him, but she felt a compelling urge to find him and throw
herself into his arms.

While Melanie and Scott were changing in preparation to leave, Lillie walked through
the crowd of wedding guests. This wasn't the time or the place to talk, but she couldn't
stop herself from looking for Luke.

Ten minutes later, the happy couple ran out of the house in a shower of birdseed,
racing down to Scott's car. When they'd driven off with a clatter of cans and a flurry
of streamers waving behind them, some of the guests returned to the dance floor. Others
made their farewells.

Anxiety crept into Lillie's consciousness as time ticked forward.

Finally she caught sight of Luke standing by the buffet downing the first glass of
champagne she'd seen in his hand. He slammed the glass down on the table, the gesture
appearing both angry and frustrated.

Lillie approached within a few feet of him on the serving side of the buffet table,
just outside of his range of vision.

Suddenly, his head snapped up, his face both tense and relieved as he stared into
the sky.

"It's about damn time," Luke muttered.

A sputtery, coughing drone drew Lillie's attention up as well. The small plane's engine
was barely audible over the noise of the band. Only a tiny fleck against the expanse
of blue, the plane meandered across the sky.

A movement from Luke caught her attention. He looked over, his glance halting when
it met hers. A flare of something lit his eyes.

He looked up again, still tense, an air of expectancy in his movement.

The plane flew overhead. A drift of smoke trailed after it.

Lillie stared up at the sky as the plane looped around. The smoke it trailed began
to look like letters. An
L?

The buzzing plane looped down to outline a
U.
Lillie felt a prickle along her neck. When a
K
followed, the prickle turned into a shiver.

By this time, the wedding guests had noticed the sky writer above them. The crowd,
already boisterous, began making bets on the finished message.

An
E
finished the first word as the plane swung around for another pass.

This was what Luke had been expecting?

The next word started with an
L
. By the time the plane trailed out an
O
, the wind appeared to be dissipating Luke's name. The next letter was hard to make
out. Was it an
E
or an
S
? Something that looked like a
T
followed.

Luke lost?
Lost what?

Lillie heard Luke groan.

A strange tingling filled her when the small plane started on the next word, inscribing
an
L
in a thin stream of white in the sky.

"Hey, Luke!" a jovial voice called out. "What is it you've lost?"

Slamming an open hand down on the buffet table, Luke bit out a crude expletive.

Startled and almost as jumpy as he was, Lillie leaned forward to hiss, "What's the
matter?"

His head reared back. "You want to know what's the matter? I'll tell you," he roared.
"I stupidly shelled out money for a big romantic gesture that's blowing off with the
wind as we speak!"

"What?"

Luke braced his arms on the table and leaned across to where she stood. "The guy up
in the plane was supposed to spell 'Luke loves Lillie'," he ground out, his voice
goaded and his face dark.

"Oh, my," Lillie whispered, too stunned to do anything but look at him.

Without another word, he spun around and stalked away through the laughing crowd.

Luke loves Lillie?
Written on the sky for all to see?

A wild rush of emotion choked her, tears of joy stinging her eyes. He had struggled
to say the words to her himself, but he'd paid to have them painted on the sky because
he thought she needed a "big, romantic gesture."

She'd been wrong all along. A man could love a woman even if the trappings of romance
made no sense to him. Love meant more than spouting poetry on Valentine's Day. Luke
had been there for her in the most important moments, but she'd been blinded by his
inability to tell her his feelings in words.

Blinded by his stumbling over the one word.

"Luke!" she called out, before realizing he'd completely disappeared.

The crowd of wedding guests were a kaleidoscope around her. Lillie quickly stepped
around the buffet table, barely acknowledging their smiles and teasing remarks.

Hurrying through the garden, she stopped when Luke's mother reached out to her, smiling.
"I'll take care of everything here. You just go after him."

Lillie smiled back tremulously and raced on to find Luke. A quick glance in the parking
lot told her he'd left already.

Luke loves Lillie
. A shiver trickled down her back.

Driving to his apartment, she coached herself, practicing words she immediately forgot.
She turned onto his street, suddenly wondering if he'd gone to his office instead.

The sight of his car parked haphazardly in front of his apartment building reassured
her.

She parked the van, got out and swiftly climbed the steps to his apartment.

He opened the door almost immediately. In place of his tuxedo, he wore faded jeans
and an unbuttoned chambray shirt.