His Sister's Wedding (4 page)

"Oh." Lillie couldn't help sliding a glance toward Scott's door. This wasn't good.

Luke took her arm and turned her toward the duplex. "Why don't we see if your brother
knows anything about this?"

Swallowing hard, Lillie managed to say, "Okay."

He knocked on the door, a sharp rap expressive of the anger on his face. When there
was no answer, Luke banged on the door again.

This time they heard rustling inside, the thump of a footstep, a clatter as if someone
had bumped into the furniture and a softly fluent swearing as a very disheveled Scott
finally opened the door.

He stood there staring at them in shock, his chest bare, his jeans unsnapped.

Foreboding clutched in Lillie's middle. Scott looked like he'd just crawled out of....

"Lillie. Luke," he stammered. "What a surprise. What are you guys doing here?"

"Can we come in?" Lillie asked, averting her eyes from the small love bite on her
brother's shoulder.

"Sure, sure." He stepped back, his gaze bouncing from Luke's glacial face to hers.

"Where is Melanie?" Luke demanded before Scott had even closed the door.

"Uhhh.... Well, this is Wednesday, right?" he floundered. "She's got a chemistry lab--"

"Don't lie, Scott." Melanie stepped into the room, clutching a man's robe around herself.
Scott's robe. Lillie remembered giving it to him two Christmases ago.

The look on Luke's face was almost too much to watch. "Why you--" He grabbed for Scott.

"Wait!" Lillie threw herself between the two men, planting her hand on Luke's chest
to keep him back.

"He's old enough to get married, but he needs his big sister to protect him?" Luke
jeered, shoving Lillie aside.

"Luke, stop!" Melanie shrieked, pulling him back.

"What the hell are you doing?" Luke furiously demanded of his sister. "You're here
with him doing God-knows-what when you should be in class?"

"We were making love," Melanie said defiantly. "That's what people in love do."

"Melanie," Lillie protested, trying to keep the angry girl from throwing fuel on the
fire.

"Have you lost your mind?" her brother asked. "Are you giving everything up for this
punk?"

"He's not a punk," Melanie said, her voice as heated as Luke's. "And I'm not missing
my lab. It's been rescheduled."

Lillie stood watching the two siblings, relieved that Luke seemed to have abandoned
his attempt to kill Scott. So far, Melanie seemed to be holding her own. Lillie understood
the depth of their commitment to each other, but she had to admit, finding her brother
and Melanie this way was disconcerting.

"I've been to your dorm," Luke said, the emotion on his face more than anger. Lillie
thought she saw contempt there and beneath it, disappointment. "Are you living with
him now?"

"I love Scott," Melanie declared. "We're going to be married. There's no point in
living apart."

"Dammit, Mel. You're too young. You don't really know this kid. Don't throw yourself
away for an infatuation." There was no missing the plea in Luke's voice.

Melanie paused for a moment, the defiance in her eyes giving way to entreaty. "I love
him, Luke. I'm not going to change my mind. I know how you feel about all this, but
I have to do what's right for me."

His gaze locked on her face, Luke stood in the tiny living room as if absorbing a
body blow.

"Please don't keep fighting me on this." Tears thickened Melanie's voice. "Help Lillie
with the wedding. You don't have to like it right now. Just do it for me."

"You won't even think about reconsidering?" Luke shot back in a low tone.

"No," she said, her face both determined and anxious.

"Okay," Luke said slowly, his voice grim. "On one condition. You move back to the
dorm for now. You're not married yet."

Melanie glanced at Scott, who nodded briefly.

"All right," she agreed. "I guess we can stand it for four months."

"Good," her brother said, "I'll help you pack."

*   *   *

The cab ride back to the airport was thick with silence. Lillie didn't try to comfort
Luke, knowing how bitter was his disappointment and how much he blamed her for not
putting pressure on Scott. Truthfully, the kids had handled themselves pretty well
without her help.

Lillie followed Luke onto the plane and took her seat next to him, unable to keep
herself from thinking about how he'd talked to his sister. Those moments in Scott's
living room had revealed one thing. Luke wasn't out to stop this wedding just because
he wanted to control Melanie. He genuinely cared for her and sincerely thought that
her marrying Scott would hurt her.

Darn it, Lillie found herself feeling sympathy for him, despite his arrogant assumption
that he knew what was better for everyone else. She could imagine how hard it would
be to watch Scott do something that seemed self-destructive.

Shifting in her seat, Lillie resisted this new insight into the man next to her. Not
being able to paint him as macho and over-controlling shifted her assessment of Luke.
Maybe he was capable of more tenderness than she'd thought.

Unfortunately, it was clear he hated that vulnerability.

Lillie settled herself for a long silent flight home.

*   *   *

"So we want the scarlet and cream ribbons," Lillie made a note on her pad, "with the
sea shells and red roses." She smiled at the young woman who sat across the wicker
table with her mother. "Good. Anything else you can think of?"

A knock thundered at the door of the screen porch. Lillie glanced up, her gaze snared
by the sight of Luke's outline, framed in the doorway.

She crossed to the doorway, frowning at him as she opened the screen door. "I wasn't
expecting you this morning."

It had been several days since their flight home and it disturbed her that she'd spent
so much time thinking about him.

"I can wait if you're busy," he responded equitably, picking up Tiger and seating
himself in the cat's favorite wicker chair.

Holding the surprised feline on his lap, he seemed as out of place in the chintz-ruffled
room now as he had the first time he'd found her here. His undeniable masculinity
was even more evident against the feminine back-drop.

Lillie looked at him, as disconcerted by his obvious lack of discomfort as she was
by the fact that he'd just shown up on her doorstep again.

It disturbed her that she needed a warning to prepare herself to deal with Luke Morgan.
Why was she always so aware of him?

"We'll be going now." Mrs. Graham's voice was more fluttery than usual as she gathered
up her things, casting surreptitious glances in Luke's direction.

"Are you sure that's everything? I don't want you to be rushed." And Lillie wasn't
sure she wanted to be left with the sexy man sitting so comfortably in her wicker
chair. Had he come to terms with his defeat?

At the woman's nod, Lillie added, "Call me if you have any more ideas."

She escorted them to the door, deliberately averting her eyes from where Luke waited.
The door shut behind Mrs. Graham and her daughter, leaving Luke and Lillie alone.

"Well," Lillie said, "what can I do for you?" Her voice trailed off as her gaze locked
with his.  Wrong question.

She tried again. "What do you need?"

Luke stood up, grinning as he joined her by the door. "What I need is you," he left
a significant pause, "to accompany me to look at the place for Mel's wedding."

"You want to do wedding stuff?" she asked cautiously.

"No, I am not resigned to this thing," he answered the question she didn't ask. "But
I figure a lot of things can happen before the actual ceremony. I might as well go
along with this part since it's so important to Mel."

"So you're going to help me plan a wedding that you hope will never come off," Lillie
concluded dryly.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. "Do you have some time to go look at this place
now?"

"Where is it?" she asked suspiciously.

Luke shook his head. "You have to see it. Come with me," he invited.

There was something in his eyes that she didn't trust, an almost excited gleam. She
couldn't imagine what might have put that look there.

Five minutes later, they sped along the highway heading out of Kissimmee, cloudy skies
stretched overhead. The moody high clouds seemed to echo Lillie's sense of foreboding.
She'd hoped that Luke would withdraw his opposition to the marriage, but she hadn't
really expected to have to plan the wedding with him. This couldn't be good.

Sitting next to him in his cargo van seemed more intimate than being squashed together
in airline seats with a crowd of other travelers acting as chaperons. Lillie crossed
her legs nervously and struggled to make conversation.

"Melanie tells me you're hoping to expand your landscape business."

He glanced her way. "Yes, I'm after a big corporate account. If I get it, I'll double
my work crews. We'd be doing their new stores as well as ground maintenance on the
existing ones. It's a big contract."

"That would be quite a boost to your business."

"Yeah," Luke's voice took on a determined note, "all I have to do is convince the
vice president in charge to give me an appointment. They're used to dealing with bigger
outfits and I'm having to push hard just to get my foot in the door."

"That shouldn't be too difficult for you," she murmured.

Luke grinned, not denying her observation.

She peered out the window at the increasingly rural countryside that looked green
and fertile in the muted light. "Where
are
you taking me?"

"Where do you want to go?" he said, glancing at her, his tone meaningful as his smile
turned molten.

Lillie swallowed hard, the air in the van suddenly sizzling. "Let's just focus on
our goal," she suggested, her voice less firm than she intended.

He smiled, not making any comment as he turned on to a gravel road.

"I don't know of any chapel out this far," she said, her foreboding increasing by
leaps as they bounded over the rough road, the tree tops seeming to merge with the
dark sky.

"I know you don't," Luke replied, smugly. "This is a place you wouldn't have found
in a million years."

The road wound through a mixture of forest and meadow before coming to a low wooden
bridge. Luke drove over it and stopped the van in a clearing in front of a tiny, quaint
Victorian cottage.

A mixture of stone and gingerbread trim, the cottage sat solidly in the clearing like
a place out of a fairy tale. It even had that deserted, faintly desolate air of a
place once loved and now abandoned.

Around the house, gardens rioted. Roses and rhododendrons grew wild. Spanish moss
and trumpet vines hung in tangled swags of green from several huge, ancient trees.
Through a gap in the greenery, Lillie thought she saw the sluggish expanse of a river.

The whole place whispered of romance and mystery.

Luke came around to open the van door for her, taking her hand in his to ease her
step down. The gentlemanly gesture startled Lillie, but she said nothing, assailed
by a strange sense of affinity between them and disturbed by how comfortably her hand
fit in his.

The air around them was heavy and humid, adding to the sense of being surrounded by
the damp woods. The gray sky seemed to hang over them like the lid of a box.

"I'm not dressed for this," Lillie mentioned as they walked across the over-grown
lawn, not expecting him to pay any attention to her protest.

Luke's glance lingered on her silky polyester skirt and blouse. "You look terrific.
Come on."

"Sure," she retorted under her breath, trying to dispel the illusion of intimacy.
"Someday I'd like to see men forced to tramp over wild country wearing pantyhose and
high heels."

Ignoring her, Luke looked around, a deeply satisfied expression on his face. "The
guy I used to work for owns this place. Mac got me started in landscaping. Taught
me everything I know. He created these gardens himself, but he had to retire a few
years back and things have really gotten out of hand."

A few years back? This garden looked like it had been deserted fifty years ago, almost
as far gone as the roses that grew up around Sleeping Beauty's mythical castle.

Lillie fought the fairy tale analogy her mind had conjured up. Luke was no Prince
Charming even if he did have the power to make her think of long, warm kisses.

"It's great, isn't it?" He stood surveying the enchanted clearing.

"For what?" She dreaded the answer to that question, but it had to be asked.

"For Mel's wedding." He swung around to look at her with an impatient frown.

"Here?"

"Yes, here. Right out here in the garden."

Dumbfounded, Lillie looked around at the deserted, weathered house and the tangled,
overgrown, weedy garden, dull in the overcast light.