Vanessa offered her friend a reassuring smile and blinked back the moisture blurring her vision. “A more beautiful bride never existed. You look exquisite, honey. Truly.”
Lucie beamed but then faltered. Pressing a hand to her stomach she said, “Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick. I don’t know if I can do this.”
Oh, shit. Lucie and Reid were perfect together. If she didn’t believe in love, what hope was there for the rest of the world? Namely me.
“Come sit over here,” she said, leading the pale bride to the fancy settee. Once she was sure Lucie wasn’t about to faint, Vanessa crossed to the sideboard table where the opened champagne was chilling in a bucket of ice and poured them each a glass. “Every bride gets cold feet, honey, but you’re going to be fine, I promise.”
Lucie accepted the glass and downed the contents. “What? I’m not nervous about marrying Reid. I love him more than anything in the world.”
“I should probably cut you off after that, but since when have I ever been the voice of reason in this relationship?” She handed Lucie her champagne, too, and went to find her garment bag. “So what is it you don’t think you can do?”
“Walk down the aisle in this gorgeous gown with everyone staring at me! Have you forgotten how klutzy I am and how much I hate being the center of attention? There’s no way I’m not falling flat on my face. None.”
“Damn it, Lucie, don’t scare me like that,” she said as she extracted her dress and went through the careful process of getting it on without messing up Jilli’s hard work. “When you walk, gather a handful of your dress and hold it up so you don’t step on the front. Plus, you’ll have Fritz to hold you steady.”
“If you say so.” Down went the second glass.
Vanessa asked Lucie to zip her up and then checked herself in the mirror. The deep aqua chiffon dress ended at her knees in an asymmetrical hemline, and the strapless ruched bust drew the eye nicely to one of her better assets. Her hair was styled the same as Lucie’s, but Jillian had had to straighten her tighter curls before making them into the large, soft ones they were now.
“Okay,” she said, turning to face Lucie. “I guess we’re ready.”
Lucie stared pointedly at the spot below her clavicle. Then up at her eyes. Then down. Then back up.
“Luce, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Jackson mentioned he’d given you a necklace, so…”
“Oh, yeah, um…” She busied herself smoothing the front of her dress so she wouldn’t caress the place on her skin that felt bare ever since she’d taken it off two nights ago. “I figured it wasn’t part of the ensemble, so…we should probably go, huh?”
Which meant she’d be seeing Jackson very soon, and she was as sure as she was of her name that she’d want to wrap her arms around him and let him hold her until…until when? Tomorrow morning? When she left to go back home? The next time he decided to deck a guy because he said something Jax didn’t like?
No matter what, their separation was inevitable. Prolonging it and giving her time to fall even more in love with him was the worst idea ever. And yet, the idea of seeing him and not walking into his arms made her physically ill.
“You love him, don’t you?”
She put a hand to her forehead and nodded. “God, I never meant to, Lucie, I swear. I thought… Hell, I don’t know what I thought.”
“He looked everywhere for you yesterday. He’s a wreck, Ness. I’ve never seen him like this. You two should talk.”
“I need a drink,” she said as she quickly crossed the room, then, since Lucie had both glasses, lifted the bottle to her mouth and drank until the bubbles made her eyes water. “Lucie, I’m not feeling so hot. Would you totally and completely hate me if I excused myself after the ceremony?”
Vanessa felt like a schmuck for even asking. This was her best friend’s wedding and she wanted to help make it the most wonderful and memorable day of Lucie’s life. Being near him would be hard but not impossible. But the thought of dancing with Jackson, of being so intimately close…
Dancing is no different than sex. It’s all about moving with your partner. Finding a rhythm together.
She’d never survive it.
Lucie joined her at the sideboard table and held out the two glasses. Vanessa refilled them and reluctantly set the bottle back in the ice bucket to take the flute thrust at her.
“I know this is going to be difficult, but you can’t leave, Nessie. Stay at least through dinner, okay? And if after that you still don’t want to stay for the dance, I’ll understand if you leave. Okay?”
With as bright a smile as she could muster, Vanessa said, “Okay, let’s go get you hitched.” Then she raised her glass and said, “Salut, my friend.”
Joining in on their time-honored drinking tradition, Lucie raised her glass and clinked it against Vanessa’s. “Salut, Nessie.”
As they tossed back their last glasses of champagne, Vanessa saw a glimmer of something oddly secretive in Lucie’s smile.