Looking through her bedroom window as she watched the antics of some small children near the fountain, Lily thought back to breakfast with Pippa that morning. They’d both decided they needed to have another wedding within the next twelve months. Lily wanted some sisters to join her, and she wanted more babies in the family so that her and Michael’s children would grow up with their cousins; more like brothers or maybe brothers and sisters.
Lucien would be the most difficult, although she had plans where he was concerned. Ramon was dating Carla and, apparently, had been for sometime, which he’d neglected to inform his mom about so that hadn’t gone down too well for him when he first told her. Carla seemed really nice, a bit reserved and not exactly how Lily expected a girlfriend to behave towards her boyfriend. The first time she’d met Carla had been at the ranch about three Sunday’s past. At first, every time Ramon went to kiss her, which hadn’t been that often, Carla jumped as though it was unexpected. Sighing, Lily wasn’t sure if they were the right fit. Maybe Carla didn’t have those feelings for Ramon, or maybe she had been shy being around some of his family. Either way, something seemed off between the two of them.
Sebastian. He was a player, but damn cute, which Lily had the good sense to keep to herself. He needed a sweet woman; someone so out of his league that he wouldn’t have a clue what to do about her. Someone who would ignore his flirting, someone who would make him chase her instead of the other way around.
Lily hadn’t a clue about Ruben because he’d started to keep to himself. When she’d first met him he’d flirted with her and she’d thought he was fun, but something recently had changed him. He was open with his brothers and joined in the skirmishes when they got a rugby ball between them. But Ruben was never seen with a woman and seemed to spend all his time recently at that club of his, Kenza. She’d overheard Michael at the house the other day commenting about his lack of female companionship while he was sitting outside with his brothers. Ruben had commented he hadn’t had time with the new business. He’d then changed the conversation, obviously wanting the attention away from him.
Brought suddenly back to the present by Sylvia's screech, Lily blinked rapidly and stared at the McKenzie brothers receptionist, who’d become a good friend over the past month. Sabrina, her friend from high school, should be here too, but had been delayed in England.
“Lily. You look gorgeous. I cannot wait to see Michael’s reaction. He’s a big softy with you,” she told her while slowly turning Lily around for a better view. “I love the flower detail on the bodice here.” Sylvia smoothed her hand over the flowers while Lily looked her over. Sylvia was always dressed in beautiful clothes; her make-up always spotless. No matter how busy or harassed she was behind her desk at McKenzie’s, it stayed in place. But today she seemed to glow within and Lily didn’t think she’d be the only one to notice.
“You don’t look so bad yourself. Some of those McKenzie brothers are going to be doing some drooling of their own when they catch sight of you in that dress,” Lily said grinning at the blush working its way up Sylvia’s face.
Sylvia was wearing a lavender A-line dress with a strapless bodice, which showed off her slender figure. The hairdresser had swept her blonde hair up and secured it to the top of her head with jeweled clips. She looked older than her twenty-three years, although she usually looked about seventeen. The blush, which she displayed when Lily mentioned the McKenzie brothers, made Lily wonder; was Sylvia attracted to one of them?
“Lily, stop switching off.” Sylvia admonished.
“Sorry.” Lily took a deep breath and moved to stand in front of the mirror, which had been brought into the room for her to use.
“I actually came to tell you that we had about five minutes before we have to head downstairs, and I think Lucien is waiting at the bottom of the stairs for us.”
“Oh boy. Okay, let’s do this,” Lily said smoothing her hand over her stomach, which was full of butterflies.
Sylvia opened the door and led Lily towards the stairs to meet up with Lucien.
Despite being Michael’s brother, Lily had felt an instant connection to him. He was the brother she never had so it was only logical that he give her away. He had choked up when Lily asked him to lead her down the aisle. After he’d come back down to earth, Lucien had tried to talk her out of it. His excuse had been that it would draw more attention to himself, which he’d been avoiding since the accident. Lily had dragged him down to the sofa with her and eventually received a tentative acceptance from him.
The thing was, although he was scarred, it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was, at least the bit, which was visible. The scarring started on his right cheek and traveled down his neck, underneath his clothing, which she hadn’t seen.
Once he realized Lily really did want him by her side on the day, he accepted and threw himself into helping organize the wedding with his mom.
Lily tried to pull herself together because it always upset her when she thought about Lucien and what he lost because of the accident – and there he was, standing at the bottom of the stairs watching her walk down.