Society Wives: Secret Lives: The Rags-To-Riches Wife. Jennifer Greene

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      The knock at the door, signaling her next appointment, saved Lily from responding. But as she bid Felicity goodbye and ushered her next client in, she couldn’t help wishing that Felicity were right.

      Jack waited impatiently at the front of the garden for the wedding ceremony to begin. Now he knew why people eloped, he thought. The stress leading up to the wedding was enough to cause a body to have a heart attack. Or maybe it was simply the fact that he didn’t quite trust Lily not to run. An eager bride she wasn’t. Despite her signature on the prenuptial agreement and the trusts he’d set up for her and the baby, he wasn’t going to be able to relax until he had that wedding band on her finger.

      “I still can’t believe you’re getting married,” Scott Falcon told him in a low voice as he stood beside him to fulfill the duties of the best man.

      “Believe it, because it’s happening,” Jack told him. He glanced at his watch and frowned. “Or at least it will be happening if they ever get the ceremony started.”

      Scott chuckled beside him. “Never thought I’d see the day when a female tied you up in knots. This Lily must be pretty special.”

      “She is,” Jack said. And she was. In the short time he’d known her, each day he’d learned something new about her that told him just how special she was.

      “You do realize that by getting married you’re crushing the dreams of half the single women in Eastwick, not to mention the mothers who were hoping to snag you for their daughters?”

      “Then it’s a good thing they’ve got your shoulder to cry on, isn’t it?”

      Scott smiled. “Always happy to help out a friend.”

      And he was a good friend, Jack thought. Pals since grade school, he and Scott had shared adventures, pranks and an occasional girlfriend over the years. Like him, Scott’s family had been among the first settlers in Connecticut and had amassed a sizeable fortune in real estate. A person could hardly walk down a street in Eastwick without seeing the Falcon logo somewhere on it. Scott had been among the very few people who had understood his decision to marry Lily and offered his support.

      “Your mother and Felicity did a nice job,” Scott remarked.

      “Yes, they did,” Jack responded. Somehow the two women had pulled it off. He didn’t know how much it had cost nor did he care. All that had mattered to him was that they’d put the wedding together in less than a week. He knew from his conversation with Lily that they had found her a gown and shoes. He also knew that Lily had been uncomfortable and reluctant to accept the expensive attire as a gift from his mother. That she had done so, he suspected, had been a concession on her part because she had feared embarrassing him. Of course, it had never crossed his mother’s mind that Lily might object to such a gift. As usual, Sandra had bulldozed ahead and set out to create the perfect wedding for him and Lily.

      From the looks of things, she had succeeded. Even the weather had cooperated with his mother’s plans to hold the ceremony outdoors. The temperature was mild and sunshine had replaced the rain that had plagued Eastwick off and on for the past two weeks. He’d caught a peek of the sprawling patio on the south side of the house that had been transformed for the wedding reception. Twinkling lights had been strung from the trees. More flowers decorated the tables and entrances. Two ice sculptures had been placed on tables on either side of the patio. The six-tiered cake decorated with what looked like real flowers sat in the center of one table. He’d counted at least a dozen food stations, including three types of pasta, a prime rib station, grilled shrimp and salmon. Bars had been set up on either end of the patio and he could have sworn there was enough wait staff on hand for a hundredseat restaurant.

      Yes, his mother and Felicity Farnsworth had outdone themselves, he thought as he looked around him. In addition to the reception area, they had managed to turn the garden of his parents’ estate into a small wedding chapel. Everywhere he looked there were peach and white roses and lilies. Vases and urns of the blossoms had been placed on the altar, on the piano, at the entrance to the gardens. A white runner formed an aisle between the three dozen chairs arranged in rows on either side. White ribbons with more roses and lilies anchored posts at the end of each row. From where he was standing, it looked as if every seat was filled. He shifted his gaze back to the altar where the minister stood waiting to make him and Lily man and wife.

      He was nervous, Jack admitted to himself. Except for that one time years ago, he hadn’t given much thought to marriage. Not that he’d ruled it out. He hadn’t. He liked women. He liked everything about them—the way they looked, the way they smelled, the way they were strong and soft at the same time, the way they were different from men. He enjoyed women. And they seemed to enjoy him. He just hadn’t expected that when he decided to marry he’d find himself standing here wondering whether his bride was going to be a no-show.

      When he had suggested he and Lily marry, it had seemed so simple. They had a baby on the way, a child that needed both parents. But now that the day was finally here, he couldn’t help worrying that he had pushed Lily too hard. Oh, he’d known she had reservations and he didn’t blame her. Marriage was a big undertaking and neither of them had had much time to prepare for it. But he was positive that marrying was the right thing for them to do. He’d meant what he’d told Lily. He wanted to be a real father in every way and that meant being a full-time father, not shuffling their child back and forth between its parents. No, he wanted his baby to have what he and his sisters had had—a loving home with both parents. And although the stigma that society had once imposed upon a child born outside of marriage no longer applied, he didn’t want his child or Lily ever to encounter cruelty from the small-minded individuals who would see the baby’s birth as a sin. He wanted to protect the baby and Lily and the best way to do that was through marriage.

      But he couldn’t shake the feeling she was going to bolt. He knew she was having second thoughts—probably third and fourth thoughts—about going through with the wedding. It hadn’t taken a giant leap to recognize the signs. She had avoided him at every turn during the past week. Just getting her to look over the documents he’d had drawn up providing her and their baby each with a trust fund had taken some major arm-twisting. It had also bothered him that she had insisted on keeping her apartment until the lease ran out despite his offer to buy out the lease. He hadn’t pushed it because he was already worried about the stress she was under and didn’t want to do anything that would endanger her health or the baby’s. Maybe once the wedding was over and they were living under the same roof, she would grow more comfortable with him and the idea of them being married, he told himself.

      “I heard Courtney moved back from New York,” Scott remarked.

      Dragging his attention to his friend, Jack said, “Yeah. She came home a couple of weeks ago.”

      “She going to stay?”

      “I don’t know.” Jack looked over at Scott. Tall like him, Scott was the opposite of him in appearance. Where his own hair was dark and his eyes blue, Scott was blond and his eyes were brown. Like him, Scott had a real appreciation of women, had found himself in more than one woman’s marital sights and had become a master at escaping any serious commitment. He’d been a fixture at the Cartwright house when they’d been growing up and had shared in Jack’s own annoyance with his two younger sisters. Jack hadn’t given much thought to his baby sister’s return home and hadn’t realized Scott had either. So he asked, “What makes you ask?”

      “No reason,” Scott said and looked away.

      They fell silent and Jack’s thoughts returned once more to Lily. He looked at his watch again. As the minutes ticked by, he grew more and СКАЧАТЬ