I Thee Wed (Wedding Dreams) (12 page)

“Sure, how about we go with a
Chardonnay before dinner and
a Chablis
with dinner?”

“Sounds wonderful, Drew.” She
smiles and I feel my dick getting hard. I’ve got to get some self-control
around this woman.

“Well, let’s get some glasses and
sit. I’d like to relax before we eat.”

I let Lily walk in front of me as
we exit the pantry, and I can’t help but give her a small swat on the ass. She
jumps and squeals before trotting away from me laughing.

After I get the wine poured and
the food warming, I take Lily’s hand and lead her out to the patio. We settle
in the deck chairs next to each other, facing the pool.

“Do you have any thoughts about
the wedding, Lily? If it’s okay with you, I’d like to help you plan.”

She turns to me with a surprised
look on her face.

“Really, Drew? You want to help?
I don’t hear that very often from the groom.” She has a sly grin on her face.

“Well, I’m not your typical
groom.”

“No, I agree you aren’t. When I
first met you, I called you the reluctant groomsman. You told me you’d never
get married. Clearly, things have changed.” She smiles and laughs.

“You’re not wrong. I never
thought I’d get married.”

“What happened to make you so
against marriage?
If you want to talk about it.”

Not really, but I feel like I owe
her the truth. I take a long drink of my wine before launching into the story.

“I haven’t thought about this for
a long time, and I haven’t really told anyone about it. I hope you know this
isn’t easy for me, but I want you to know the truth.” I look over and Lily
reaches to take my hand.

“
It’s
okay, Drew. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean
to make you uncomfortable.”

I smile and squeeze her hand.

“No, I do. Jackie and I had been
engaged for a few months and we were practically living together. She left me
and I swore to myself then and there I’d never fall in love with anyone else
again, and marriage wasn’t going to happen.” I take a deep breath knowing that
this isn’t the whole story, but I’m not ready to go there just yet. “I’ve lived
my life as a bachelor for the past eleven years, and I’ve been happy with it.
But then my mom got sick and started to have memory problems. She kept asking
when I was getting married and each time I told her I wasn’t, she cried and
asked what she had done to make me not want a wife and family. I tried to
explain it to her, but she doesn’t listen, and then she doesn’t remember.”

“Drew, I’m so sorry Jackie did
that to you. Nobody should have to go through that.” Lily has tears in her
eyes.

“Nothing to
worry about, Lily.
I’m fine and I’m grateful to you for giving my mother her dream.” I smile to
try to let her know how sincere I am. “Are you ready to eat? Dinner should be
warmed up by now.”

“Yes, let’s go eat.” Lily stands
up and takes my hand again, leading me back into the house. She starts looking
through the cabinets.

“Plates are over there, Lily. The
silverware is in the drawer underneath.” She grins and heads over to the right
cabinet as I turn to get the food out of the oven.

“It smells delicious. I have to
meet this chef some time.”

“I thought we could ask him to
cook for the wedding, if you like the food.”

“Well, let’s see what we’ve got.”

We sit down in the dining room
and Lily digs in. I love to watch her eat. I just stare as she takes another
bite.

“Do you like it?” I can’t help
the chuckle that escapes me.

“It’s absolutely delicious, Drew.
He can most definitely do the wedding food, and I’d like to find out more
information for my business.”

“I’m glad you’re happy. What kind
of food do you want for the wedding?” Now seems like as good a time as any to
discuss it.

“Something
simple but fairly elegant.
I don’t want anything over the top.
Maybe we can sit down with your chef and discuss it.”

“I think that can be arranged.
What do you think I should wear? I have a suit but I’d have to get a tux.”

“I think a nice suit should be
fine. We’ll have the wedding in the afternoon, and the reception following so
we can serve dinner. Did you want to do any dancing or anything like that?”

“I think we could do something
small with a deejay, not a band. What do you want?”

“A deejay would be perfect
because we could have whatever music we want. I’ll have to look outside and see
if we have room for a dance floor.”

“Why don’t we go out there after
we finish eating? It’s still light enough to see and it would give you an idea
of what it’ll look like in the evening.” I’m afraid to admit it to myself, but
the thought of this wedding is making me feel excited.

Chapter
12

Lily

I’m trying not to bounce up and down.
It really seems like Drew is interested in planning this wedding. Of course,
I’m still reeling from his confession earlier about his ex. It certainly
explains his behavior at the wedding where we met.
Keep your head on
straight, Lily.
This is just a show for him. I have to keep reminding
myself of this.

Once we finish eating, Drew leads
me out into the back yard. He really has a beautiful property. There’s a tiered
lawn to the left of the infinity edge pool. The landscape lights offer an
ambiance that rivals most posh hotels. Walking over the lawn, Drew begins to
point out the different areas so I start paying attention.

“I think we could set up the
dance floor here at the top, have a wooden floor and a tent brought in. We
could have the reception dinner on the next level, again covered in tents that
are all connected. As far as the ceremony, we could have it on the bottom tier.
There should be enough room.”

“What about in the living room?
It may be easier to get from there to the patio for the reception. We could use
the covering to hang lights.” Plus, then I won’t have to walk through the grass
in my dress.

“I think you’re right. I don’t
want you to ruin your dress walking in the grass.”
Wow, he gets me.

“All right, then we’ll need
chairs for the living room to have the ceremony, tables and chairs for the
reception, a tent and dance floor. Once we figure out how many people are
invited, we can order the tables and chairs. I’ll contact a couple deejays I
know and see who’s free. Oh, wait, what day do you want to do this?”

Drew stops and looks off into the
distance. His lack of an answer starts to make me nervous. I know this is all
his idea, but I’m getting excited and I don’t want him to change his mind.

“Drew, are you okay?” I touch his
shoulder and he jumps. I guess he was lost in thought.

“Sorry, Lily.
Yes, I’m fine.
I think we need to do this fairly quickly since Mom is getting worse all the
time. Do you think we could get it all together by next weekend? Do you have an
event planned?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar.
Let me go get my phone.” I’m in a daze. I know he’s worried about his mom, but
can I pull this off that quickly and have it be believable? Sierra is going to
have to be on her game to help me, or I’m screwed. I get my phone.
Fuck.
I don’t have any weddings planned for the next month. No wonder my business is
failing.

I get the wine and our glasses on
my way back out to the patio. Drew is sitting at the table staring at the pool.
My God, he’s gorgeous.
I set the glasses down and fill them before
sitting next to him. Taking a drink of the wine, which is absolutely delicious,
I look over at him. He’s still looking at the pool as if he doesn’t know I’m
there. There’s a pained look on his face and it makes me nervous.

“What are you thinking about,
Drew?” I’m not sure I really want to know, but I have to ask.

Drew sighs and shakes his head.
He smiles and the look is gone.

“Just thinking about the wedding
and how happy my mom will be, that is if she knows what’s going on. I’m worried
she’ll be having a bad day.” He looks at his lap and his face falls. I can
understand that kind of worry.

“Well, why don’t we hire a
videographer? That way she can have a video of the event, and she can watch it
when she’s having good days. Plus, my mom will probably want a copy, too.”

“That’s a great idea. Lily, you
never cease to amaze me.” Drew looks relieved and sits back with his wine.

“All right, I’ll make a list of
these things and have Sierra start working on making the arrangements. I guess
the most important question we have to deal with is who you want to officiate?
Do you want a minister, priest, or justice of the peace?”

“I’m not sure about that. If
we’re not making it legal, then maybe it would be better to have my friend and
colleague, Judge Baxter, do it. He’s retired from the bench, but could perform
the ceremony.”

“That sounds like a great idea,
Drew. Can you go ahead and talk to him since you know him?”

“I can do that. What day
are we wanting
to do this?”

I check my calendar. I have a
bridal shower on Saturday but the following weekend is free.

“I have an event next weekend so
how about the Saturday after next? I don’t have anything on the books.”

Drew is staring off in the
distance again, his face blank. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. Is two weeks
too long for him to wait? It seems like a reasonable amount of time to me,
especially if he wants this to look like a real wedding. I start to say just
that when he looks at me.

“I was really hoping to do it next
weekend. If you have something on Saturday, could we do it on Sunday?” He’s
smiling and I’m finding it really hard to tell him no.

“Sure, I think I can make that
work. I’ll have to get started on it right away, though.
Looks
like we’ll be wedding planning tomorrow, unless you had other things in mind.”
I look away and blush, knowing he’ll assume I meant sex. I didn’t, but I know
he’ll think I did.

Drew chuckles. “No, Lily, I
didn’t have anything else in mind for tomorrow. I just want to hang out with you.
We can do whatever needs to be done to put this wedding together.”

I sit back and take a drink of my
wine, feeling better about this event. Even though I know it’s not a “real”
wedding, I still want it to be good. It
is
my reputation, after
all. 

*
* *

Drew

I know I’m probably pushing Lily
a bit to have this wedding quickly, but I’m worried about my mom. Well, that’s
one thing. I’m also finding the more time I spend with
Lily,
the more I want to be around her. It’s a strange feeling, one I haven’t had in
quite some time, like I don’t want her to leave.
I’ll have to work on that
since she hasn’t agreed to move in yet.

“Have you thought anymore about
moving in here, Lily? We could bring some of your things over this weekend; at
least get a start on it.”
Please don’t fight me on this.

“I’ve been worried about
Nala
, so I guess we can bring a few things over this
weekend. Would you be terribly offended if we take the move kind of slow for
now? I just don’t want to give up my whole life all at once, you know?” She
looks at her hands when she says the last part.

“No, I don’t mind. I know this is
a lot to take on and I hope you know how much I appreciate all you’re doing for
me.” I smile, hoping to convey my gratitude.

“Thanks for understanding, Drew.
Why don’t we stop by my place after we do some planning tomorrow? I’m sure
Nala
is good and pissed at me for leaving her for so long,”
she says with laugh. I really love that sound.

“Of course.
Now, is there
anything we can do to plan the wedding tonight, or do we need to wait until
morning?”

“I think we’ve done all we can
for tonight.”

I walk over and pull her up to
me. “I want to go for a swim and I’d like you to join me.”

“I don’t have my suit with me,
Drew.” She blushes again and it makes my dick stir.

“You have the most perfect suit I
could ask for,” I say as I’m lifting my shirt off her. Holy shit, she’s not
wearing anything underneath. My dick is getting harder, and I know how this
swim is going to end. I pull my clothes off as fast as I can and lead her into
the pool. I’ve never been so glad to have a heated pool. Don’t want any
shrinkage at this point.

I pull Lily into my arms as I
move us into deeper water. She wraps her legs around my waist and her arms
around my neck. I kiss her deeply as I wrap my hands around her ass. This woman
is going to be the death of me, but what a way to go.

“I really like this pool,” she
whispers in my ear as she grinds on my cock. It won’t take much to slip inside
her, but I want to savor this moment as long as I can. I rub her back lightly
and she breaks out in goose bumps. She’s kissing my neck and ear, making little
moaning sounds as I work my fingertips up and down her back.