Nathaniel saw them both safely into the waiting limousine and closed the door firmly behind them.
As the limousine smoothly slid away, Laura and Maxine watched out the window as Nathaniel walked Lily to his Aston Martin.
“Can I just say,” Maxine started, still looking out the window, “he’s the bomb.”
For the first time in hours Laura felt mirth burble up inside her chest and then she burst out laughing.
* * * * *
Nate
Nate was trying very hard not to lose his temper while he drove fast, but not too fast, to what he hoped would still be his wedding. He didn’t want them to crash in a ball of fiery flame in one last trial and tribulation to test their love before Lily’s wish was finally, solidly, irreversibly granted.
Lily was sitting beside him in the Aston Martin leaning towards the opened mirror on the sun visor, calmly applying mascara and babbling.
“Then, Mrs. Gunderson jumped in, hissing and very, very angry and –”
“Lily,” Nate cut into her rambling story, a story that for some reason Lily found hilarious but Nate most definitely did not.
“What?” Lily asked, screwing the top back on her mascara.
“I don’t find this amusing,” Nate told her.
“Well, of course not, you weren’t there. You had to see it to believe it,” she explained on a giggle, underlining her words with verve as she had been doing for the last half an hour. “I was wrestling on the floor in my wedding dress,” she reiterated a snippet of her infuriating story that she’d already told him, one of the many snippets Nate found he detested most of all.
“Even if I’d seen it, I wouldn’t find it amusing,” Nate replied.
“Well, I do,” she stated firmly and then she went on, saying words that shocked Nate even though he couldn’t imagine ever feeling shock again, he felt it at her words, “Nate, I don’t care what it says about me and I hope you don’t think less of me but here it is, I’m glad. I would have paid for that opportunity. I told you what she said, what they said, her and Jeffrey, about you and also about Victor. And then she slapped Laura. I was itching to get at her, slapping her mother! I just could not believe. What a bitch!”
That snippet of the story, Danielle slapping Laura, was the one he detested most of all. He was pleased he’d not known that part when he’d been at the police station or, he had little doubt, he’d be the one in jail likely locked in a cell after committing double homicide.
“Do you think less of me?” Lily asked quietly, interrupting his thoughts.
“No,” Nate answered honestly.
“You’re sure?” she pressed.
“Absolutely.”
Silence, then in a bare whisper, she said, “I think I may have torn out some of her hair and I have to admit, I kind of feel badly about that.”
Finally, Nate laughed and after a few seconds, Lily joined him.
It took a moment but it registered on Nate that this was the first time they’d shared laughter. They’d shared many moments of amusement, smiles, grins, he’d made her laugh, she’d (far more often) made him laugh but never had they shared a moment like this.
And now he had a life before him that would be filled with these moments.
His laughter naturally died and once it did, he found her hand and brought it to his lips. He brushed them against her knuckles and then dropped their joined hands to his thigh but he didn’t let hers go.
“Do you think Victor arranged for a new time?” Lily asked, Nate glanced her way and saw that surprisingly she was relaxed, happy and not at all affected by her tumultuous day.
“Yes,” he replied, returning his eyes to the road.
“Well, if he hasn’t, please don’t be disappointed. We’ll reschedule and –”
“He’s done it,” Nate said firmly.
“If he hasn’t, then –”
“He has.”
“If he hasn’t –”
“Darling, he has,” Nate said in a tone that was unmistakably final.
“Okay,” she muttered then rebelliously, under her breath, she said, “but, if he hasn’t, I don’t care. I have you now, married or not, it doesn’t matter to me, just as long as I have you.”
He felt that becoming-familiar feeling of happiness surge through his chest, his hand squeezed hers but reluctantly he let it go so he could downshift and stop at a traffic light in Bath.
“So,” Lily changed the subject, “where are we going on our honeymoon?”
“It’s a surprise,” Nate replied, the traffic light changed and he moved forward, closing in on the Registry Office hopefully to find that Victor had succeeded in his task.
“Does it have a beach?” she asked.
“No,” he answered, deftly executing a turn in the heavy traffic.
“Does it have mountains?” Lily tried again.
“No,” he responded, feeling his lips twitch at her sweet interrogation.
“Is it in a foreign country?”
“Yes,” he told her.
“Italy?” she queried, hope in her voice.
“No.”
“France?” Lily went on doggedly.
“No.”
She seemed stymied as Nate pulled up outside the Registry Office. He parked on the double yellow lines and the Aston would stay there. They could ticket him, he didn’t care, he had millions of pounds. He’d happily pay a parking ticket or a hundred of them to shave off ten minutes of waiting to be married to Lily.
He got out and was rounding the car when she alighted from the other side.
“Please wait for me to open your door, Lily,” he requested softly when he made it to her.
“Switzerland?” she ignored his request and kept at her former topic and Nate threw back his head and laughed.
He brushed his lips against hers and escorted her to the pavement, saying a firm, “No.”
“Where are we going then?” She lost her patience and her eyes flashed but with happy frustration rather than true anger.
“I’m not telling you.”
She dug in her heels at the bottom of the steps to the entry. Victor and Fazire filled it as Lily looked up at Nate.
“I never said I wanted it to be a surprise Nate,” Lily stated then threatened, “I’m not going in there until you tell me.”
Without hesitation, for Nate no longer cared if it was a surprise or not if it meant he’d have to wait any longer to get married, he finally relented and told her, “Indiana.”