Loving Lily Lavender (8 page)

I was coming down the stairs and smiled when I heard Lucas and
Meagan just beginning to play something together. It sounded beautiful. I
picked up my pace, and as I reached the bottom, Randall came out of the living
room, at the base of the stairs. I almost ran into him. “Randall, is everything
okay?”

“Umm yeah. I was just wondering if I could talk to you for a
minute.” He looked a little anxious.

“Of course.” I followed him into the living room. “What’s up?”

“It’s about Lucas. I don’t quite know how to say this but—well, I
can tell you’re falling for him, and I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.
After all, he’s leaving next Friday, and you’ll never see him again.”

I knew that already, but it still hurt to hear him say it
.
“Yes, I know, but we’re enjoying each other’s company now, while he’s here. Randall,
what’s your point?”

“Well,” he paused as he started toward me, “I’m here now too, and
I’m not going anywhere. Maybe you and I could get together after Lucas leaves,”
he stated boldly. He stopped right in front of me, his face just inches from
mine.

“Randall, I don’t think of you that way and besides, Meagan’s
crazy about you.”

“I’m not interested in Meagan.” All at once his lips were on
mine. He kissed me roughly, almost painfully as he put his hands around me and
pulled me against him. I put my hands on his chest and shoved with all my
strength. He stumbled backward and, without hesitation, I slapped his face as
hard as I could.

Before he could respond, I bolted across the room, plowing
straight into Lucas. Meagan was right behind him. He held me instinctively
before pulling back and peering down at me. Tears flooded my eyes, though for
Meagan’s sake I tried to fight them.

“We were wondering what was taking you so long, so we decided to
come and see. Is everything okay?” His tone was a little wary.

I couldn’t respond. When I opened my mouth nothing came out. Only
the tears in my eyes could speak for me.

As they both studied the scene before them, their eyes shifting
from me to Randall and back again, I could see reality dawning in their eyes.

“What’s going on here?” Lucas asked, teeth clenched.

“We were just talking,” Randall responded, his expression guilty.

“Then why do you have a red hand print on the side of your face,
and why does Lily have tears in her eyes?” His voice was becoming angry. “What
did you do to her?!”

At that moment, everything happened fast as Lucas raced over to
Randall, grabbed him by the collar, and punched him in the face. Randall
stumbled back, but regained his balance.

His face turned red with anger. “I was just letting her know she
had options,” Randall said, teeth clenched as he swung and punched Lucas in the
mouth. Lucas fell backwards and hit the wall. He rebounded, swinging wildly,
punching Randall one last time. He fell hard to the floor.

“All right, all right!” Randall called, lifting one hand up in
surrender. “My mistake. I just didn’t know you were that into her.”

“Well, now you know!” His voice was angry. “You need to
leave—now!”

Randall got up slowly and walked past us, wiping his mouth with
his hand. Meagan pulled me into her arms, protectively. He turned to glance at
me, “I’m sorry, Lily. You’ve been nice to me—I shouldn’t have done that to you.
Forgive me.”

I nodded once, acknowledging my forgiveness, though I was still
visibly shaken.

When he was almost out the door he turned and said to Lucas,
“I’ll call you tomorrow when you’ve had a chance to cool off.” Then he turned
and left.

Lucas rushed quickly to my side, “Lily, are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. The question is are you alright?” I reached up to
touch his face. “Your lip is bleeding. Let’s go to the kitchen and take care of
that.”

“Lily, what did he do to you?” he demanded, changing the subject
back to me.

“He just kissed me.”

“He must have done more than that for you to slap him,” Meagan
added.

“Okay, he kissed me harder than necessary,”

“How hard?” Lucas demanded.

“Honestly—very hard, but it’s over now. He apologized and
everything’s fine.”

“No, everything is
not
fine.” He took my face in his hands
and looked at my lips. “He kissed you against your will. He hurt you. Your lips
are swollen—does it hurt?” The anger was still visible in his eyes.

“No, I’m fine, really. Lucas, he’s your friend. You have to
forgive him.”

“I don’t think I can do that.” But I could see his resolve
starting to waiver just a bit.

“Please just think about it.”

“Okay, I’ll think about it, but I can’t promise.”

“Well, I guess that will have to do. Now let’s go take care of
that lip.”

Then I remembered Meagan and turned quickly to address her,
“Meagan, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be silly, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve known you my
whole life. I know you weren’t responsible. Don’t worry about me, Lily. I’ll be
just fine. Besides, I don’t want a guy who’s going to attack my best friend.”

“I love you.” I hugged her tightly.

“You’d be a fool not to.” She wrapped her arms around me and
squeezed. “Now, let’s go take care of your guy before he bleeds all over the
place.”

Minutes later, I had a cold, wet cloth in my hand. “You did good
for your first fight,” I teased as I gently wiped the blood from his lip; he
winced.

“Thanks, but now I know why I’ve avoided them all these years.
They can hurt….badly.” He laughed, grabbing his jaw. “Only you could make me do
something that goes against my nature.”

“You need to give yourself more credit, Lucas. I think today your
true nature was revealed. Your instinct was to protect a woman in need even at
your own risk. That’s very honorable.”

“Very honorable,” Meagan agreed.

“Well, thank you.”

“I still can’t believe what a fool I was.” Meagan interjected. “I
thought he was interested in me, all the while he just wanted to get closer to
you. The whole night he’s been watching you, and I just didn’t want to see it.”

I noticed Lucas’s jaw tighten and his hand balled into a fist. It
was then that I saw that his hand was bruised. “Lucas, your hand is swollen.
Meagan, grab the frozen peas out of the freezer please.” She grabbed them and
tossed them to me.

I laid them gently across his hand. “Once again you’ve come to my
rescue. This time with harm to yourself, but I’m very grateful.” I rubbed my
hand gently across his cheek. He appreciated the gesture and smiled innocently
in response.

Needless to say, the mood of the evening was altered severely, so
we said our goodbyes and Meagan left to take Lucas home.

I plopped down on the sofa and pondered all the events of the
evening. I still couldn’t believe Randall kissed me like that. Why hadn’t I
seen that one coming? In that moment, I made a mental note to be more
observant.

But when I thought about how Lucas defended me it made my heart
flutter. My heart seemed to be doing a lot of that. I asked myself was it true
what Randall said? Was I falling for Lucas? I couldn’t be. It’s true he’s
gorgeous, sensitive, brave, and has a good sense of humor. He also has a sweet
and gentle spirit, a beautiful smile, and he wasn’t being pushy in the sex
department. On the contrary, he generally pulled away from our kissing before
me. He said it was because he knows his limits and doesn’t want it to get to
the point where it’s too hard to stop. He told me he would never try to
persuade me to do anything that would compromise my beliefs. Just that in
itself would be enough to love him, and yet I had all the other reasons as
well.

It was easy to see how I could fall for him, but how did he feel
about me, I wondered? Well he did bravely defend me, but was he in love with
me? I think maybe yes, that or he was a better actor than I realized.

It was Saturday night, and I had just finished up the last of my
calls when I heard a knock at the door. I’d spent the entire day running around
like a crazed woman with Mad Cow Disease, but everything was starting to come
together for Aaron and Josh’s wedding, a mere three weeks away.

I opened the door, and my face lit up with excitement as I noted
the cool
Star Wars
t-shirt Lucas was wearing. He smiled widely at my
expression.

“Oh my—where did you get that?”

“Do you like it?”

 “I love it!”

“After we watched the first movie the other night I called Jane
(Jane was his agent) and asked her to find me a t-shirt with Luke Skywalker on
the front, since that’s the character I identify with the most. It arrived this
morning.”

“Wow. I want one,” I teased.

“I thought you might.” He pulled out another shirt from behind
his back. “A small, right?”

“Lucas, thank you!” I jumped up into his arms, wrapping my arms
tightly around his neck.

The gesture surprised him and he laughed. “Wow, if I’d known I
would get this kind of reaction from giving you gifts I would’ve been doing it
sooner.”

“Not any gifts,” I corrected, “just thoughtful ones.”

“So, go put yours on, and I was thinking that maybe we could
order pizza again and watch the second movie.”

“Lucas, you really don’t have to pretend to be interested in
watching
Star Wars
just for me, honestly.”

“I’m not pretending. I want to know what you’re interested in. In
fact, I want to know everything you like.”

“Oh, that’s easy.” I took his hand and led him into the den. As
we sat down on the sofa, I began, “Well—I love the color purple, Paula Dean,
cooking, which you already know
, Star Wars
, which you also already know.
Oh, I love the cartoon character Snoopy—don’t ask me why I just always have. I
love to take walks in flower gardens, my favorite flower is the rose, I prefer
the lavender, or yellow ones, and I
love
to dance to disco while I
cook.”

Lucas laughed. “Now
that,
I would love to see.”

“Stick around long enough and you will.” I grinned.

“It amazes me that you can tell me those things so quickly. Most
people would have to think about it a while, including myself.”

“Well, I guess I’m different from other people then, because I
know what I like. Actually, there’s something else I like.” I turned to gaze at
him. His beautiful, hazel eyes were smoldering as he peered down at me.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” He face was just inches from mine, and I
could feel his breath on my face.

“You.” I reached up to touch his cheek. He leaned down and kissed
me. It was a sweet, gentle kiss, but still I felt warm inside, and it grew as
we lingered there. Both our mouths opened and the kiss deepened. Our breathing
picked up, and he reached around and put his hand on the back of my neck. The
kiss deepened still and we were on the verge of frantic when he pulled away
abruptly.

“I’m sorry, Lily,” he said breathlessly, “I shouldn’t have let it
go that far.”

I sighed. “You are the sweetest man, you know that?”

“Why do you say that?” He seemed genuinely puzzled by my remark.

“Because you’re stopping when you would like to keep going, and
you’re doing it for me.”

“Don’t think more highly of me than you should. I stopped for me.
The longer we go on the harder it will be for me to stay in control.”

“Lucas, give yourself more credit, okay? The fact that you’re
here and you have the will to stop says a lot about your character. Most guys
wouldn’t hang around, or they would be pressuring me.”

“Well, I happen to believe you’re worth it. I enjoy spending time
with you. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to make love to you, but it’s not
worth sacrificing who you are. I really respect you, Lily. I’m not just saying
that. I truly mean it.”   

“Yes, I know you do, and thank you.”

“Now, are you going to go put that t-shirt on so we can get this
party started?”

“Yes sir.” I jumped up with excitement and headed to the
bathroom.

By Monday morning, the paparazzi were parked across the street
watching the house. I had to leave to meet with Aaron and her florist, but I
made sure to wave when I pulled out of the driveway.

There were three cars parked along the curb. I could see their
cameras sticking out of the windows snapping shots as I passed. At that moment,
I was glad I had taken the extra time in the mirror.

When I arrived home, it was a little after three. The cars were
still parked across the street. Several men got out of their cars and yelled
things to me. I noticed, in particularly, my name being called. “Lilianna, come
talk to us,” one man yelled.

I’m not sure how I felt about the attention, though I understood
Lucas a little better as a result.

When I got into the kitchen, I was reminded of all the baking I
had done the previous night in an attempt to narrow down my menu for Aaron’s
rehearsal dinner. I had decided to make several different things and let Lucas
be my taste tester. He was more than happy to oblige and made the final choice
for me.

I had plates of baked goods spread all about the kitchen counter.
Normally, I would’ve taken them to the nursing home, but I had been there the
day before.

All of a sudden, I had an idea! It would probably anger Lucas,
but to me it made perfect sense. I wrapped all but a few of the goodies in
plastic wrap, put them in bags, and headed out the front door, hearing frenzy
as they scrambled out of their cars.

They began photographing me as I crossed the road and headed
toward them.

“I’m sure you gentlemen already know that I’m a wedding planner.
Well, I was baking a trial run for a rehearsal dinner and was wondering if you
guys would like to help me finish off these leftovers?”

“Yes, of course,” the men all agreed. As I handed the bags to
them, they began asking me questions.