He applied extreme willpower and focused very hard on his cousin and friend’s wedding ceremony for the next half an hour and didn’t look properly at Lily again until the wedding party began to proceed back down the aisle. And,God, she really did look beautiful today. Glowing. Great hair, amazing eye make-up, a gorgeous dress. But the most beautiful thing of all was her smile, which didn’t need any make-up or stylist.
‘Matty?’
‘Sorry, Carole, I missed what you said?’
‘Just a platitude about how beautiful all the bridesmaids look,’ Carole said. ‘Which I believe you’ve already noticed for yourself.’
‘Ha, yes, I have. Yes, they look lovely. All of them.’
He actually just really wanted to drink in as much as he could of Lily, like a guilty pleasure. He wasn’t going to see her again after today, so it really couldn’t hurt if he watched her while he still could.
Without being weirdly stalker-like. But there was nothing wrong with watching all the photos being taken.
‘Matt?’ His cousin Rory was waving a hand in front of his face. Quite annoying, actually. ‘You were a million miles away. I was asking about the building plans at Carole’s.’ Oh, okay. Yes, he had been miles away, thinking about Lily. Yeah, maybe too much staring.
‘They’re still in their early stages,’ he said, sharing a hearty handshake and shoulder clasp with Rory. ‘But the finished product will be amazing. You know Carole. A great eye for detail and a liking for luxury. How are you, anyway? It’s good to see you.’
And he got carried away on a wave of greeting relatives who hadn’t been at the dinner the night before and friends of Tess and Tom’s who he’d met briefly at various events in the past.
Fortunately, there was no sign of rain right now, so the vehicles that Carole had had lined up to ferry everyone from the chapel to the restaurant weren’t needed. Tess and Tom were driven the short distance in a beautiful vintage Rolls, which apparently Tess had insisted on having shipped over at a lot of expense from Naxos, beyond Paros – which looked slightly incongruous in the middle of all the simple whitewashed, blue-shuttered buildings surrounded by the still parched grass and deep-pink flowers – and the bridesmaids and Tess and Matt’s grandparents were driven in another two, less ostentatious, cars.
Matt realised that he was slightly disappointed that he wasn’t going to be arriving at the same time as Lily because he wanted to see how she reacted to the work they’d done in decorating the gazebos. And Tess, and Aaliyah, obviously. He wanted to see their reactions too. Not just Lily’s.
Mainly Lily.
It felt like the whole thing had been a bit of a joint project because of the mud walk.
And he still really cared what Lily thought about him. Would things have worked out differently if they could have spent more time together?
‘Woah, mate.’ God, he’d just walked straight into Donny in front of him, in a world of his own again. Crazy.
When he got to the restaurant, where all the guests were waiting to file through to the back and out into the gazebo area, it turned out that the bridesmaids hadn’t gone inside yet, because it had taken Tom a long time to help Tess out of their car and try to sort out her dress to her satisfaction, and then Lily, Aaliyah and Meg had had to intervene to arrange the dress properly.
‘His broken finger’s really pissing me off,’ Tess told Matt. ‘He can’t do anything properly with it.’ She turned to look at Tom and said, ‘Honestly, you’re such an idiot.’
‘Love you too, my darling.’ Tom put his arm, bandage and all, round her waist and planted a big smacker on her lips.
Tess grimaced at him for a moment and then her features softened into a big smile, and she put her arms round his neck. ‘I’m very happy to be your wife and I love you and I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit grumpy. I’ve just found planning this wedding a bit stressful. I wanted everything to be perfect.’ She returned her new husband’s kiss and then turned back round and said to everyone in the vicinity, ‘Come on, let’s get this partystarted.’ And she lifted her skirts and marched inside.
‘Yesssss,’ Matt overheard Lily say to Aaliyah as they all moved through the restaurant together. ‘We have the old Tess back.’
‘Thank God,’ said Aaliyah.
‘I really hope everyone likes what we did with the gazebos,’ Matt said.
‘Oh my God, you’re geniuses,’ Tess said from a few steps in front. ‘It looks amazing. Thank you again for helping so much.’
‘So nice now. Jekyll and bloody Hyde,’ Aaliyah said.
‘Pleasure,’ said Lily.
‘You’re very welcome,’ said Matt.
‘Oh, wow.’ Lily stopped walking and looked around her. ‘You actually are a genius, Matt. This is the perfect combination of maximum effect from minimum effort. It looks amazing. It wouldn’t have looked any better if we’d spent weeks planning it.’
‘I am actually very pleased with the result.’ Matt nodded. ‘And you know you suggested the green tendrils hanging from the ceiling? You know what all of that is? It’s bindweed. Which is a weed that was running riot in the garden of the neighbour three doors along. So we actually did him a favour picking it all. Pulled it out by the roots and everything. That’s a lot of birds with one stone.’
‘I’m so impressed,’ Lily said.
