Lily burst into laughter and set down her phone. Every cell in her body screamed for her to reach out and touch Mick’s hand and tell him that everything was going to be all right.
“I’ve been burned before,”Mick said delicately. “I mean, I thought I was going to get married back in the city. She had the wedding dress. We’d picked the venue, the cake, and all that. And then, she got a job in Tokyo and left me behind.”
Lily took a breath. “Tokyo. Wow.”
“Yeah.” Mick tugged at his earlobe. “There wasn’t even a conversation about whether I would go with her or not. It was like, one minute I fit into her life, and the next, I didn’t.”
Lily hated the burning feeling in the back of her brain. It reminded her of Liam, of how he’d taken off for Los Angeles and left her here. But she reminded herself that Liam was coming back soon. Once his television show was finished, he’d be on Nantucket, helping her plan the rest of their wedding.
When Lily stood to leave, Mick led her to the door and pressed the Tupperware of cookies into her hands. “Share them with your fiancé,” he ordered. “And your mother and future mother-in-law and everyone else.”
Lily smiled. “What if I want to eat them all myself?”
Mick threw his head back with laughter. “That’s a woman after my own heart. Good luck with the wedding dresses. What kind of vibe are you after? Modern? Vintage? Princess?”
Lily thought for a moment, searching his face. With Mick, she sensed that making a joke was always the way forward. “Astronaut-themed,” she tried, then felt her heart open as Mick cackled. He even smacked his thigh.
“That’s my kind of wedding,” he said.
“We’re going to have the reception on the moon,” she said.
“That’s one step for man, one giant leap for marriage,” he said, parroting what Neil Armstrong said when America first landed on the moon.
Chapter Eight
The wedding dress shop in the Old Historic District of Nantucket was an orchestra of lace, shining fabrics, sweeping trains, and ornate headpieces. Still in her ordinary clothes, Lily stood with a glass of champagne and listened as the manager of the shop outlined the try-on procedure, where Lily would don each wedding dress, how various gowns would be selected, and where Lily’s guests should sit and sip champagne and eat little snacks. Lily imagined that they’d hosted hundreds, if not thousands, of brides over the years. To them, Lily was just another bride.
“We have an eye for your personality and figure,” the woman, whose name was Denise, explained. “All you have to do is sit back, relax, and let us amaze you.”
Lily’s stomach fluttered with anxiety. She thanked Denise, then turned just as her mother, grandmother, Aunt Bethany, and Aunt Valerie entered the dress shop. Lily cried out a nervous hello. Augustwas absent today, which was probably for the best given the formal setting. Lily couldn’t imagine that Denise took kindly to crying babies. Valerie reached for a glass of champagne and raised it, saying, “I’ve been looking forward to this day all week!”
Lily clinked glasses with her gorgeous family members and hugged her mother hello. “I wish Shelby could be here,” she muttered into her mother’s ear.
Rebecca touched Lily’s hair. “We’ll call her later on,” she promised. “I know she’s here in spirit.”
Lily was surprised at the rush of tears that she swiftly blinked away.
“Is this everyone?” Denise asked.
Lily shook her head. “We’re waiting on my fiancé’s mother.” Yoko had confirmed she was coming just last night via text message. The tone of the text was overly formal, proof that Lily and Yoko would probably never be close. Lily had put her hope of bonding to bed.
“The famous tennis star,” Esme said under her breath. “I’ve seen her out and about before, of course. All these years on Nantucket together have meant we’re not entirely strangers. At least, I don’t think of her that way.” Esme looked at the ground, as though she felt she’d said too much.
Lily got the sense that her grandmother thought Yoko was uptight and stuck-up.I hope this goes smoothly, Lily thought, suddenly frightened that Yoko would butt heads with her family.
A few minutes later, as the Suttons gathered with their champagne and snacks and watched Denise and her employees carry massive white gowns to the dressing room, Yoko opened the door and entered like the ice queen she was; regally, her eyes sinister and cold. Lily had only just unbuttoned the first button under her chin, but already, she felt exposed in front of Yoko, who had a perfect body despite being in her fifties.
“Yoko’s here!” Esme said, always the friendliest and the most eager to make a strange situation calmer and warmer. She reached for one of Yoko’s hands with both of hers, then wrapped her in a brief hug. “You’re just in time. Lily’s about to put on her first dress!”
Yoko offered a meek, “Isn’t that wonderful?” She said hello to the others before sitting a little ways away, folding her ankles beneath her. When an employee offered her a glass of champagne, she refused.
Lily let the sheet fall between herself, her family, and her future family, removed her clothes, and stepped into the first gown. She tried not to imagine Yoko out there, checking her watch to see how much time had passed.
Immediately in the first dress, Lily knew she hated it. It was more princess than anything else, with glitter around the waist. She felt itchy and stupid and wanted to take it off. But because this was the first she was trying on, and because the dress shop employees were so sure that they “could tell what she wanted,” she felt forced to step out of the dressing room and put herself at the mercy of her family’s opinions. She shivered, her shoulders exposed.
“You’re gorgeous!” Aunt Bethany cried.
“Stunning,” Aunt Valerie agreed.
