Chapter One
Lily Hart had a bad feeling.
She tried hard to avoid bad feelings as a general rule, but the band tightening around her lungs made a mockery of that rule today. Lily took a deep, cleansing breath and repeated her mantra.
I am a still lake, not a stormy sea.
Emotions and energy were interconnected, as she taught her yoga students, and she strove to live a life with positive energy. Some people, namely the man waiting at the altar for her right now, thought she was a little woo-woo, but she didn’t let it bother her.
Except that her heavy dress and the corset underneath cinched her ribs, magnifying the feeling of suffocation.
Not exactly the fairy-tale start she’d pictured.
“Of all the days for an early snowstorm,” Angela Cawthorn, her future mother-in-law, muttered, turning from the window with tightly pinched lips. She cast a critical eye over Lily. “Try not to fuss with the flowers. They’ll look strangled by the time Tucker sees you walking down the aisle.”
The cloying fragrance of stargazer lilies filledthe air of the small room to the side of the chapel, turning Lily’s already twisting stomach.
She hated stargazer lilies. She hadn’t picked them, or the bridesmaid colors, or the bouquet. Every choice had been Angela’s because,Lily doesn’t mind, right, dear?
Lily minded. But she hated disappointing people even more.
Once upon a time, the idea of marrying her high school sweetheart had filled her with happiness. Her sisters would groan and pretend to gag over their too-cute romance.
She’d been the bubbly cheerleader, Tucker the star quarterback. Everyone just assumed they would marry one day.
Today was the day.
She rubbed absently at her chest and forced a serene smile.
I am a still lake.
Tucker loved her, and she loved him. Of course she did. Sure, they had had bumps lately, but who wouldn’t with all the extra wedding stress?
Mrs. Cawthorn could be a little much, but Tucker was her only son. This was her last hurrah, Lily fervently hoped.
So Lily had kept quiet and let everything roll off her back—she was as peaceful as a still lake, dammit.
Soon she would be happily married and, hopefully, a mother.
“God, what’s that smell? Is this a wedding or a funeral?” Amber wrinkled her nose, shutting the door behind her. Her tea-length baby-blue dress caught in the doorway, and she yanked it free with a grin, tearing a neat line off the ruffled hem. “Oops.”
She stuck out a long leg with a saucy smile. “Better, right?”
Even the unflattering dress couldn’t make Amber look anything less than stunning, round pregnant belly and all.
Angela’s lips pressed into a thin line. Lily met Amber’slaughing eyes while their mother, Annette, shot Amber a quelling look.
Safe to say there was no love lost between Angela and the Harts, but especially Amber. The two had clashed from the start, despite Lily’s best attempts at smoothing things over. Lily suspected Amber delighted in pushing Angela’s buttons. Those two would do well to take her Find Your Flow yoga class, although her studio might be too small for their clashing energies.
Allie, the eldest Hart sister, stepped in. “The dresses are lovely, Angela.” She gave Amber a pointed look, and then turned to the two little blond flower girls climbing over the benches. “Savannah, Tessa, please sit down on your bottoms before you ruin your dresses.”
Savvie jutted her lower lip but stayed put. Tessa sat and smiled angelically.
“How are you feeling?” Evie whispered. Like Savvie and Tessa, Lily and Evie were identical twins. Only Evie’s ever-changing assortment of glasses set them apart.
“Never better,” Lily lied. She dropped the smile under Evie’s skeptical gaze. “Like I might throw up.”
“Did you take your inhaler?” Evie handed Lily’s purse over.
