Axel checked his watch for the umpteenth time. Five minutes until midnight. He paced some more, stopping only to check his watch again and see a single minute had passed.
When a hand dropped on his shoulder he leapt, doing a half-spin trick.
“Sorry,” Lucy said.
“No worries. I’m glad you were able to make it at all. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get away.”
“I almost didn’t.” She looked so beautiful. He stared at her for several seconds, realizing he’d never come up with anything clever to say to get this difficult conversation started. “Duh, I don’t want to marry your sister. Even though she seems nice, I want you,” didn’t seem like the best opening lines.
Instead, he said, “Let’s go to my office. Less chance of anyone seeing us talking, okay?”
“Sure.”
He started to reach for her hand, but realized he didn’t have the right. Instead, he motioned her down the nearest hallway and guided her toward his office. Inside, he closed the door. Lucy sat in the chair next to the sofa as he settled on the couch cushion.
“What are we going to do?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“What? Why?”
“You know why. Because of Francine. That’s the only reason I’m here.”
“Because of the arranged marriage I have with her?”
“Yes. You see, Francine is my favorite sister. My very best friend in the universe. She’s very sweet and if she ever found out I have feelings for you, she’d move the universe to make me happy.”
“That’s good.”
“No. I can’t let her do that.”
“Why not?”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “Because she doesn’t deserve the insufferable grief that would rain down on her if she canceled the wedding and refused to marry you. My parents would probably disown her if she did anything to spoil this legendary lucky wedding between the second-born children of our respective families.”
Axel said, “I see.” But he didn’t see. Was Lucy giving up on them? Was she ending them because of circumstances beyond their control?
“I hope so. I hope you understand why I’m doing this. It’s very difficult for me to dismiss my feelings for you, but that’s what I must do. I’m sorry.”
He wasn’t ready to give up so easily. “What if we could get the arranged marriage cancelled without Francine paying the price?”
Lucy shook her head. “Even if that happened, my parents would never allow us to get married. Francine might be made to suffer the consequences if any schemes we came up with were discovered. They know Francine and I are very close. They know she’s my best friend. Well, my mother does. I will never let anything bad happen to Francine because of me. And Francine can’t find out, either. She might do something rash to help me. Promise me you won’t say anything to her.”
“I promise I won’t tell her.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“I wish there wassomethingwe could do.” Axel didn’t know what he would do if he had to go through with a marriage to someone he liked, but didn’t love. Worse was the fact Lucy and Francine were best friends. He’d never want that relationship ruined. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for any of his siblings, reasonable or not.
She shook her head again. Her fingers laced together. She pressed the pads of her thumbs together and held it for a count of three. He’d seen her do the same thing back at the swimming hole. He suspected it was a nervous habit. One more thing he loved about her.
“I can’t think of anything that doesn’t end with Francine’s disgrace. And I hate to say this, but I have worse news.”
“Worse?” Axel didn’t know if he could take any worse news.
“I’ve been selected as Francine’s wedding director.”
Axel’s eyes closed as he conjured up all the future wedding plans where he and Lucy would be in the same room discussing his marriage to Francine and how to make it a beautiful, well planned and well attended event.Space potatoes.
