The others came into the room and stood behind her, quietly waiting.
“Living without you isn’t easy,” he admitted. “But I’d rather do that than be a burden.”
“Jules!” She said his name as an emphatic whisper right before launching herself into his arms. “You could never be a burden! You’re what I think about every moment, what I dream about at night, the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. Why can’t you understand that?”
“Because you’ll be settling for so much less than you deserve!”
Pulling back, she took his face in both hands. “I’mnotsettling. If you’d let all that go, I’d be the luckiest girl in the world. We’ll just make the best of whatever we’re given!”
The hope he’d been feeling since he left Iceland rose inside him again. “Do you mean it, Char?”
“At least trust me enough to know what I really want,” she said.
He grinned at her. “Even if it doesn’t make any practical sense?”
“Since when has love ever been practical?” she said with a laugh, and then he kissed her.
Epilogue
One year later...
Lilly had only seen a wedding like Charlotte’s in the movies, so she figured it was fitting that it would be in LA. Charlotte had insisted she didn’t want anything too elaborate—that she’d already had a big wedding and preferred something subdued and private for her second marriage. But Penny and Don, and Jules’s parents, had gotten involved in the planning, and while they claimed itwassubdued, it certainly looked fancy to Lilly. Her dress alone had cost quite a bit; she’d been shocked by the price. But Penny had said she looked so beautiful she simply had to have it, and so here she was, standing in a sleeveless white gown with a fitted top and a full skirt that hit her just above the ankles—a dress Sabrina would’ve loved because it looked like something out of a high-fashion magazine. And with her hair styled partway up and partway down, and adorned with fresh flowers, Lilly had never felt so pretty.
Still, she wasn’t half as pretty as Charlotte. No one could be as pretty as Charlotte. Charlotte’s dress also had a fitted top, but it fell off her shoulders and trailed out behind her on theground, along with a lace veil. She hadn’t wanted a lot of beading or sequins, so her dress and veil were also subdued—if Lilly understood that word correctly—and yet it was the most gorgeous gown Lilly had ever seen.
Charlotte’s face was what made it perfect, though. She was happier than Lilly could ever imagine her being.
“So... what do you think?”
At the sound of a man’s voice, Lilly turned to see Robert, Charlotte’s birth father, standing behind her with his wife, Cindy. “About...?”
He used a champagne flute to gesture around him at the lanterns that swung above the lawn and the Olympic size pool filled with a tasteful number of floating candles. “The festivities?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she admitted.
He chuckled. “I have a feeling Penny and Don won’t let your wedding be anything less than legendary, either.”
“Maybe.” So far, she hadn’t really been into boys. But that was changing. Charlotte said it was because she was getting older; she thought that was only part of it. She was also feeling normal, safe. Happy.
Megan, Charlotte’s editor, approached them. “I’m going to take off, but I wanted to tell you how nice it was to meet you.”
She was looking at Lilly, so Lilly responded. “It was nice to meet you, too.”
Megan smiled at Robert. “I’m glad I came for this. I bet you are, too.”
“I am,” he acknowledged.
“I know it meant a lot to Charlotte that you came all the way from New York,” Cindy told Megan.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Megan told her.
Robert took a sip of his drink. “How’s the book doing?”
“Excellent,” Megan replied. “Sales are growing instead of declining. That’s always a good sign.”
Charlotte’s latest novel had come out two months ago and stayed onTheNew York Timesbestseller list for several weeks. Once it fell off, they thought that would be it. This title hadn’t done as well as her first, but they’d expected as much. She was no longer in the public eye, not to the extent she’d been when she was with Cliff.
But the book had returned to the list three weeks ago and was still there. Megan said that was a sign that readers were talking about it and sharing it with friends and family. Lilly remembered Charlotte being more excited about its return to the list than hitting it in the first place, because she felt that was because of her writing, not her old connection to Cliff.
