Page 72 of One More Time
Then he dipped a single finger inside her, gathering the wetness there and swirling it over her clit with gentle pressure.
Her head fell back on a moan. ‘Nicky,’ she whispered.
‘I love it when you say my name like that,’ Nicky confessed.
‘Keep that up and I’ll scream it again.’
‘Deal.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LUCY
Lucy couldn’t imagine what it cost to reserve a ballroom in Las Vegas the size of a Space X hangar. ‘A lot’ was the only number her brain could come up with as she looked around at the reception space. The ceilings were probably thirty feet high, and the width of the room had Lucy questioning her choice of wedding footwear as she could fully envision herself cramping up between the bar and her table.
The wedding planner, a preternaturally chipper person by the name of Tiffy, walked their little group through the early stages of setup. The room was still just miles of ornate carpet and fancy chandeliers with pallets of folding tables and shrink-wrapped linens lined up against one wall.
Tiffy used the word ‘fantastic’ more than should be legal, and made copious notes anytime Chloe spoke. She had the enviable body and presence of a showgirl, basically all legs and ramrod-straight spine with a hint of cleavagefor excitement. She was so striking that Lucy didn’t hear anything she said apart from the word ‘fantastic’ for the entire first hour of their meeting.
Tiffy warbled, ‘Each of the dining tables will have a pad beneath the tablecloth to keep the background noise to a minimum. We’ve actually had all of your RSVPs respond, which is fantastic! Table service should be a breeze even with the special requests for gluten-free, kosher, keto, macro, and vegan!’
‘Has the issue with the dessert tables been worked out?’ Chloe asked.
Tiffy jotted something in her notebook, then answered, ‘Absolutely! Your selection is going to be fantastic! I’m excited to see it all in place!’
Chloe clapped her hands together, and looked to her friends Hannah and Francesca, then to Lucy and Kim. ‘Can anyone think of anything I forgot?’
Tiffy responded to the silence with a hearty, ‘Fantastic! I’ll be in touch via text with any last-minute issues. On the day, Mom will be my point person so Chloe doesn’t have a thing to worry about.’
Lucy nodded her understanding.
‘Now, I believe it’s time to head next door to the Cristallo Salon and rehearse this ceremony!’ Tiffy exclaimed, pumping her perfectly manicured fist in the air.
Kim and Lucy brought up the rear of their little group. As soon as the others were out of earshot, Kim leaned over and said, ‘I don’t know what Tiffy’s on, but if it comes in a bottle, I want some.’
‘Probably just casino air and Flintstones vitamins,’ Lucy replied.
‘How old do you think she is?’ asked Kim.
Lucy answered, ‘I don’t know, twelve? Twenty-seven? Ninety? It’s so hard to tell now that they start with the Botox at puberty.’
Kim sighed. ‘She’ll probably never have a single wrinkle.Anywhere.’
Kim and Lucy entered the Cristallo Salon where the setup was almost complete. All it was missing were the fresh flowers and finishing details. Otherwise, it looked like a place to get married. The three hundred or so folding chairs were positioned in perfectly aligned rows, the chairs staggered from each other so that no one had to lean around a poufy hairdo for a view. The ceremony would take place at the front, up just two stairs. Easily manageable even in high heels and a train. It was a lovely space, regal and refined even with the roughly four thousand tons of crystal chandeliers hanging overhead.
Lucy watched from across the room as Tiffy shone her bright doe eyes at Chloe and Chandler, gesticulating wildly and making the couple laugh and bat their eyelashes at each other in adoration.
Lucy loved Chandler. He was bright, funny, and down-to-earth. Of course, Lucy couldn’t help but notice that he was also crazy handsome with his sun-bleached hair and golden-hazel eyes. He had a sharp Henry Cavill jaw and a former lacrosse player’s trim height and strength. (Listen, she was forty-something, not dead.) All of those thingswere great, especially for Chloe, but Lucy truly loved Chandler Heylen because he was completely besotted with her daughter. Whatever sappy vows he was going to recite at the ceremony would be one-hundred-percent sincere.
Now, who knew what might happen down the line. Things changed. People changed – sometimes not together. But right that minute, as Lucy saw Chandler kiss Chloe goodbye so that she could take her placeacross the room, Lucy was sure of Chloe’s happiness. Chandler accepted Chloe for who she was, expected her only to be herself and nothing more. Chloe adored him, really deep-down loved him in that big, wonderful way that Lucy herself had always hoped for but had never managed to find.
Of course, Lucy’s traitorous, sleep-deprived mind chose that moment to drift to Nicky.
Her feelings for him were becoming … complicated. She still felt the old anguish of ‘The Breathing Room,’ but since Nicky’s revelation it was more like a tender, freshly healed scar. The damage was mostly repaired; only the ghost of it remained.
She could envision, with perfect clarity, the old notepad her parents always kept by the phone when she was in high school. Could picture it, discarded, yellowing with age, in the junk drawer in the kitchen.Tell her Nicky called.
The traces of bitterness and loss that had always hung like a filter over her memories was tempered by something even more dangerous, though – expansive, oppressive, fond feelings. Stubborn, inconvenient,dangerousthingsthat made Lucy crave conversation with Nicky the way she’d craved chocolate when she was pregnant with Chloe. Missing his touch when he wasn’t around with a desire that bordered on desperation. They were emotions that made her mind wander down impossible paths that involved more than either she or Nicky had to give.
