As if reading her thoughts, Carol said, “I wonder if they’re here to celebrate your big day or to return to the scene of the crime?”
Layla decided to shrug it off. “I’m just happy they came.”
Carol shook her head, “I can’t believe you’re still staying so positive after what happened to you.”
Truth be told, Layla couldn’t believe it either. She could still see Diana laying in a pool of blood, the light in her crazed eyes fading as she choked to death on her own blood. Sometimes she woke in the middle of the night, screaming for someone to call an ambulance just as she had the night Diana had accidentally shot herself while trying to wrestle the gun back from Layla. But it had been too late for Diana at the ball, and she’d met the same fate again and again in Layla’s nightmares.
Luckily the last ten years had taught her to be grateful for anything she could actually remember. Even the bad stuff.
“A wedding seems like the perfect way to cleanse what happened here,” Layla said. “Maybe it will bring everyone some measure of peace.”
Carol came over to her hair and makeup chair and gave Layla’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “I just hope that fiancé of yours appreciates what a good woman he found in you.”
“Trust me, he does,” a voice said behind them.
They all turned to see Andrew standing in the doorway.
Layla smiled at him. “Mark, can you give me a second?”
“Sure,” Mark said. “It’s not like you have a big event we’re trying to get you ready for or three-hundred guests waiting for you downstairs. We have all the time in the world.”
Gently ignoring his sarcasm, Layla got out of her seat and walked over to Andrew. He gave her floor-length strapless wedding dress an appreciative once over. “You look beautiful, Layla.”
“Thank you, but what are you doing up here? Shouldn’t you be with Nathan?”
“I tried to explain to him you were perfectly all right and probably wouldn’t get cold feet, but he sent me to make sure anyway.” Andrew shook his head. “Said it was in my job description as the best man. But seriously, do you have cold feet? Because I’m ready and willing to take to you to Montana with me.”
Layla chuckled. “No cold feet. They’re very warm in fact. I can’t wait to become Nathan’s wife.”
He snapped his fingers. “Well, damn. Never let it be said that I didn’t try to give you an out.”
Though his tone was joking, Layla knew this couldn’t be easy for him. And she didn’t think it was a coincidence Andrew had turned in his resignation only a couple of weeks before their wedding, announcing he’d decided to take up permanent residence at his ranch in Corral Springs, Montana and would no longer be living in Pittsburgh when they returned from their Fiji honeymoon. He’d even signed over the deed to the mansion to them.
Layla wrinkled her nose. “I still can’t imagine you as a rancher. I mean, Nathan said you used to be really outdoorsy, but this seems like it’s taking it a little far.”
Andrew’s eyes grew sad. “I can’t stay here, not after what happened with Diana. And especially not after what she tried to do to you. It was all my fault.”
Layla smoothed a hand over his cheek. “No it wasn’t, Andrew. You were right to leave her. Diana was obviously unstable and at a deeper level you must have sensed that. You had no way of knowing she’d come after me. None of us even knew she knew me. She did a very good job of covering her tracks.”
Andrew shook his head. “Still.”
Layla gave him an understanding nod. “I know. We both have issues with guilt. Go to Montana. A few of my patients have taken long trips after they’re done with physical therapy. I really hope it helps you to heal.”
Andrew paused, looking like he was going to say something important, but instead opting for “Me too.” He pasted a smile on his face. “Ready to get married to someone who isn’t me?”
Layla remembered the way Nathan had gathered her into his arms when he found her crouched over Diana’s body, screaming for an ambulance. “Don’t look,” he said, when she tried to turn back to see if there was anything else she could do.
“She’s gone. Look at me, Layla,” he’d said. "I love you. I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you. No more contracts. I don’t care about the pre-nup. I just want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you.”
And those words had brought her out of her hysteria. “I love you, too,” she’d said.
A more formal proposal with the emerald ring had come a few weeks later during intermission at the first show of the opera’s new season. But Layla would always think of her real proposal happening when Nathan snapped her out of her screaming fit by telling her he loved her, that he had never stopped loving her, that there would be no more contracts between them.
“I am definitely ready to get married,” she told Andrew.
“Not before we finish your make-up, young lady,” Mark said from his position at the makeup chair. “Now get back over here.”
***
Four hours later, a limo dropped Nathan and Layla at The Renaissance, a swanky hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh. “Congratulations, Mrs. Sinclair,” the driver said, handing her out of the vehicle.
Layla barely got a chance to say thank you, before Nathan took her hand from the driver and swept her into the hotel.
“You didn’t say thank you,” Layla said, rushing to keep up with him as he strode across the lobby toward the elevator banks.
“I texted Kate on the way over to double his tip and thank him for me. You’re not moving fast enough.”
“I’m in heels,” she pointed out. “And you’d rather text someone else to thank him than take the time to do it yourself?”
He scooped her off her feet. “If it means I shaved a few seconds off of getting you out of this wedding dress, then yes, I’d much rather do that.”
He didn’t put her down again until they reached the room where he deposited her on the bed with a playful toss.
“What is with you and throwing me into beds, Mr. Sinclair.”
He flipped her over and unzipped her dress. “Well, Mrs. Sinclair, I love you in this wedding dress, but I love you even more naked.”
He had the dress off of her in seconds. And the time for joking soon came to end when he thrust into her from behind, his hips pumping into her in a blur of need. “You shouldn’t have told me you weren’t wearing any panties. You’re lucky I didn’t take you at the reception in front of all our guests.”