Everything I want: Will Alfie and Lily's love survive?... (36 page)

I laughed softly as he scooped tighter in his arms again, then spun me to face away from him and spooned against me closely. His hand weaved around my belly and rested on my hip, while his other lay gently on the shoulder of my sore
arm.

“Good night darlin’ hope you’re feeling better tomorrow.” He kissed the back of my neck. I was already starting to drift, still not strong enough to fight the fatigue, but I managed to murmur, “I don’t think I’ll ever feel better than I do right at this se
cond.”

Alfie squeezed my hip and tugged me tighter and I let sleep claim me with his soft, even breaths soothing me as they blew over my neck. For all the emotional turmoil we’d been through, it was probably our most emotional day
yet.

Chapter 36
– Dresses

I
woke up to Alfie strumming my left nipple back and forth. “I take it you’re awake, Alfie, and not writing a new song on my nipple there,” I muttered and stretched
out.

My arm ached, and I tried to sit up. Alfie shot up to a sitting position and helped me, propping the pillows and adjusting me to sit in a semi recumbent position. He leaned forward and kissed me. “Elle will be over soon, she woke me when she sent a text to tell us she was on her
way.”

Alfie helped me shower, and he was a true gentleman. When he was helping me dress his eyes locked with mine. “Can I ask you something?” I smiled. “Sure.” He put his hands on the sides of my arms. “You were really serious about marrying me last n
ight?”

Stunned he still couldn’t believe I would agree to marry him. I put my good arm around his neck and snaked my hand up into his hair. “
I am.”

He grinned widely. “You really want to marr
y me?”

I smiled wider, his eyes lighting up. I felt a little flushed, suddenly a tad shy. “I do.” He bent and kissed me gently, then pulled
away.

“Okay, well, I have stuff to do today with Drew, so we’ll pick this up again later.” He smirked, smacked my ass lightly, and sexily sashayed out of the bath
room.

I was trying to put on some socks when Elle came into my bedroom. “So, you’re not having sex again yet, then? Alfie’s out there looking full of pent up energy,” she commented nonchala
ntly.

I smirked at her assessment of Alfie’s manner. “Actually, Elle, I think that’s got more to do with the conversation we had last night and this mor
ning.”

She raised her brow at me. “G
o on…”

I wasn’t sure whether I should tell her or wait for Alfie and me to do it together, but hell I couldn’t wait. “Alfie asked me to marry
him.”

Elle’s jaw dropped. “Aww Lily and you said yes, right?” I nodded and giggled nervously. Elle climbed on my bed and started jumping up and down. “It’s about fucking time.” She laughed lo
udly.

“Shush! My parents haven’t even been told yet.” I laughed, and we did this little happy dance together as best as I could with my arm hurting so b
adly.

Elle and I spent the morning working out all the material and colors for her wedding. I couldn’t believe how lacking confidence and indecisive she was. I half wondered if it was my taste or hers that was coming to the fore, but she eventually settled on stuff we both agreed would work
well.

Delicate, pink-colored satin with this gorgeous chiffon overlay was the choice for the bridesmaids. It was perfect, in fact, it’s something I would have liked for my own wedding, but if I couldn’t have it, at least I’d be wearing it in El
le’s.

She spoke to Leanne on the phone, and they started to cut the fabric from the measurements we’d all had taken the day before I left the Crakt Soundzz
tour.

The menu was easy, because we both had the same taste in food, and the chicken in parma ham was delicious. We’d tasted that when it was sent to us in Paris. We achieved a lot before I got tired and had to nap a
gain.

Elle had an appointment for that afternoon at the bridal store, where she had narrowed her dress down to four different ones and just wanted my opinion for the final
say.

After napping for an hour, my mom made us lunch. Alfie had Henry take us to the store in the limo. He didn’t feel I should really be out, but knew how important it was to get this part
done.

Poor Elle had waited for me to help her choose, and she must have been getting more and more nervous with every passing day she didn’t have a dress to wear to her own wed
ding.

The four dresses Elle had short listed were incredible. Elle looked stunning in all the dresses. The first one she tried was a bit fussy, and I told her so. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted a full ball gown type or a figure hugging one. The one I liked the most was cut in a flattering empire line style with an organza underlay and beautiful georgette silk mate
rial.

It was a strapless dress. The bodice was heart shaped with soft pleating that narrowed at the waist and drew my eyes down the length of the dress. There were silk and lace sleeves that came from the bodice that were finished like the petals of a flower at the wr
ists.

The silk material was formed into graduated organza with graduated waterfall ruffles at the front falling away from the center at each side, and it had a very small train at the back. Under the bodice there was a simple band of crystals and some handmade crystal flowers. I fell in love with it on sight. It was the perfect wedding dress. When I saw it on Elle, I wasn’t so sure th
ough.

We narrowed it down to two choices, and both were amazing dresses, any bride would have loved them. Elle was torn between an empire line and a traditional style dress with a twist. It was vintage inspired, but very elegant and mo
dern.

With the second dress, I loved the romantic feathered skirt that was draped over the bodice. The bodice was silk but had straps, with soft bows and delicate crystal flowers on the top of each strap. It looked perfect on her and suited her frame more than the one that was my favo
rite.

I explained to Elle my reasons for thinking the feathered one was more suited to her. With her tall, slender frame, and smaller bust, it was much more flattering, but she couldn’t make up her
mind.

She even asked me to try them on since she wanted to see them on someone else, to see the movement of the dress from the back, and how they flowed without being in
them.

I humored her by doing this. Wearing them confirmed to me even more that the dress for her was the romantic, feathered one. I had tried this one on first, and pointed out how it clung tightly and would have been wrong for someone with my body type. I had too much in the boob department to carry this one
off.

When I put my favorite dress on, it suited my body type more than hers because of my fuller bust. Elle could see from how the dresses hung that she wanted to go with the romantically styled one. Secretly, I was pleased, because when I got married, I’d probably love a dress like this one, and I wouldn’t have wanted to copy
her.

Henry dropped me home and took Elle back to her parent’s place. Alfie was home with my parents when I arrived. I walked into the kitchen and Alfie was instantly by my side hugging me. “Hey,” he cooed, and pulled a chair out sitting me down, while my dad poured me some
tea.

I tried to tell Alfie about the dresses, but he was so disinterested and changed the subject twice so I let it drop. I supposed it wasn’t really of interest to
men.

My dad went to help my mom load some research papers into her car; she was doing some kind or medical trial that she tried to explain to me, but the concept just made my head
hurt.

Alfie saw the tired look on my face. “You need to lie down, honey, you’re wiped out.” I was, so I let him guide me to my bedroom and lay on the
bed.

Alfie unbuckled his belt, pulling the belt through the loops, and tugged his sweater off. He climbed on the bed beside me, scooping me in his arms and kissing my lips softly. He murmured against my mouth, “I missed you every single second today.” His words instantly reassured me, and a small smile formed on my
lips.

“Me too…you I
mean.”

He chuckled. “Go to sleep.” He kissed my temple and stroked my hair. I really felt that no matter what, Alfie and I would spend the rest of our lives together, but we had a lot to iron out before that happ
ened.

In the following two weeks Elle and I put the finishing touches on her wedding, and we had met several times with the wedding planner to finish the seating plans with Drew and Alfie, as well as ensure that we had our practice run for our makeup and hai
rdos.

Elle wanted all her bridesmaids’ hair to be left down, curled and with flowers in it. I preferred this as well, for me that just meant natural, with the exception of the flo
wers.

Seeing my bandmates again was fabulous. Lennon and Cody stayed in London and were spending time with my dad. Digs and Shawn made a quick trip home before arriving back a day before the wed
ding.

I had been attending intensive physical therapy, and my arm was getting stronger by the day. Still weak, though, and I couldn’t play my guitar for more than a few minutes without a sharp persistent pain in my wrist and bicep. The doctors assured me that my arm would gain its original strength, as long as I kept doing the exercises, and slowly building up my playing
time.

When we went to the wedding rehearsal it was quite comical, both Elle and Drew were nervous and kept going to the toilet. As it was a civil service, the registrar was only able to spend an hour to help them prepare for the ceremony it
self.

So when Elle went to the toilet, I had to step in with Drew, while she ran through the proceedings with him, and Alfie did the same with Elle, when Drew was almost taken short. The registrar was very patient with them all things consid
ered.

We were conscious we hadn’t even given Elle a bachelorette party, but because she refused to have one without me, and by the time I got home there just hadn’t been the opportunity to go to the spa Alfie had arranged. Drew surprised us by giving us a pamper session at The Sanctuary Spa in Covent Garden. He’d hired the entire spa, and it was closed to everyone except the wedding party. Layla and Connie came over as well, at first I was surprised, but I supposed that Layla was as important as Alfie in Drew’s
eyes.

All the band guys’ moms from Crakt Soundzz and XrAid came along as well. So, by the time we added the immediate wedding party, and Elle’s, mine, and Jack’s mom, there was enough of us to make our presence
felt.

We kept the beauty therapists on their toes with the various treatments we all had. All of us were preened within an inch of our lives by the time we left and more than a little tipsy when we got back to the huge suite in the Dorchester, which was a wedding present to Elle from the guys of Crakt Sou
ndzz.

We sat up quite a lot of the night, drinking champagne, and talking about Elle’s life to date. I shared more than a few funny anecdotes about her. We eventually decided we’d better get some sleep, or else Elle was going to look exhausted on her big
day.

Fortunately for us, Elle didn’t protest. I think she was becoming overwhelmed. I kept catching her looking at me, and I wondered if she was thinking about all the times we’d shared as young girls. I was full of admiration for her as well, wondering if I would be half as calm as she was the night before my wed
ding.

As she was settling down my cell rang, SEXPERT ID flashed. I smiled and swiped to answer. “Hey,” he cooed. “How did your nigh
t go?”

I smiled at the sound of his voice. “Apart from missing you, I had a good
time.”

“You missed me?” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Sure I did, I hate being apart from you.” I sincerely meant it too. After everything that had happened, I couldn’t stand to think of being away from him ever again. Yet we still had to work out what we’d do about playing in our b
ands.

“Okay, you can stop that right now.” I didn’t realize I’d stopped talking and was thinking. Alfie had broken into my thoughts.
“Huh?”

Alfie snickered down the line at me. “I could practically hear you thinking, if we’re together, how can we both be in our b
ands.”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah, I was,” I replied honestly, because it was something that we really needed to discuss and make decisions a
bout.

I heard Alfie exhale, and I imagined he was making himself comfortable on his bed. “Well, what about this…we both stay in our bands. I respect that you still want to make your own m
usic.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah,” I mumbled, thinking how in the hell we would work that part
out.

“It isn’t as hard as it first appears, Lily. Both bands are with the same record company. We’re only going to tour for a maximum of three months a year now. Drew’s getting married, and we’re going to at some point, r
ight?”

I nodded still not really believing I was actually going to marry Alfie. “So, we will want time to be with our wives and to spend quality time with them.” I smiled at that tho
ught.

“Now, XrAid and Crakt Soundzz can either tour together, or at separate times of the year. That way I can tour with you, and you can come with me. We’ll get the label to schedule studio time at the same time, in the same place, so apart from the occasional promotions, we’d spend all our time together. What do you t
hink?”