"But it's all going too far…!"

I'd caught Jack's arm in the hallway. After agreeing to let Fletcher… no, Dad Mason, escort me down the aisle, I was currently on my way up to Mom's bedroom to try on my stupidly expensive wedding gown. It had been hand delivered that afternoon.

"We don't even know if there is a baby yet. And now there's a wedding and I'm supposed to call them Mom And Dad." I was starting to hyperventilate. "They're welcoming me as their daughter, Jack. And the whole thing is one big lie."

"It's no lie, Libby," he whispered back, his hands on my shoulders. "The baby is real. I know he is. And the marriage will be perfectly legal…"

"I don't like feeling as though we're deceiving them, Jack. When they're being so kind to me." I brushed the tears away as they dripped from my chin. "It just feels wrong…"

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight to his chest. "I know, Libby. But it's better in the end. It's better for them… for the baby." He reached down and put his big, warm hand low on my belly. "Look, he's here already, making his mother all emotional…"

I held my breath, looking up into the depths of his dark eyes. All evening he'd been so attentive, so affectionate toward me. The others had noticed, exchanging knowing glances. And now we were alone, here in the dark…

His mouth came down on mine, everything else started to slip away. His tongue found mine and I reached up, pulling him closer. After so long without his touch, his taste, I felt desperate for more. The fire he'd lit inside me more than a week ago had only grown. All it took was his kiss for it to consume us both…

"If you can bear to part with her, just a little while longer…" Mom's voice interrupted softly. "I promise I'll give her back." I turned to face her, my lips still embarrassingly parted.

"Of course. I'm sorry, Viv… Mom," I said unsteadily. "The dress…"

"That's right, honey. And if the shop's going to have time to make any last-minute adjustments, we need to see if it fits, right this minute. Jackson, Ben and your father are in the study. Libby, let's get you into that dress. India's already got hers on."

Jack gave me a steady smile. Lending me his courage, as I followed his mother down the hall.

He was right, after all. This was all for the baby's sake. And even though it was still too soon to be sure, I knew she'd be worth it. Besides, in a few more days, the wedding would be behind us, and Jack and I would be alone on an island, where there would no longer be any need for pretense. But his kiss still burned on my lips.

"Is this perfect or what?" India whirled around as we entered the room. She was wearing silk, the color of silver and was a knock out. What I wouldn't have given for her height and natural slenderness?

"Now, come on," she said, easing my own dress from a white velvet hanger. "Mom can help you into this while I go change. Be back in a flash."

India gave me a smile and turned her bright eyes to Vivian. For a split second, I thought I saw something there. And then she was gone, and Vivian was undoing the tiny buttons along the back of the gown.

"You have the loveliest kind of figure for a dress like this," she said. She glanced up as I was slipping out of my blouse and then back down to the buttons. "Pretty… feminine… The kind of woman a man just can't resist."

I laughed nervously for a moment and then sobered. "I know it's all happened so quickly," I began. "For Jack and me to be living together and now getting married…"

"No quicker than Fletcher and me," she said. I thought I caught a flicker in her eye. "The Mason men have always known what they want. Even when they don't even realize it yet. Five generations of them. All strong Southern men who know exactly what they want and waste no time in taking it." Her voice was soft, but sure.

"You and… Dad… were married quickly?" I stepped into the dress she held for me. "I thought that long engagements were the tradition in the south…"

"Has Jack been fillin' your head with how conventional Fletcher and I are?" She slid the dress over my shoulders and I saw her shake her head gently. "I swear, that boy."

She stepped behind me and began to button. "Of all our family, he's the most conventional one of us all. And yet he goes on and on about what traditional folk the rest of us are." She smoothed the fabric at my waist. "It's a little snug here." I blinked, but said nothing. She went on.

"Fletcher and I were married not one month after we met, and that was thirty-four wonderful years ago. Now we never lived together first, but…"

"That's why I told India I wasn't sure about the white dress. I'd thought the silver might be…"

Vivian turned me by the shoulders to face the cheval mirror in the corner. Her eyes were finely lined, but they were sharp and brilliantly blue as she looked over my shoulder, into my reflection.

"I never saw a bride more suited to white," she said firmly, kindly. "And I can't imagine any woman better suited to my Jackson." She turned me gently around to face her and I saw her eyes sparkle as she kissed me on the cheek.

"Besides, if a lady had to earn the right to wear white on her wedding day, I'd have had to wear scarlet." She winked conspiratorially and I smiled back, blushing furiously.

"And just between you and me, honey, it simply isn't my color."