My Hometown Love

Chapter 11 - Wedding Hustle

Lexie’s P.O.V

It’s exactly T-Minus 3 days to the wedding. We have been hustling hard to get everything in order. My parents even mentioned that our whole wedding team is such a great team, it’s impressive how much work we got done in a short time.

As for me and Kevin, we have been getting along really well. Now that everything is out of the way, we have been working in sync and killing our duties as Maid of Honor and Best Man. I might be imagining things but there even might have been some harmless flirting going on at times. But, like my past experiences have taught me, I am not going to get my hopes up and let my heart fool me again. I vowed to just go with the flow and not overthink things that probably don’t even exist.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday and there are so many more important things to think about now rather than my meaningless worries and emotions. There is still much to be done for the wedding, and I am not going to get anything done if I keep staying in bed.

I pulled off the covers and dragged my feet to the bathroom. Before you know it, I was standing in front of the mirror, admiring how I looked in my favorite blue jeans and red plaid top, which I tied the ends of into a little bow. I felt a wave of confidence and ready to conquer. I grabbed my stuff, got into my car, and headed for the church.

I recognized the blue Outback as soon as I pulled in into the church parking lot.

“There you are. What took you so long? I thought you bailed on us!”, I heard Kevin say as he walked down the church stairs.

Before I could reply, I saw Jake heading for my car, walking in from the backyard hand-in-hand with Maria.

“Hey, Lex! Perfect timing. We all just got here ourselves.”, Jake said as he ruffled my hair, completely unaware of what Kevin just said.

I smiled at Jake and Maria before turning to shoot a menacing glare at Kevin, who turned his gaze away naughtily, before bursting out laughing.

“Anyway, where are the decorations Jakey? I thought you had them?”, I said looking around to find his car, only to face an empty parking lot besides Kevin’s car.

“Oh, it’s all in the trunk of Kevin’s car.”, Jake said briefly before turning his attention back to Maria to whisper something in her ear, that made her burst out with little giggles.

I just shook my head in disbelief as I watched my brother act like a teenage boy, drunk with love with his fiancé. I turn around to catch Kevin watching me instead of them, before suddenly getting startled knowing that I had caught him staring at me.

“So, shall we get the decorations?”, Kevin said quickly, hoping to diffuse the awkwardness.

I just nodded as I followed him to his car, leaving the love birds behind. As I was grabbing all the bags full of decorations, my eyes fell on a guitar bag laying in the corner with some papers, that looked like sheet music sticking out of the bag.

“I didn’t know you played the guitar?”, I asked Kevin pointing at the guitar bag.

“Oh, that old thing. Yeah, I learned to play it a couple of years ago.”, Kevin replied nervously as he quickly pushed the guitar bag further into the dark trunk of the car.

“Oh, I see. Why do you carry it in your car?”, I asked, questioning him like Nancy Drew.

“That’s... erm… because... I…”, Kevin replied as he desperately tries to say something, while discreetly looking out for help, obviously from Jake.

“Hey Kevin, Lexie. We’re going to head off now. Maria needs to go check with the caterers and I have to get to the café. So, we will see you all later.”, Jake says cutting in, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, while Kevin quickly shuts the door of his trunk.

**********

We head into the church and start lining the sides of the pews along the pews with these gorgeous dark purple and pale pink paper roses that honestly, looked like real roses. I lined the right side of the aisle while Kevin worked on the left.

“It’s going to be a beautiful wedding ceremony, isn’t it.”, Kevin said as his voice echoed in the church breaking the silence.

I nodded as I watched the afternoon sunlight shine through the stained glasses, sending a rainbow of colors shining throughout the church. Kevin and I stood in awe of our work as we dusted our hands from the glitter of the flowers.

“One last thing. Will you give me a hand, please?”, Kevin said as he held this enormous roll of what looked like a carpet.

We laid it on the ground and got to our knees as we slowly pushed open this beautiful silk white carpet lined with pictures of vined red roses from the podium to the door of the church.

“Wow. That is beautiful!”, I exclaimed as I tried to stand up.

“Here, let me”, Kevin said as he extended his hand to help me up.

I took his hand and pulled myself up. We both took a last look at the church before locking it up.

**********

“So, when do you want to work on the backyard?”, Kevin asked as we walked down the stairs heading to our cars.

“Well, I’m free today plus I want to get everything done as soon as possible. What about you? Are you free today?”, I asked as I took out my keys ready to get into my car.

“Yeah that’s sounds good. At least we can tick that off our list faster.”, Kevin said as he pulled out a blue paper from his back pocket.

I move to peep at the list to see that most of the things have been ticked off and there were only about 3 things left to do on his list.

“Wait, what’s that?”, I said pointing at the bottom of the list, where something has been cut of repeatedly by a black marker, making what was written completely unreadable.

“Oh that, that’s nothing. It was a mistake I made. Anyway, shall we leave?”, Kevin said as he quickly folded up the paper and stuffed it into this back pocket.

I entered my car and drove back home as my ever-curious mind kept thinking that there was something suspicious going on with Kevin. Remembering my mantra, I quickly dismissed the thought and stopped myself from overthinking something that was probably just in my imagination. 

**********

We were greeted at home by my parents who just laid out lunch on our 6-seater dining table.

“So how did it go”, Jake asked as he took a seat at the table after pushing the chair in for Maria.

“Don’t worry. It’s all ready for the wedding”, Kevin said he stood at the doorway of the kitchen.

I nudged Kevin into the kitchen to join us for lunch but he stood still, suddenly hesitant to enter.

“Kevin, what are you still standing there for? Come on, I’ll fix you a plate.”, Mom shouted as she pulled out a tray of vegetables from the oven.

“Yes Kevin, come and sit. Or are you fed up with all of us already?”, Dad said jokingly as he pulled out the chair for Kevin opposite me.

Beaming from ear to ear, Kevin took a seat at the table, and soon we were all enjoying lunch after a busy morning.

Time passed by so fast as I watched how easily Kevin gets along with my family. Again memories come flooding back to me as I see the man in front of me and how much he has grown and changed. The sound of a fork dropping on a plate, startled me, bring me back to reality.

We all continued eating in silence in our little bubble before going back out to continue our day.

For me and Kevin, that meant, getting our backyard ready for the wedding reception.