Chapter 8: Chapter 8 WEDDING PLANS

They only went to two stores; Kayla had fallen in love with a dress at the second bridal store. She swished the bell-shaped dress and listed to the little sound it made. She smoothed down her hands over the corset bodice with little black flower embroideries on it.

“This is it.” she looked at the image of herself on the roof to the floor mirror.

“You look beautiful my love.” Iris stepped behind her and toyed with the laces on the back of Kayla’s dress.

“I’m guessing the theme is black and white?” as she held up a short black umbrella dress.

“I guess so. Momma, pick something out for yourself and something for Nana too.”

“But Kayla these dresses cost a fortune.” She looked at the price tag on Kayla’s dress.

“Don’t worry about it. We can afford it.” Scarlet handed her a dress that she had been eying.

The off-shoulder grey dress fit snugly around her curvaceous features. “It’s beautiful.”

“You are beautiful, and that is why the two of you are going to be my bride’s maids.” Kayla stared at the two women from the mirror. Although the circumstance around her wedding was dire, she was going to make the best of it.

“Who’s going to walk you down the aisle?”

“Nana will. I’ll be holding her up all the way, but I think she would like to do it. SJ can help me.”

“I think he already knows his way down an aisle.” Scarlet thought back to her wedding; it was unconventional but beautiful especially with her son beside her.

“We’ve been gone for hours. I think we should head back home now.”

“I’m sure everything is fine Momma. Solara would have called if it wasn’t.”

They still went back to the house as soon as they could, and when they got there Nana had the three guys in the kitchen, aprons tied around their waists. Their hands are covered with dough up to their elbows. They were kneading and we not doing a good job.

“Hi, guys.” Kayla gave Solara a quick kiss on his cheek. She gave the dresses to her mother to put them away.

“How was the dress hunting? Did you find something you like?” Nana was seated in one of the armchairs that Solara and Stephan had carried into the kitchen.

“Uh-huh. Nana, are you trying to domesticate our husbands.” Kayla brushed some flour that had made its way on Solara’s hair.

“I just want to make sure that in the event the two of you are off your feet, they can take care of you.”

Scarlet found the whole situation hilarious. She was trying to teach the vampire and beast how to cook when all they needed was for them to catch a deer from their back yard, and the suggestion that they would ever be off of their feet was absurd.

“What do you mean by off our feet?” Scarlet wiped off the flour that had covered her son’s face. She was amazed that he could so easily fit in with humans especially since he had no interactions with them in his usual life.

“I expect that babies will be following soon.”

SJ giggled and Stephan elbowed him into silence.

“Not anytime soon Nana.” Not ever. Kayla was well aware of her situation and wasn’t about to delude herself with the thoughts of babies. They already had SJ and he was more than enough.

“Women of these days, they always put their careers first. Someday then. How are the plans coming along? You only have one day left.”

“Don’t worry about it. The event company is bringing over the chairs and tables tomorrow afternoon. We’ll have everything set up by the evening. Then on Thursday morning, we will put up the flowers.” Scarlet had every detail crammed up in her mind.

“Are you going to be able to do this on your own? Maybe you should ask some of your cousins to come and help.”

“No, we are fine. Momma is going to start calling them tonight, tell them about the wedding.” Kayla had narrowed down the wedding invitation to a cozy number of twenty. She didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. The only thing that was important to her was that her grandmother had a good time.

“What about the food?”

“No one we’ll be here for that long, so I thought we could skip that part.”

“Absolutely not. Your Momma will call some of your aunties; they will all cook something and bring it over.”

Kayla didn’t argue this was more of her grandmother’s wedding than it was hers. “We could always get the boys to cook, seeing that you already have them started.”

“I don’t think so K, the last thing we want is for your family to get food poisoning.” Scarlet frowned at the oddly grey color mold of flour in SJ’s hands.

“Now that you put it that way.” She laughed, “Oh before I forget, the three of you need to get your tuxes tomorrow. Black and white is the theme.”

“Do I have to wear that?” SJ mourned.

“Yes, you do.” Kayla put in. “We already got you something, Nana. Momma is hanging it up in her room.”

“I hope it’s nothing flashy.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thank-,” Nana was interrupted by a bout of coughs that seared through her chest.

Kayla abandoned Solara and rushed to her side, not thinking about the speed she moved in. She knelt by her side before Nana could open her eyes again.

“SJ get me a glass of water.” He leaped off the counter to the kitchen sink.

Scarlet took the glass of water from him and knelt beside Kayla at her grandmother’s feet. Nana took a sip of the water and handed it back to her.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“No, you are not. You need to get back to bed Nana and there is no debate about it.” Kayla stood up and put her arm under Nana’s. Scarlet went to her other side and together they carefully lifted Nana out of the seat.

“Stephan, could you please take this back to the living room.”

They carried her up the stairs and tucked her into bed. Scarlet left Kayla lying beside her grandmother as she slowly fell asleep. This was where she spent most of her time when her grandmother wasn’t down in the living room.

Kayla was watching over her, hanging on every single breath she took. Watching as her chest rose and fell, and listened to her thoughts and dreams as she slept peacefully.

It was Wednesday evening, the boys had just come back from shopping for their tuxes, and Kayla had them in a line-up. She was inspecting their suits and giving them pointers on the next day. She wanted her wedding to be perfect, not just for her but also for her grandmother.

“Ok, Scar let’s do a checklist.” She was seated on the back porch looking towards the now furnished backyard.

The white and black umbrella’s stood up from the center of the tables. They were evenly spaced out allowing the guests to turn their seats during the ceremony, and back during the reception.

A clear path to the altar had been made and all it needed was the plastic paper and the satin cloth that was to be the aisle. It was perfect and the next morning it would be even better when they placed the flower arrangements.

“Everything seems to be in order. Stephan picked up your wedding bands this afternoon. Now, all we need are the flowers and the guests.”

Scarlet sat next to her best friend imagining what was going through her head.

“I’m worried.” She read Scarlet’s concern and decided to fill her in instead of letting her guess.