Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

29. "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"

Thursday 4th Apr, 2:57 PM

Kylie was watching an old rerun of Friends on TV when she got a call from her mother. Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself, she muted the TV and answered the called.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Just got the biopsy results back,"

"And?" Kylie asked, swallowing hard in her apprehension.

"All clear. The doctor said it a benign – something or other. Anyway, it's not cancer, not anything. It's not gonna kill me and it's been cut outta me, so no dramas!"

"Thank god for that!" Kylie heard herself exhale and she was certain Janelle heard it too. Kylie didn't care, a thousand stresses seemed to be lifted from her shoulders that left her beaming.

"I guess that means no more trips to the hospital, right?" Kylie asked brightly. She heard Janelle laugh on the other end at her.

"Hah! Yes, bloody oath! And the same goes for you too, miss! I could quite happily go the rest of my days without having to visit you lot in hospital again – unless it's for the birth of my future grandchildren!"

"Mum!"

"No, that's the only excuse I'll accept!"

Kylie and Janelle spent the next half hour chatting – the smile never once wavering from Kylie's face.

Saturday 6th Apr 3:02 PM

Sophie and Dean were married in one of the oldest churches in town. Its huge, Federation era stonework towered over the street rather magnificently. The presence of hundreds of cars did nothing to diminish its old fashioned beauty, either and although its shadow left the perfect green grass dewy and slippery underfoot, the sun shone brightly over everyone milling inside, filling the old church pews to its maximum capacity.

Both the Kovac and Lomax families were large, so the friends of both bride and groom were left to fight politely for the furthest pews, which meant a familiar face could quite easily be lost in the crowd.

When the priest declared to Dean, "you may now kiss the bride," everyone gushed that the couple of honour shared their first moment of married intimacy to their song, Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars.

3:34 PM

Before the reception could go ahead, the photographer blitzed through the crowd to capture every adoring moment of Mr and Mrs Lomax with the bridal party. Ali, Loz and Kylie beamed alongside Sophie, Dean and his best men, Sophie's brother Jeremy (paired with Kylie), Terry Lomax (paired with Loz) and Roger Jarvis (paired with Ali), Dean's cousins. Loz, Ryan and the boys even got before the photographer's lens a few times.

All the guests slowly made their way across the road to their cars, stopping to congratulate Sophie and Dean before heading towards the vineyard for the reception. What also made the street a bottleneck, was everyone gushing over the limo waiting to escort the happy couple to the vineyard in glamorous style – well, Sophie thought it was a bit much, but it had been at Dean's parents insistence that she just couldn't refuse them, nor wanted to start her relationship with her (now, official) in–law's on a bad note.

4:12 PM

Right before they all headed inside to signal the beginning of the reception, Sophie nudged Kylie away from the unhurried procession inside to whisper in her ear, "I'm so sorry, Kylz – I had no idea!"

Kylie frowned at her, completely confused but before she could say anything, Jeremy tapped her elbow, so they could head inside together.

4:57 PM