Mockingbird: a Songbird Sequel

Six: Lennie

I didn't talk to Cora for a few days. That's not to say she was let off the hook. Colt gave her an earful more than once. I, on the other hand, needed a minute. However, the second we returned to Snyder, and wedding arrangements went into hyperdrive, I needed my Maid of Honor. We sat down, we hashed it out. She apologized profusely, tears and all. I forgave her, because I knew my best friend. She hadn't meant any harm. She promised to watch her drinking. I told her she was going to have a drink limit at the wedding, and everything went back to normal. Or semi-normal. Wedding planning was definitely not my forte.

It might be weird to say, but the details didn't really matter to me. At the end of the day, all I cared about was being Colt's wife. How we got there and what color of dress the bridesmaids wore and if the men's ties matched and blah, blah, blah... none of it mattered. I just wanted to be his wife. Colt quite obviously felt the same way, and pretty much just agreed with whatever ideas I or his sister or his mother gave him. Lucked out being the man. No one expected him to care. I was jealous.

The only detail he and I weren't budging on was the location. We were getting married at the lake house. There was a brief moment of Rose Marie trying to convince us that it needed to happen at the church in town, but Colt firmly told her that wasn't an option. The lake house was where Colt and I REALLY began. The lake house held so many of our favorite moments, not only as a couple, but as a family, that nowhere else even came close to making sense.

Unfortunately, that also meant paying a lot of people to cart a lot of things three hours from where we lived. Colt took care of the bar, being a bar owner and all, and Nina and Darren offered to run it. They said since they'd be there for the ceremony anyway, there wasn't any point of asking anyone else. They even said we didn't have to pay them, which we obviously didn't agree to, but it was nice, nonetheless.

The boys were doing the music, or at least most of it. I refused to let them play the whole time, considering they were the entire wedding party and I wanted them with us, so we compromised and agreed to them playing two sets and Bryce, who worked at Leon's studio and commandeered Culprit's karaoke night, would take over as deejay when they weren't playing. The food was ordered, the flowers were picked out, everything was set. I was ready. I was beyond ready.

The one detail I was absolutely thrilled about? My dress. I had found the perfect dress one weekend Cora, Rose Marie and I went to Atlanta. It was a two piece, the bottom was a perfect white skirt, not too full, but layered, that landed just against the ground. The top was cropped and showed a tiny band of my stomach. It was off the shoulder, with little sleeves that ended just above my elbow and was made completely of lace. It was perfect, absolutely utterly perfect. I'd enlisted the florists to make me a flower crown in lieu of a veil and that was it. My dream outfit for marrying my dream man.

All the guys were all wearing black shirts and slacks with yellow suspenders and yellow bowties. Colt wasn't a tux kind of guy, and I was okay with that. I was just excited to see him in a tie. I could probably count on a single hand the number of times that had happened, and I was eager to see it again. Beau was the best man, Leon was pulling double duty as a groomsman and our officiant, and Carter and Travis rounded out the wedding party.

My side was Cora, obviously, Melody, my cousin Makayala and my aunt Maggie. The only rules to their dresses were cocktail length and sunflower yellow. Otherwise, I told them to pick whatever they wanted. I just wanted them comfortable. It was going to be the end of August in Georgia. It was going to be hot. There was no need to make dealing with that worse.

Three days before the main event was scheduled to take place, a group of us headed out to the lake house to prep. Colt, Beau, and Carter took to building a little archway for us to get married under, while Rose Marie, Cora, and I took to readying the house for guests. Not to mention fielding the endless amounts of deliveries we had coming in. Rose Marie and Cora flitted around, ordering our helpers, or changing this or that, coming up with brand new ideas for what I thought was already planned out. I didn't mind so much... until I did. This wedding had morphed into an affair half the town was showing up to, when all I cared about was my friends and family being there. Of course, Colt and his whole family had lived in Snyder for their entire lives, so they knew absolutely everyone, and Rose Marie wasn't keen on offending anybody by not inviting them. This was quickly straying from my small country vision.