Heart of the Matter

9

December 24th, 2018

As Lindsey was driving up to the Pacific Palisades Mansion cars were littering the driveway.

"What the Fuck?" Kendall questions. 

"Nicksmas..." Lindsey trails off.

"Is she going to have room for us?" Craig asks.

"I'll probably end up sleeping with her but yes she'll have room for us." Lindsey nods. 

Walking into Stevie's house, they slide their shoes off and laughter is coming from the living room. Kendall walks in first and everyone kind of stops and stares at her. She suddenly feels self-conscious and she turns around to run out when Lindsey grabs her shoulders and pushes her into the room. 

"Kendall, this is the Nicks family, Dragon-Lady, Sharon Celani, Marilyn Martin, and Christine McVie." Lindsey states.

"Holy Shit, that's Kendall Rose...Jessie loves you. I'm Alec Parkinson." He shakes her hand.

"Kendall Buckingham." She smiles. 

It was then that a glass shattered against the wood and she whipped around to see a man with curly gray hair pulled back into a ponytail holding his hands to his mouth. 

"Hey Christopher." Lindsey smiles as the other curly-headed man slowly makes his way over to the two of them. 

"Kendall this is Uncle Chris. Mom's baby brother." Lindsey smiles. 

Chris wraps his arms around his niece and just like that he breaks down into tears. "You look just like my sister." 

"The second person to tell me that." She chuckles pulling away. 

"You know, we never thought Stevie was going to have children and poor Jessie was going to be alone her whole life. When they called and said you were taken...I know it hurt your mom but we felt it too." Chris explains. 

"Um, this is my ex-wife Lori Nicks, Sharon, Marilyn, and Lori all sing back up for Stevie. This is Christine McVie, my daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Alec. That little curly-headed blonde your mom is holding is my grandson, Roman." Chris has his hand on her back pointing people out to her. 

"Um, I assume you all know my dad...this is my fiance Craig Wade." She smiles. 

"So wait...like Kendall Rose is my cousin." Jessie freaks out.

"That's what it would seem." Kendall chuckles as Jessie jumps out of her spot and wraps her arms around her. 

"Please tell me we're invited to the wedding." Lori approaches and hugs her. 

"Well, mom and I can't plan it ourselves. We're getting married on July 13th." Kendall brushes a strand of blonde waves behind her ear. 

"Oh, perfect...what do we have already?" Lori questions leading her over to a chair. 

"Well, we're getting married at The Victorian. Mom was able to pull some strings. We're going to get married outside and then have the reception on the first floor inside. The people there were so nice and they were very accommodating when the four of us went there they like totally shut everything down. The color scheme is like, red and white I guess. I'm having red roses, and I think I'm going to put my bridesmaids in red dresses...Jessie, I know we just met but would you be one of my bridesmaids?" Kendall asks.

"Of course. I'd love to be a bridesmaid. Who else are you having?" Jessie questions.

"Well...this is where it gets really controversial...Lucy's daughter...and my two best friends from high school and Craig's little sister. Dad's agreed to fly them all in." 

"Lucy?" Chris asks.

"Well...Pamela, was the name of the woman that kidnapped me. She liked forged documents for me and stuff. She died when I was 15 in a car accident. Lucy is her sister. I ended up going to live with her and her husband, George, and daughter Annalee because Pamela had like I said forged documents. Lucy was my guardian until I turned 18. But Lucy didn't know that I was kidnapped. She always said that her sister had gone to LA for a year and came back with a baby. They never really questioned it. When she died we found my actual birth certificate in a trunk with like Buckingham Kidnapping news clippings. And Psych records. Lucy helped me figure everything out and get my social security card changed and my name so I wasn't just Kendall Rose anymore, I was Kendall Rose Buckingham but what she couldn't help me with was letting my parents know because that's I mean...that's high profile right. So that's why when I won American Idol I requested to work with Lindsey Buckingham. The producers wanted me to work with Simon Cowell or Jimmy Iovine and I said no. But anyway It'd only be five bridesmaids." Kendall explains. 

"Well, I'd love to be your bridesmaid." Jessie grins. 

"So is Lindsey or George going to walk you down the aisle?" Christine questions.

"Dad is." Kendall smiles. 

"So the wedding dress, any ideas..."Marilyn questions.

"Not yet...Mom was supposed to show me hers but she never did." Kendall smirks.

"Your right, let's go look at it right now. Come on Jess, Lori."  Stevie sets Roman down on the floor and the four women make their way upstairs. 

***

In Stevie's room, she opens up a hope chest and pulls out a piece of pure white chiffon. 

"Alright, what size bra and dress are you?" Stevie asks.

"32B and I'm a 2." Kendall shrugs.

"Alright, well when I got married my bra size was 32B. After I had a kid I'm at a 36B...However My dress size was four is now a six, So we'll try this on. It was slightly tight when I got married so it might fit you, but even so, we can always get it tailored." She smiles laying it out on the bed. 

"Oh wow," Kendall says running her fingers along the perfectly kept chiffon.

"Go ahead and try it on." Stevie smiles.

"Can I just like strip here?" She questions.

"Honey we don't care, we're your family." Stevie smiles. 

When Kendall steps into the dress it zips with ease and she looks in her mom's tall mirror, and smoothes the dress down her waist."Oh wow." 

The dress was an a-line the skirt was pure white chiffon on top of a silk slip. Where the waist started it was all lace. It was off the shoulders and swooped down into a bell sleeve. 

"Momma, can I wear your wedding dress?" Kendall asks tears welling up in her eyes.

"Of course you can." Stevie laughs a little bit tears also streaming down her face as she wraps her arms around her daughter. 

Once Kendall pulls away from her mom and turns back to the mirror, Lori is behind her. 

"What are you doing about this gorgeous blonde hair?" She asks.

"I was going to leave it down but after looking at the dress, I kind of want to wear it up." Kendall smiles. 

"How about this?" Lori asks fiddling for a while but ultimately holding it in a low bun off to the side some of her curls falling out of it. 

"Beautiful." Stevie grins kissing her daughter's shoulder. 

"And I can do your makeup...I'm thinking a red lip, dark eyeshadow because browns bring out brown no blush...you don't need any." Jessie smiles.

"Thank you all, so much," Kendall states.

"Oh baby, no need to thank us." Stevie hugs her again.