Page 56 of Big Island Weddings
“Because you’ve been to so many weddings?” Cody asked.
“Shutup, Cody!” Juniper was loud, but there was no venom to it. She seemed like she was about to burst out laughing.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Lani smiled and shook her head. “This all happened so fast, I don’t think they have much of a theme or a color scheme.”
Juniper wrinkled her nose. “Well who’s doing the flowers?”
“‘Olena’s mom, I think.”
“Fine. I’ll ask Auntie Mahina.”
Lani grinned at how fully Juniper had dived into life in Pualena. “Sounds good.”
A group of tourists approached, murmuring over unfamiliar words likelilikoiandmamaki, and so Lani left the teens to their customers… and their flirting.
Did Emma know that there were sparks flying between her teenage niece and the boy next door? Lani made a mental note to ask her about it… just as soon as life settled down a bit.
She loaded up on vegetables at her favorite stand, bought a pasture-raised chicken from the meat truck, and then caught up with Tenn.
“I’ve got dinner,” she told him. “Did you get everything you need for the wedding?”
He greeted her with a kiss on the temple and took the bags she carried. “I secured a box of mangos,andhe says he can bring us a box of dragon fruit too.”
“‘Olena loves dragon fruit.”
“Perfect.”
“You want to head out? We could drop the food at home and take the girls to the beach.”
“Sounds good.”
It took a few minutes to get the girls away from the art tent, but a day at the beach was enough of a draw to get them off of the sun-baked cliffs.
On their way back to the truck, she saw Lorenzo through the crowd.
She tensed, waiting for Rory to spot her dad or for him to see them across the market. But Rory ran ahead, racing Olivia, and Lorenzo moved on without seeing them. Her shoulders slumped in relief as they moved on.
She knew that it was past time to introduce Tenn and Lorenzo… but that was a bridge that they would cross another day.
20
‘Olena
Outside, everything was bustling activity. Friends and cousins had volunteered to set up tents and tables, bring food, and do everything else it took to pull a wedding together at the last minute.
Darlene oversaw it all with her new and improved binder clutched to her chest; the fact that nearly everyone involved had volunteered their time for free made her no less of a taskmaster.
Inside the trailer, things were just as busy. One auntie was applying makeup to ‘Olena’s face while another stitched up a fallen hem. On the other side of the small space, Mahina was pinning haku leis in the girls’ hair to keep the circles of flowers in place on their short trip up the aisle… such as it was.
The trailer was an old camper that had belonged to Nate’s dad, recently fixed up to be used as an office. It had been co-opted for the day to be used as a bridal trailer, though it was barely big enough to serve its purpose.
“Kiki, sit still!” Luana scolded her little sister. “You’ll lose all your flowers before we even get there!”
Kiki stomped one foot, making the trailer bounce. “No,you’lllose your flowers!”
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
“I’llmake itmake sense!”
