Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 147

The next morning, as soon as he and Raquel headed out in her car, Jay had to tell her about the previous night's events. The plans for his wedding were moving forward, and he could not have been more excited about it.

"So, Ruze and Kim came over last night. Er asked Kim to be her maid of honour, and I asked Ruze to be my best man. They both accepted." For obvious reasons, he didn't mention that there had been a lot more to the conversation than that.

"Great news," Raquel said with a big smile on her face. "Erin said she was thinking of asking Kim. Think she was wondering if Z or I would take offense. I didn't though. Erin's been friends with Kim for a lot longer than she has with either of us, especially me. This means you're full speed ahead with the wedding planning then, I assume?"

"Yes, we are. In fact we've pretty much decided on a destination. We're looking at a beach wedding in Barbados. Ruze suggested it last night as it was a place they looked at for theirs, and it seems perfect for what we want."

"A beach wedding will be real nice. Can't wait for it. Speaking of weddings, there is something I wanted to talk to you about." Raquel pulled the car over at the side of the road and looked at him. The way she did it worried Jay.

"Wait, is everything okay with you and Z?"

"What? Yeah, of course it is. It's nothing like that."

"Okay, good," Jay said, relieved.

"What I wanted to talk to you about is, well, Z is having one of her friends from back in New York be her maid of honour. She's going to be wearing a dress and stuff, whereas I don't like wearing dresses. I was thinking I might wear a suit. Do you think I can do that?"

Jay smiled at her. "Of course you can. You can have your wedding however you want it. And you do look good in a suit," he added, remembering the days when she had been working for Bayley Martinez.

"You don't think it would seem odd?"

Initially it surprised Jay that Raquel was being sensitive about something like that. But then he figured that Zelina's family would be there, and that was likely who she had in mind for judging her.

"Raquel, it's your wedding. What you and Z want is all that matters. You can wear a suit if you choose to. People have weddings on beaches, on roller coasters, people even have underwater scuba weddings. Erin suggested that when we were looking. Thankfully, she was joking."

"You think she was joking," Raquel said, grinning.

He laughed. "Yes. Maybe she wasn't? I'm sure Clem would be up for it. Hey, you know what we should do? We should go for a suit fitting together. I'll get it sorted. After all, I'm your best man."

"Right," she smiled. "Thanks, Jay. I'll look forward to it."

"Me too. I know Er is going to have Kim and Z go with her to choose her dress. She mentioned it last night."

"That's a bit too girly for me," Raquel said.

"Me too," Jay said with his usual goofy humour.

Raquel laughed as she got the car moving again.

-----

That night, Jay and Erin made the final decision regarding their wedding and honeymoon location.

"Clem! Come here please!" Erin called out from the living room, where she was sitting beside Jay and with Henry on her lap.

"Can't wait to see what she makes of it," Jay said. He had Erin's laptop on his lap, displaying the page for the beachside resort that they had chosen to book. All that was needed now was Hank's approval and payment, since he was insisting on taking care of everything to do with the wedding.