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11:30 AM Reception Hall
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Lexi held Chris’ hand tightly as they walked up the steps to the Merchant Exchange that housed her canceled wedding to Toby Schmidt. Her tummy was doing somersaults at the knowledge she was going to have to face 300 people who only an hour and a half before expected to see a bride kiss a grin and then gorge themselves on food and drink. Trying to find ways to settle her nerves, Lexi played a few mind games. Okay so I invited three hundred people but only one hundred and fifty were for the bride. Since Toby’s side has probably high tailed it to his parent’s place in Catalina that is only half an angry mob to deal with. I can send Chris off to find Ruth which will take him out of any uncomfortable situations with rowdy guests that might have lingered. We can stay at his hotel tonight which will space us from my parents that are probably going to act like loan sharks asking how they are getting their money back when the ice sculpture and ten boxes of chocolate is dumped in their room. I will just tell my dad salvage what we can and Chris and I can do the JP thing instead of having a wedding like this, her voice came up with several solutions to the myriad of problems she was going to face in the next hour.

Still, even though this was her mess to clean up, she was glad to have Chris’ hand in hers as they headed down the hall and made a left to the reception hall. Aubrey had said her parents were waiting for them there when Lexi called to check on Ruth. She had hoped her sister was wrong as usual. Unfortunately this time, her sister was right. “Mom…Dad,” Lexi said letting go of Chris’ hand as she approached her parents.

“What the hell happened to you,” Ester Garfield raised an eyebrow at her daughter’s disheveled appearance. “You look like you have been rolling around in some forest.” As if to validate her claim, Ruth pulled a large leaf from the lace on the back of Lexi’s dress that she and Chris had missed. Lexi looked back at Chris and then tried to find the words to respond.

“I needed some space so I tried to climb a tree,” Lexi shrugged. The look on her mother’s face indicated maybe the truth promise was best to keep just between her and Chris. Giving him a side glance, Lexi took a deep breath. Her family like Chris well enough, yet what she and Chris were planning was bordering on lunacy.

“So you climbed a tree,” Ester’s look spoke volumes. The woman had a way of always making you crumble. If you didn’t she just beat the truth out of you with a stick when needed. “While we all were standing around a room full of people waiting for you to come down the aisle?” Lexi bit her lip. At times Ester, like all mother’s had a way of reducing any adult down to the age of five again with just a look. “Could you have maybe told us you were postponing the wedding before you decided to take up being an arborist. Toby told us all to give him an hour. He was going to find you and then things would be okay.”

“Yeah,” Lexi scratched her forehead. “Yeah, it’s gonna be more than an hour. There has been change of plans. Oiy this is so much harder than I thought it was going to be. Lexi’s parents where more than a little rigid. At times they were downright two by fours planks of cedar wood. One did not just spring news on the Garfields like she was about to do.

Lexi