Charade

thirteen.

Wedding day jitters were a silly phenomenon. Sure, it seemed normal to be nervous about vowing to spend the rest of your life with another person. But really, a girl has already spent months planning out the wedding and had all that time leading up to the wedding to be nervous. So why was it that on the actual day of the wedding, everyone suddenly acted as if it were the end of the world?

Rebecca wondered what it was that caused people to get cold feet because she was having completely the opposite reaction; she couldn't wait to get married.

Making it official with Jesse wasn't necessary, at least not to her, but he had insisted. Having a wedding band on her finger proved to the world once and for all that they were together; and nothing was going to change that.

She smiled as she stared out the window at the peaceful suburban scene outside. They had decided to get married in Jesse's hometown suburbs in order to get away from the press. The only people invited to the wedding were the essentials: immediate family and close friends.

The door opened and Rebecca grinned as Lindsay and Sarah tottered into the room, dressed in matching flower girl outfits. Rachel hurried in behind them, stopping when she caught sight of Rebecca. She placed a hand over her mouth, her eyes watering. "You look so beautiful."

"Thanks," Rebecca grinned at her cousin. "The girls look adorable."

Smiling softly, Rachel stepped forward and grabbed Rebecca's hands, squeezing them softly. "Are you sure about this?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? Yes, I'm sure."

"Maybe it's because you guys spent exactly 48 hours planning this wedding," Rachel shrugged, dropping her cousin's hands. "I mean, what's the rush?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Jesse wanted to get married before he went back on tour. I think he thinks that if we don't do it now, we'll get so busy that it'll just never happen."

Nodding, Rachel bit her lip as her expression became serious. "I just want to make sure this is what you want. I always figured you would want the big white wedding with the hundreds of guests, the lilies, and the live band."

"Maybe I did when I was younger. Maybe I still do. I don't know," Rebecca admitted. "All that matters to me now is that when I walk down that aisle, Jesse is standing at the end of it. As long as he's there, I don't care about anything else."

"Good answer," Rachel smirked, a wicked glint in her eyes.

Rebecca scoffed, her jaw dropping in mock horror. "What was that, some sort of test?"

"Maybe." Rachel laughed with a shrug.

Grabbing the nearest program, Rebecca rolled it up and smacked Rachel on the arm. "You're awful."

Rachel's jaw dropped as she grabbed another program and swatted Rebecca as well. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into." A playful grin broke out across her face. "Your time in jail really brought out your violent streak, didn't it?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes but could help the smile that played at her lips. She felt a tugging on the end of her dress and looked down to find Lindsay staring up at her. "You were in jail?"

Her eyes widened in horror at the thought of her innocent niece finding out about her aunt's criminal activity. Fortunately, she saved from answering the question by Karen poking her head through the door and announcing that it was time to go.

Smoothing out her dress one last time, Rebecca grabbed her bouquet off the dressing table and turned to Rachel, grinning, her eyes sparkling with happiness. "Let's do this."