Sunshine (Take Two Sequel)

Chapter 1: Lilly

June 8th, 2018

The wedding was only two weeks away and Roger and I were trying to nail down some details that we definitely should not have left for the last minute. Everyone was gathered in our home trying to help us plan.

"So your niece Ava is going to be the flower girl?" Roger asked me.

"Yes," I said. "Faith says she's really excited about it."

"And have you picked your maid of honor yet?" He asked me.

"I can't pick," I said.

"Lilly none of us will be offended if we're not picked," Rory said.

"I might be," Winter said, making Ella roll her eyes.

"Why don't you pick one of your sisters?" Roger asked.

"I'm not that close to any of them," I said.

"You're close to Faith," Roger said. "Why don't you pick her?"

"Faith can't do it," I said. "She's giving me away at the wedding."

"Why isn't your father doing that?" Brian asked.

"Well it would be a little hard for him to do," I said. "Since he's not invited to the wedding." Roger sighed.

"Baby," he said. "He apologized to you and all that happened two years ago!"

"He apologized for what he said about my mother," I said. "But he still doesn't accept me for who I am. Besides, it's not even just about that, my dad and I have never been close. Would you invite your dad to the wedding?"

"That's a different situation and you know it," Roger snapped.

"You're right," I said. "I'm sorry. But I still don't want my dad at our wedding, he'll just ruin it." Roger sighed.

"Fine," he said. "If Faith's giving you away you still need a maid of honor." I thought for a minute.

"I think I'll pick Rory," I said. "We're the closest honestly and she already threw me a bridal shower." Rory smiled and grabbed my hand lovingly.

"What?" Winter snapped. "We lived together! We made out once!"

"Thank you so much for that reminder, Win," Roger said sarcastically.

"Winter we all lived together," I said. "And I don't think us making out once means you get to be my maid of honor. Besides Rory planned my whole wedding with me. You're still a bridesmaid!"

"That's not the same!" Winter said. "I wanted to plan the bachelorette party."

"That's why you want to be maid of honor?" Rory said. "Go ahead and plan it! I don't like planning that stuff anyway." Winter smiled happily and hugged Rory.

"Can I be a bridesmaid with no responsibilities?" Ella asked. I laughed softly.

"You already are," I said.

"Perfect," she said, leaning back against Gwilym with her book. He laughed softly and kissed her forehead.

"Ok so who do we have in the wedding party now?" I asked.

"My best man is Freddie," Roger said. "And for groomsmen I have Brian, John, Joe, Ben, Gwilym and Rami."

"Perfect," I said. "My maid of honor is Rory and for bridesmaids I have Winter, Ella, Lucy, Rose and Hannah."

"Wait that doesn't work," Rory said. "You have one less bridesmaid, one groomsmen will be walking alone."

"Well I can make Anita a bridesmaid," I said.

"That won't work," John said. "If Anita's a bridesmaid, Veronica will want to be and then we'll be short one groomsmen."

"Or I could just not make Veronica a bridesmaid," I said. "I'm closer to Anita anyway."

"Yes, but Veronica is my wife," he said. "If she's not in the wedding and Anita is I'll never hear the end of it. Please don't do that to me, Lilly."

"Why don't you make you other sister a bridesmaid, Lilly?" Freddie suggested.

"She's giving me away," I said.

"Not her darling," Freddie said. "The little one."

"Reagan?" I questioned. Freddie nodded. "She's only 13," I said.

"So?" Freddie said. "It's not like she has to do anything for the wedding, she just has to walk."

"Yeah I guess that could work," I said. "And it does seem unfair to leave her out when all of my other sisters are in the wedding."

"Great!" Roger said. "Now that that's settled, there's one more thing we need to do."

"What's that?" I asked him.

"Have sex," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Roger, no," I said. "We agreed to be celibate until the wedding."

"But why did we need to do it for three months?" Roger whined.

"I need to be able to tell my devout Catholic grandmother that I'm not having sex," I said. "She's already mad that I'm not marrying a Catholic man and that we're already living together."

"Why didn't you just lie to her?" Winter asked.

"I can't do that," I said.

"But if you're going to say you're not sleeping together, you are lying to her," Rory said.

"No I'm not," I said. "We're not sleeping together right now. I'm just leaving out the right now part."

"Oh I get it," Ella said with a smirk. "That's sneaky."

"Rami and Lucy are going to come to the wedding right?" Joe asked. "Because none of us have heard from them in months and they're both in the wedding."

"They're coming," I said. "They told me they were."

"I can't believe those two ditched us and moved to London," Winter mumbled.

"They wanted to be closer to family," Gwilym said.

"Rami's family lives in LA!" Winter said. "They could have moved here with us! But they had to go to England and now they don't even talk to us!

"Winter, chill," Rory said. "They'll be here for the wedding, they've just been busy! Their careers have really taken off over there."

"Yeah I heard Rami may even get an Oscar nomination soon," Ben said. "How cool would that be?" I smiled softly.

"Whatever," Winter said. "Are we done planning? I want to focus on your bachelorette party!"

"Just one more thing," I said. "Who is bringing a date that's not already invited? Rory?"

"Mason said he's flying out for the wedding," Rory said. "I don't understand why he doesn't just move here! We've been together for almost three years!"

"Maybe he will soon," I said. "What about you, Winter?"

"I have nobody," she said, annoyed.

"If you want a date you could always call Anna," Joe suggested. Winter scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Why did you two break up anyway?" I asked her.

"When are you going to stop asking me that?" Winter snapped.

"Maybe when you answer me," I said.

"Yeah good luck with that," she said. "I'm going home. I have some planning to do for your bachelorette party." She left and and I sighed.

"I don't think she's going to tell you, babe," Roger said.

"She will," I said. "She's just taking longer than expected."

"Don't worry about it," Rory said. "Focus on your wedding. Come on, let's go pick up your dress." I smiled and got up, following Rory to the door.