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The tongs were all right, except for a part of the handle that was some kind of plastic. That part burned, and it was frazzled and burnt almost to a crisp. I laughed a little as I nodded.
“Good idea,” I said as I searched for replacements. “We’ll have to send a note to the Airbnb that we replaced what we, I mean, what I burnt beyond repair. Other than that, a pretty good stay so far, huh?”
“Indeed.”
He started to rinse out the bowls, and I couldn’t help but admire the way he had come in and simply taken charge. To see Maverick taking over so seamlessly and so easily made me wonder if he had trained to be a chef or grown up around chefs.
“Did you go to culinary school, Mav?”
“Huh? No. No culinary school for me,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m good friends with Laurel, the cook at the lodge where I work. She taught me quite a bit about how to work in the kitchen.”
At the mention of a good female friend, my heart sank a little. While he hadn’t used the word ‘girlfriend’ or ‘wife’ specifically, or even ‘fiancée,’ I wondered if she was any of those things to him.
“What’s with the face?”
“This friend of yours…”
“She’s taken by someone else,” he clarified. “Otherwise, she would have been the tenth person here. I think Jason had a significant other he was going to bring, and that was why they booked a place for ten, but they broke up or something. I don’t know for sure.”
I nodded slowly.
“Don’t feel too bad about burning stuff in the kitchen,” he said softly. “We all do it, all right? Just… be a little more careful not to burn yourself.”
“That, I think I can do.”
Chapter five
Maverick
On Tuesday, Stacey and Caleb had scheduled a ‘fun’ day for all of us. I was very thankful for this. We had been going non-stop since the majority of the wedding party had arrived on Sunday. A day to just chill or do other things in Boise sounded like a great idea right about now – especially considering how packed the rest of the week was. Tomorrow was supposed to be a rest day so that we could all do laundry, rest our muscles, and so on. Thursday, we had the bachelor/bachelorette party.
Friday and Saturday were the busiest days on the schedule because of the wedding on Saturday. On Friday, we were supposed to go to the church at noon and start decorating. Once the decorations were done, the bridesmaids had to go to the alterations shop and pick up their dresses—and Stacey’s wedding dress. Friday evening was the rehearsal, and then we were all going over to Caleb’s parent’s house for a rehearsal dinner.
Saturday morning, everyone would get ready for the big event, and the day was packed until the ceremony.
Looking at this schedule made me wonder what Stacey and Caleb’s original schedule had been because we hardly had time to do everything this week. From what Caleb had told me, the original schedule had been twice as packed, and they had decided to do more ahead of the wedding once they realized how much help they’d need the week of the wedding to accomplish just this much.
Maria was in charge of the day’s activities, and I was somewhat worried to learn what she had planned. She had talked my ear off on the way to the Airbnb from the airport about what she had thought about doing in Boise, so I had an idea of some of the things she had been considering. But she hadn’t ever told me what we were doing.
“All right, we don’t have anything to do until about eleven thirty, eleven forty-five,” Maria announced at breakfast this morning. “The indoor theme park we’re going to doesn’t open until noon, and the earlier we get there, the fewer lines there will be for everything. It’s quite popular with it being summer. It’s called Wahooz for those who plan to do something else this morning. You can always meet us there at noon.”
“Wahooz? That’s an interesting name,” I commented.
Maria shrugged.
I had already finished breakfast and had been washing dishes. So, I offered to do dishes for the rest of the wedding party. A sink full of dirty dishes, when we had the morning to do as we pleased, would drive me nuts. Maria came over and started to dry the dishes once she had finished her own breakfast.
“What’s the cost for entrance?” I asked, glancing up from the dishes.
“We’ve booked a party with them, so we’ve already paid for the wristbands and everything,” Maria informed me. “It was part of the budget that Caleb and Stacey set aside. They wanted us to be able to enjoy a day with them without any pressure of the wedding planning.”
I nodded slowly.
We finished washing the dishes in silence, and I started to put them away. Maria went to take care of something else that was bugging her. Internally, I was thankful that she had somewhere else to be. As much fun as Maria could be, I was a little overwhelmed by her disorganized chaos. It did get things done, but there had to be a better way to accomplish tasks than to remember them bit by bit.
I shook those thoughts away because as much as I wanted to say something, she was the bride’s sister. She had probably found a way to manage it all for Stacey and for Stacey’s sake alone.
I took the morning to go over the décor and the plans for Friday. That was going to be our busiest day outside of the wedding, and I was partially responsible for making sure it all went well. We had rented a large balloon pump to make sure that the balloon arch and the garland would be put together in time. Jason, Maria, and Stacey were all responsible for the balloons.
