After that, he let me go and on a, “Later, honey,” and walked to and through the front door.
I watched.
Smiling.
* * * * *
It was mid-morning when the bell over the door rang.
I was in Fortnum’s with Indy, Jet, Tex and Jane. Stella and Mace were also there, both of them at the counter. Stella was shooting the shit and sipping a latte. Mace was being silent and badass as he held his woman in a casual-but-affectionate embrace at his side.
Duke had not showed. I told myself this wasn’t because he was avoiding me, but because he’d hopped on his Harley with his wife Dolores for an impromptu ride of the Rockies.
However, even as I told myself this, I wasn’t very convincing.
Everyone looked to the door to see Tod walking in carrying two big thick scrapbooks.
One was stuffed full with copious pieces of paper and fabric swatches protruding from the sides. The other one looked new.
The first was Ava’s wedding planner.
The second, seeing as she’d only been engaged for a little over three weeks, was Sadie’s.
Tod was a drag queen and a flight attendant. He was also the unofficially-official wedding planner to all the Rock Chicks. This meant a lot of headache, arguments, browbeating and unnecessary powwows sprinkled with a few hissy fits.
It also meant every single Rock Chick had the wedding of her dreams that went off without a hitch.
Nevertheless, Tod, with the planners in tow, did not bode good things.
The door closed behind him and his eyes came to me.
“Good to see you alive, girlie,” he called.
“Good to be alive, Tod,” I called back.
“Do me a favor,” he kept talking loudly, “stay alive until Saturday. And a call to the bomb squad to do a sweep of the church and function room would come in handy.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” I heard Mace mutter, and I looked to him to see his expression was serious.
Then again, the way things were, he and Tod were right.
“I thought we had the final read through of Ava’s shindig last weekend, Tod,” Indy noted, moving his way.
Tod dumped the books on a table and looked at her. “That was the final read through. Now we’re having the final final read through. And tomorrow, before the rehearsal, we’re finalizing the final final read through. But also now, we’re deciding Sadie’s wedding colors.”
Indy looked around the store and then back at Tod in order to point out the obvious. “Sadie isn’t here.”
“I know, she’s busy at the gallery,” Tod replied, slapping open the smaller album and I saw a plethora of colors on the page. But he said no more.
With experience of the planning stages of Tod organizing a wedding, it was understandable that Indy’s tone was cautious when she stated, “Honey, we can’t pick Sadie’s wedding colors without Sadie here.”
Tod looked up at Indy and I felt everyone brace (except Mace, he sighed).
But I grinned.
“Not another word,” Tod warned.
Indy opened her mouth to give him another word.
He gave her The Hand. “No. Sadie’s a millionaire. I have no budget. None at all. I’m pulling out all the stops. She told me I could. And anyway, Stella and Mace are going to be married on a beach in Hawaii.”
“We are?” Mace muttered to Stella, and I heard Stella’s throaty laugh.
Tod must not have heard any of that because he kept going.
“And everyone knows Ally’s going to do something like elope to Vegas. So this is my last shot at greatness. Not that I didn’t kick butt with your wedding,” he said to Indy, then turned his attention to Jet. “And yours too, girlie.”
He had, indeed, kicked butt with both of their weddings. It seemed practice made perfect because Indy’s was awesome, Jet’s was fantastic, and Roxie and Hank’s was the bomb. Not to mention, plans for Ava’s were far from shabby. So without a budget, Sadie’s was undoubtedly going to rock.
It also should be noted that going to Vegas was what I had always wanted to do.
However, I wasn’t certain how Catholics felt about Vegas.
I added this on my mental list to discuss with the nun or priest who Ren set me up with for my literal come to Jesus (and Mary, God and the Holy Spirit) meeting and shared, “I’m thinking it might be a full mass.”
Tod’s head snapped to me, his eyes alight.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Jet, the voice of experience, said under her breath to me.
