Page 59 of Time Served in New York
I walked up the steps to where Bernadette pointed for me to stand and said, “The world is not ready for you to be in stereo, brother.”
“Should be. I’ve got a pleasant singing voice. It’s a shame that no one appreciates me.”
“I appreciate it when your mouth is shut,” Preacher said as Bernadette moved him up a step, making sure the men were staggered down the stairs that led up to the dais where the officiant would stand with me and Frankie.
“Okay. I’ve got you in the order that the women will come in. There will be a list in the side room to remind you where you’re supposed to be in line. It’s important that you stay in this order so that we make our exit as couples. That’s how Frankie wants it for pictures.”
“Got it,” Hook said from beside me. “We walk in, stand here and look good until it’s all over, then grab our woman and go.”
“Not quite, but you’re on the right track,” Bernadette said with a sigh as she handed her assistant a roll of tape and a pair of scissors. “If you’ll mark their spots, I’ll go find the women so we can do a run-through.”
“There’s a whole lot of fucking chairs out there, man,” Kitty said from a few steps down. “How many people are supposed to be at this damn thing?”
“Couple hundred, give or take.”
“We have RSVPs for 412, so there are enough seats for 550 to be safe,” the woman who was marking our spots with tape corrected me.
“Holy shit,” I heard one of the guys mutter.
“Ifanyof you decide to walk down the aisle and pull some bullshit like this, I will bury you in a field somewhere,” Preacher threatened. “This is . . . Oh God. 500 people?”
“You okay, brother?” I heard Boss ask. “You got stage fright or what?”
“Do you evenknow500 people?” Chef asked.
Hook laughed. “Does Frankie?”
“Man, I got nothing. The only people in this room that matter are the ones on the stage, Frankie, Paula and Stamp’s family, and a select few others that I’ve met in the last few days,” I admitted. “The rest are a bunch of people the three of them knew when they lived here and then a shit ton of other people they don’t fucking care about.”
“Hallelujah,” Stamp agreed with a laugh. “Couldn’t give two shits about 90% of them.”
“This is so fucking crazy,” Preacher admitted. “When Blue and I get married . . .”
“According to my sister, that's never gonna happen,” I reminded him.
“When Blue and I get married,you’d be lucky to get an invite. It’ll just be me, her, and the preacher. That’s it. Maybe one witness. You guys can duke it out to figure out which one of you it’ll be.”
“Not it!” I snapped.
“Fuck you, too, then,” Preacher said with disgust in his voice. “You’re her fucking brother, man.”
“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to come to your wedding. It’s just that I don’t want to clean up the bloodbath after you untie her and take the gag out of her mouth. That's what it’s gonna take to get her in front of a real preacher.”
Even Preacher couldn’t help but laugh at that image. He nodded as he admitted, “Okay, you might have a point there.”
“Me and Paula have already decided that we’re gonna elope in Vegas.”
I looked out over the seats that were set up in sections, kind of like pews in a church. There was a wide aisle down the middle, and each half of the room was split in half again. All of the chairs had white covers over them with different colors of some see through fabric. I knew from the pictures I’d seen them looking through that there’d be flowers here and there that matched the ladies’ dresses.
Honestly, I didn’t care what the chairs looked like or what the fuck a jewel tone was. I wanted to have my woman standing in front of me as the preacher tells us to kiss, and then I wanted to take her home where I didn’t have to worry about her safety and tuck her away in our house for the rest of our lives.
As far as I was concerned, those were some pretty simple wishes, and it was irritating the shit out of me that none of them were happening until tomorrow.
“You can use our place while you’re there, Hook,” Kitty assured him, breaking into my grumpy thoughts. “Just give us a little advance notice so we can get our housekeeper to stock the fridge.”
“Are you gonna do the video thing like me and Maylee did?” Bug asked.
“Probably. Hell, she might change her mind. There’s no telling. We’re not in a rush anyway. She’s stuck with me forever and she knows it, marriage certificate or not.”
