“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.
“Seriously?” Tod cried.
“Unless there’s a Catholic priest who dresses like Elvis and has a wedding chapel in Sin City, yeah,” I answered.
“Oh girlie,” Tod’s eyes were getting bright, “you’ve made me so happy.”
Don’t think I was crazy. I was a Rock Chick. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Tod lifted his hands to the sides of his head and wriggled his fingers, announcing, “I feel it! It’s coming over me! You!” He suddenly pointed at me. “Buttery yellow, the creamiest of creams and a bright grass green. You,” he pointed at Stella, “a white bikini, I’m thinking crochet, a lei, maybe a band of flowers around your forehead, and a fabulous sarong.”
Again with Mace muttering, this time through a smile, “That works for me.”
“Tropical island paradise will be your theme,” Tod kept at it and looked at Indy. “And Sadie, ice blue and shimmery glittering winter white.”
That wasn’t bad for Sadie. In fact, perfect.
But no way I was doing yellow and green.
Red and maybe black.
If the Pope approved.
I didn’t share this with Tod. Mostly because the door opened, Ava blasted through it and sauntering in on her heels was Luke with a half-grin going.
Ava did not have a half-grin. She was fuming.
“Tod,” she snapped. “I’m here, but not for the final-final-read-through-preliminary-to-the-finalized-final-final-read-through.”
Clearly she’d got the memo.
“I’m here because the wedding is off!” she finished.
“No!” Tod exclaimed, then proceeded not to react to the dire news that it appeared Ava and Luke were at odds (then again, that happened occasionally; she busted his chops often and Luke, having chops of steel, got off on it) but to something else. “It’s too late to get any of the deposits back!”
“Calm down, man, the wedding isn’t off,” Luke announced.
“It is,” Ava retorted angrily, whirling on her man.
“It isn’t,” Luke replied calmly, staring down his nose at his woman.
“Are you going to dance with me?” she asked.
“Vertically?” he asked back, and I pressed my lips together in order not to laugh.
“Yes!” she snapped.