“Your dress had better be kick ass or we’re going to outshine the hell out of you.”
Luckily, Summer’s dress did kick ass. She had chosen the full organza skirt from one dress and combined it with the scalloped lace cup bodice of another. To join the two pieces — and camouflage the baby bump that would be evident in another month — Sashi deftly wrapped a wide piece of organza around and around Summer’s waist, tucking it here, tufting it there.
With quick hands, she pinned it into place and took a step back. “What do you think?” she asked, shoving a hand through her thick fringe of bangs.
Summer toyed nervously with one of the delicate spaghetti straps. Her cheeks were flushed.
“I think it’s …”
She turned around to face them. Her circle of women, her friends and mother. Gia’s fingers flew to her mouth.
“What do you think?” she asked them.
Summer’s mother answered first, with silent tears. “Perfect. You’re absolutely perfect,” she sighed.
“Oh, now there I go, too,” Phoebe sniffled, digging through her bag for a tissue.
“You look gorgeous, Summer,” Gia told her. “It’s exactly right.”
Eyes damp, Joey chugged her champagne and nodded briskly. “No one’s going to outshine you.”
Summer wiped briskly at her own tears. “I’m so happy.” She ran the hand wearing her engagement ring over her belly. “So very happy.”
“Would you like to see Summer in a veil?” Sashi offered, doling out tissues like they were cookies.
“Yes!” they all answered.
While Sashi and Summer debated mantillas and headpieces, Gia’s phone signaled a text message from Evan. Drying her eyes, she opened it.
“Oh my God.”
Beckett sucked in his cheeks and made a fish face.
“Like here?” Jax said, shoving a fluffy makeup brush in the hollow of his cheek.
“No, dumbass. On the cheekbones.” Beckett moved the brush higher.
“What color should I put on his eyes, Roar?” Jax asked.
Aurora looked up from the sparkly clips she was adding to Carter’s beard. “Um,” she tapped a little finger to her chin. “How about ba-loo?”
“Blue it is,” Jax said, smearing blue eye shadow on his finger and reaching for Beckett’s face.
“Not like dat, Jazz!” Aurora — her lime green sparkly eye shadow spread across her face like a mask — hopped off Carter’s lap and hurried over. She chose a brush that looked like it was meant to apply paint and dragged it through the blue shadow. “Close your eyes, Bucket.”
He obliged and felt the feather light pressure of the brush coating his eyes, temples, and part of his forehead.
“Dere! Now you’re perfect,” she sighed and patted his face happily.
“Thanks, shortcake. How does Jax look?”
She turned to study his brother. “Good,” she nodded. “I gotta finish Car’s hair and den we can take selfies.”
“Selfies?” Jax asked, swallowing hard.
“Yeah, wiv your phone.”
“What are you worried about?” Beckett asked. “I gave you a really classic look. You could totally pass for a chick with that cat eye and lip stuff.”
“How do you even know what a cat eye is?” Jax demanding, crowding Beckett at the makeup mirror Aurora had found upstairs.
“It’s just something you pick up when you date women. And judging by my face, you’ve only dated blind drag queens.”
Jax smirked. “I was going for something a little more abstract.”
“Evan!” Carter called from his chair at the table as Aurora tried valiantly to secure his beard with hair ties. “Please tell me your sister takes an afternoon n-a-p.”
Evan’s head popped up from the couch where he was in a life and death battle as a knight on Carter’s big screen. “She will if you gave her enough s-u-g-a-r.”
All eyes skimmed to small pile of empty juice boxes and Twinkie wrappers. “Yeah, that should be good,” Evan said, returning his attention to his video game.
“Hey, shortcake. How about we put in your movie so you can watch it while we teach your brother to play poker?”
Evan’s head shot up again. “Poker? Seriously? Cool!” He turned off the game and wandered over to the table.
“Not yet, Bucket!” Aurora said, dancing over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Mwah!” She kissed him loudly on the cheek and skipped back to Carter’s beard.
“Oh, boy. You’re a goner,” Carter sighed.
“How could I not be?”
“She’s not getting tired yet,” Jax pointed out, as Aurora danced from one foot to the other humming and twisting Carter’s facial hair into a tail.
“I’ve got a plan.”
“You want to lock her in with Dixie and Hamlet?” Carter suggested.
“No! I’m not suggesting we lock her in a paddock with two pigs. What kind of a human being would do that?”
Carter shot Jax a guilty look.
“They were from HCAEDC, they don’t count as human children,” Jax argued.
Carter shivered. “That one got me by the beard and tried to rip it out.”