That is to say, everyone in the wolf pack was there, except for Pen.
“… I think I messed this friendship all the way up,” Rosemary was saying to her cousin GiGi, who was nodding sympathetically.
“Well,” GiGi replied, “just try to enjoy tonight. Look at this place! Your fiancé has the best view in the entire French Quarter.”
Rosemary nodded and followed GiGi’s gaze. She was right. It was a gorgeous night, and the parade tourists were mercifully sparse. Bourbon Street was a dull roar of hungover revelers mixed with jazz music. On the rooftop, the partygoers ate fresh crab, gumbo, jambalaya, and some insane appetizers that GiGi and her staff had made. Rosemary took one bite and had intended to give the catering job right there to GiGi.
“GiGi! This is incredible!” Rosemary said through a mouthful of appetizers. “You need to—”
Just then, as if parting the Red Sea, a celebrity was in their midst and headed their way.
Vann West strode through the parted crowd, and Rosemary watched him make a beeline for Ash.
“Is that…?” She turned back to GiGi. Her cousin was not half as impressed as everyone else at the party.
“Yeah,” GiGi said. “Did you know they were friends?”
Rosemary nodded. “Not just friends. Pack mates.”
Ash, with his arm around Vann, dragged his friend over to meet her. “Sweets, I’d like to introduce you to someone.”
Rosemary smiled. “Oh, I know who you are.” She held out her hand and let this new wolf put his paw on her hand, but only briefly.
“Ash,” she said, gesturing to GiGi, “this is my cousin GiGi, a local chef here in New Orleans. She’ll be catering for the wedding.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw GiGi shooting her a look.
Ash looked shocked and embarrassed. “Baby, I’m so sorry. But uh, Vann has already asked to take on the catering as part of his wedding gift to us, and I said yes.”
“Without checking with me?”
“I’m sorry,” Ash said, looking stricken that he might have committed a major faux pas against the family even more profound than offending Lionel.
Vann flashed a charming smile at GiGi. “Weddings are so stressful. Wouldn’t you rather simply enjoy the wedding?”
GiGi spoke up. “I would wager the last time you catered a wedding you were one of the servers. I’m sure television keeps you very busy these days. But that’s all right. You go on ahead and take the catering and leave the big pressure job to me. People are very forgiving about the food, as long as the cake is good.”
“Great,” Vann said. “It’s settled then.” He winked at GiGi. GiGi, it seemed to Rosemary, bristled at the cocky chef’s flirtatiousness.
The details were hashed out, and Ash, sensing a cat and dog duel in the making, dragged Vann away to get a drink, shooting an apologetic look at his soon-to-be bride.
Rosemary pivoted to her cousin. “My mild-mannered kitty cat cousin is finally showing her claws. You ought to do that more often.”
GiGi put up her hands in surrender. “I’ve catered enough weddings to know it’s all about compromise between the bride and groom. A mixed shifter wedding? This is going to be a first, and if I can do my part to keep the drama at a minimum, then I’m more than happy to do it. And honestly, I’d love to bury myself in the simple task of making your cake and nothing else, if it’s all the same. I don’t want to get in the way of that Saint Bernard of a chef, because you know he’s going to be poking around my kitchen as this date gets closer.”
Rosemary embraced her cousin. “You are the best. But don’t go calling my cake simple, you hear me? I mean, we have met, right?”
Aside from the competing chefs at the same party, this was also the first time that the Boudreaux clan and the DuChamp clan had ever been seen together in the same room publicly. Big Daddy Jimmy Boudreaux was there, as was Betsy. The absence of Lionel, who had closed himself in his office for the night—again—was felt by everyone.
Betsy gave the toast in his place. When everyone had raised their champagne glasses, she said, “To my Rosie and Ashton. May this be the beginning of change. The beginning of a friendship between the DuChamp clan and the Boudreaux clan. There can be only good things that result from love. Our differences make us interesting, and when we combine the best of us—and my Rosie and her Ash are certainly the best of us—we can only make each family that much better.”
Rosemary was bawling. Ash put his arm around her, but she could tell he was holding back a hard little knot in his throat.
Then it was Jimmy B’s turn. He scratched his silver goatee thoughtfully before he addressed everyone in his shy, soft-spoken manner. “I have to admit, when Ash told me he was going to marry a DuChamp, I thought that there would be no better way to stick it to my least favorite business rival than to give her the last name of Boudreaux. But revenge and petty rivalries are no way to live one’s life. And then I met Rosemary. She is a fine young woman and a good person. Rosemary, welcome to the family. I wish only that my sweet Charlene could have been here to meet you. Charlene would have fallen in love with you immediately.”
Ashton’s siblings all raised their glasses and shouted, “Hear, hear!”
Rosemary knew then what had to be done. Ash’s father was right, and so was her mother. She turned to Ash with a tear-streaked face and said, “Ash, you have to get my daddy to this wedding, come hell or high water.”
Chapter Ten
Ash
He liked to think of himself as a modern fellow, but Ash had seen the way some of those reality TV shows
