Ash felt a hard knot of emotion at the back of his throat. “Okay. So I guess this little abstinence game we’re doing will work out for the best. I can spend my time working on the wolf while you’re busy doing your thing.”
Rosemary sighed and rested her cheek against his chest, and Ash continued to play with her hair until she fell asleep.
He wasn’t sure if his horndog ways would drive him crazy until June arrived, but he resolved to make the most of it.
He and the rest of the pack had work to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Rosemary
Newly refreshed and invigorated, Rosemary threw herself back into wedding planning with renewed energy. She had so much to do. Besides nailing down a venue, there were photographers, invitations, flowers, music, dresses, and all kinds of details to secure.
As much as she enjoyed spending her time shocking her mother, Rosemary was relieved to be back in her good graces. Wedding planning was a bitch. Mama and Daddy’s credit cards made it a whole lot easier to get shit done.
Choosing her bridesmaids was the hardest part of the whole affair. She knew GiGi and Chastity had to be in the wedding. But there was just one missing part. She needed a maid of honor, and there was only one choice.
So she swallowed her anxiety and walked into Lucky Penny Interior Designs.
“Hi,” she said. Pen, who had been bent over a worktable mixing and matching upholstery, stood up, surprise etched on her face. “Listen, I know we have our differences, and I should have told you from the beginning what I was. But I want you to know I understand. It’s weird. I’m weird. The DuChamp clan is weird. We are all weirdos, you know? You’re pretty weird yourself, being a wolf and all. So, anyway, I know this is awkward, but would you please consider being OK with me for maybe three seconds and please come dress shopping with me today? Because you’re the one who brought Ash and me together, and I want you to be a part of everything. I’d be incredibly honored if you’d be my maid of honor. If you do agree, this could help everybody get over the whole panther/wolf shapeshifter thing. We can show everybody how okay we all are with each other. What do you say?”
Pen stared at her and blinked, mouth hanging open.
It took a moment to get a response, but finally, Pen relented. “Whatever I have to do to get you to stop talking about fairy tales in front of my client here, I’ll say yes.”
It was then that Rosemary finally noticed the little old lady who had stopped flipping through a book of fabric samples to stare at both of them.
“Okay so I’ll go away now and come back later to pick you up for lunch,” Rosemary said, trying to recover after realizing she’d just spilled everybody’s secrets in front of a stranger who thought she was nuts. “… at which time I will be medicated and not at all talking about wolves and things. Shapeshifting? What’s that? Haha…”
Later at lunch, Pen and Rosemary cleared the air.
“But listen,” Pen said over a comforting bowl of crawfish, beans, and rice, “it’s going to take some time for me to get used to your other cat friends hanging around. I know GiGi’s become kind of a fixture too, but I have my doubts. Especially after what happened after that first date of hers. First date!”
Rosemary shrugged and nodded, pulling back and sucking off the head of the tasty little crawfish. She had heard about GiGi’s date with one of the members of the wolf pack, and how it had ended disastrously. “We kitty cats like it rough, but everybody’s okay.”
Pen rubbed her temple. “This is all happening so fast.”
So much drama. So many hushed side stories in her little wedding party. But she listened to Pen’s concerns, and Pen ultimately accepted Rosemary’s request that she be in the wedding party. After that, the pair of them shopped for dresses with Betsy, GiGi, and Chastity. The rest of the bitch-ass cousins were having a bridal shower planning session somewhere, so it was just the five women.
At the end of the day, they’d finally agreed on a different color for each bridesmaid, reflecting all of Rosemary’s favorite colors: teal, silver, pink, and purple. Rosemary acquiesced to her mother on a traditional white silk ballgown for the ceremony but picked out a teal dress to wear to the reception. Betsy, to her credit, let it go.
The four younger women giggled and strutted around the posh Uptown dress shop in the biggest, boldest, most over-the-top ballgowns any of them had ever laid eyes on, while Rosemary looked at herself in the gilded mirror and sipped her complimentary champagne.
Her mother sighed happily and shook her head, a little tipsy herself, having just dropped tens of thousands of Lionel’s dollars on five dresses, plus a mother-of-the-bride gown for herself. “Rosemary’s gonna do what Rosemary does,” was Betsy’s strongest opinion of the day.
The bride-to-be slammed the rest of the champagne back down her throat and said, “Why the hell not? Cats don’t have nine lives. I’ve got one life. One wedding. Who’s gonna tell me I can’t have two dresses?”
The final two months before the wedding flew by in a blur of work, parties, brunches, and meetings with vendors. Rosemary only hoped Ash was trying his best to have a little bit of fun to take his mind off this incredibly short engagement.
Chapter Fifteen
Ash
The final months before the wedding dragged on like an eternity.
Due to wedding planning and work, Rosemary and Ash barely saw each other.
He poured himself into some extra projects at the advertising firm. On top of that, he and the wolf pack began regularly convening to talk about possibly finding new places to hunt, away from civilization.
That was
