“One is a bit more casual than the other,” Hanna said cautiously as she looked next.
I nodded again. “Cerdic’s family is here. He’s going first and it’s a whole thing. Kristof isn’t as into it as much and would prefer to skip the ceremony part.” I rolled my eyes when Lara snorted. “I didn’t say he’d skip the witnesses or having people watch his exhibitionist ass, just the ceremony. I like that he’s laid back. So’s my Zen master, but he wants to do this right.”
“You’ll like it better after you see them dressed up,” Maggie teased me, fanning her face. “We’re always in tactical gear or work clothes. Even if we’ve dressed it up a bit, we wear sweater dresses or nicer jeans. It was truly a moment to see them all cleaned up and wearing suits.”
I opened my mouth but then closed it, shaking my head. “I’ve never seen a man in a nice suit. I have no memory of that. Only a few a year into the apocalypse and honestly, they were beat to shit and not worth trying. Same with military uniforms. They were always so beat to shit and not the fancy ones.”
“You liked seeing it in movies,” Lara pushed. “You’ve been thinking about how they’ll look.”
“Yeah, I have,” I admitted. “Eventually, we’ll figure out military sort of coven guard uniforms and I get distracted by that too.”
Trisha snickered. “Yeah, my brother looks damn good in his uniform.”
“I wasn’t thinking only of James,” I grumbled, shaking my head when she opened her mouth to say more. “Leave it, Trisha. He made it rather clear he would never want a princess for more than play. We’re not worth the baggage and how things work. I’m not interested in that.”
“And when have you stuck to any traditions?” Olivia added, wincing when we shot her an array of looks. “It wasn’t a judgment against you. Him. Men are idiots. You have not stuck with much tradition at all, so to assume for some reason you would now that he was your knight? That seems silly and an excuse only.”
I blinked at her. “That’s the first thing we’ve agreed on. Huh.”
“We looked into the situation in Texas and you don’t have only an overpopulation of wild hogs, but an alarming amount of them and across a few states,” Nora told me.
I sighed, thinking how I wanted to handle that. “Same deal for that settlement; they get one of every twenty-four you take. I’m not inclined to help them except the good ones we’ll get out. And the rest we’ll split in half dead.” I glanced at Hanna. “Wild hog is good for sausage?”
“Exceedingly so, as it’s got a sweet and smoky taste that raised pigs and hogs don’t,” she answered.
“You want my half and give me half back?” I offered.
“Of course, thank you,” Hanna accepted.
“That’s it?” Olivia asked. “That’s your master negotiating skills? Halfsies? You could have gotten more out of that deal.”
I shrugged. “Why? Why be greedy and wring out every drop from each deal? All you get is people remembering that and getting upset I act that way. That leads to someone getting salty and trying to ‘pay me back’ later. That could mess up all the other deals because someone was bitchy I was a brat and stole some of the raiding stuff.”
She sighed, shaking her head at me. “You assume everyone else won’t still do that. You’re naïve to think people will play as fair as you do.”
I leaned back in my chair and studied her. “No, Olivia, that’s where you’re wrong and missing the vital piece of the puzzle you’re trying to put together.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “I don’t play with anyone who doesn’t play that way. It’s not about playing the game best, but finding the best players to play with. Hanna’s played fair with me, so I’ll keep playing with her and making deals. Others I haven’t because they pull shit. I’m not a fan of ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’ because I hate both the player and those games. I play other ones with better players.”
She seemed to still think I was naïve, but I saw the slight traces of doubt in her gaze and left it at that, focusing back on my food.
The others were talking about all the details, from drinks that would be offered to the flower arrangements to the setup in the courtyard. It was a rather large courtyard, so we’d done more of an outdoor wedding reception vibe with access to indoors if it got too hot.
Which it would, but there were windows to the courtyard along with something I’d demanded if I was going to do this—a partitioned off area for the house of Wessex.
Yeah, I wasn’t going to do everything dirty with Cerdic while they could watch. It was bad enough I was letting Nora see, but at least it wasn’t Jaxon.
I actually had history on my side as that was how royals used to consummate marriages behind the curtains with the families on the other side of it. Good, now it would be the other way because of the tree, but still, I couldn’t do it otherwise.
I was mortified enough they would hear it all as gagging myself wouldn’t go over well.
“No booze?” someone asked as we kept loading up plates.
“Not with weapons, no matter how high our tolerance is,” Trisha answered, several of us nodding.
No way. I didn’t trust some of these people to even know how to use a gun.
I really wasn’t going to feel safe letting them near it after they’d been drinking.
“I’m surprised
