“I'm going to kill April Lynne,” Gracie announced as Katie shoved the door to the party room closed behind the last of their guests. The private party room was a disaster. Long strips of toilet paper trailed across the floors and stuck to the furniture. Stray drink cups littered nearly every visible surface. The two trashcans the country club had provided were overflowing with paper plates and squashed napkins.
“You really think she was the one who sent out the extra invitations?” Trish asked.
Katie wrinkled her nose as she nodded. “Without a doubt. No one else would think it was funny to invite people Gracie doesn't like to her bachelorette party. And the frog gifts were classic April Lynne humor. Didn't you see how how hard she was laughing while Gracie was going through the presents?”
“Not to mention that she likes to cost Cal and his parents money,” Gracie added. “She's always trying to get, and I quote her here, her 'fair share of the Walker money'. She doesn't care if its a lunch charged to a company credit card instead of her own or a bag of free dog food she took home from the inventory Pappy keeps in the back room. If April Lynne can get it on Pappy's dime, she's going to take full advantage.”
“I don't get it. She's Cal's first cousin, isn't she?” Trish asked. “I wasn't exactly under the impression anyone in that family was hurting for money.”
“April Lynne's Daddy was Cal's Daddy's brother,” Gracie explained. “He died in a car accident when she and Leroy were both babies. He had a life insurance policy but their parents weren't married and Pappy had been listed as the beneficiary when the policy was first drawn up. She wanted Pappy to give her the insurance check, but he knew how bad she was with money so he refused.”
“Pappy left her penniless?” Trish covered her mouth in horrified surprise.
“No. He bought her that big brick house they live in and then put the rest of money in a trust that pays out a certain percentage of the interest every month. It would be enough to live on if April Lynne or her mother could ever stop shopping. Its ridiculous how much money those two women blow through every month. They both have full time jobs plus the trust income and they're still broke before the 15th. They're always showing up at the store or the house and demanding more money from Cal's Dad because he's the one who Pappy put in charge of the trust after he got tired of dealing with them.”
“Oh lordy.”
“Trust me when I say that I'm not looking forward to the day that Cal is named as custodian for that trust,” Gracie said. “Miss Loretta says that if she had things her way, she would give April Lynne's mother full control of the trust, fire April Lynne and Leroy from the store and just flat out wash her hands of the entire mess. I think it's a marvelous plan, personally.” Gracie surveyed the mess surrounding them and then let out a long sigh. “Or maybe they should just turn the conniving bitch out on the street without a penny to her name. Did y'all see how many drinks April Lynne guzzled down?”
“She must have put away nearly two full bottles of top shelf tequila.” Katie's eyes shone with exhaustion as she began walking from table to table and gathering up all of the forgotten and abandoned paper products.
“You don't have to clean up,” Trish reminded them. “Miss Loretta paid for the cleaning service to handle the after-party mess.”
Katie deposited an armful of cups and plates into a black plastic garbage bag that had been hung over the back of the chair. “We don't have to clean, but I'm going to straighten up a little bit anyways. The room was so clean and pretty when we got here. Now it looks like hogs have been wallowing across the dance floor. I'm embarrassed to leave it in this condition.”
“This is why her house is never a mess,” Gracie stage-whispered to Trish.
Trish laughed, but she also began gathering up the trash that was scattered around the room. “Addison's desk must drive you nuts,” she said to Katie.
“Addison's everything drives me crazy. The boy is a total and complete slob. He's the only person I've ever seen leave his stray laundry in the middle of the sheriff's department floor. He left one of his shirts on my desk the other day.” Katie rolled her honey-colored eyes as she deposited several mostly full but forgotten drinks into the trash. “By the way, I've been meaning to ask but I keep forgetting, is he bringing Makinsley to the wedding?”
“I don't know. I've been too afraid to ask.” Gracie looked down at her bare feet and tried to remember where she'd left her uncomfortable high heels. “Did I tell y'all that she offered to be one of my bridesmaids?”
“Ugh, no.” Katie made a face at the half eaten slice of pizza she'd just picked up off the beautiful hardwood floor. “She probably just wanted to walk down the aisle with Addison.”
“Probably. She definitely didn't offer because she likes me.” Gracie began working her way towards the bar, making a less than dedicated effort to pick up trash as she scanned the corners of the room for her misplaced shoes. The blisters that had started to form on the outside of both of her big toes were probably going to be the size of blimps before the end of the weekend. “I wish Addy would dump her once and for all.”
“I don't know what he sees in her,” Trish said.
“She's easy and he's lazy,” Katie said tiredly. “Five bucks says she'll go all kinds of crazy ninja linebacker when it's time for you to toss the bouquet.”
“She'd eat the darned bouquet if she thought it would get her one day closer to being Mrs. Makinsley Malone.” Gracie spotted her heels sitting next to one of the couches on the far side of the room. “Why can't my brother be fuck buddies with someone tolerable?”
“All the tolerable girls in Callahan County are either in relationships or not interested in having their hearts broken by Addy,” Trish said. “Think about it. Would you date him?”
“He's my brother.”
“If he weren't.”
Gracie chewed her lower lip for a minute and then shook her head no. “I love him, but no.”
“Me neither,” Trish said. They both looked at Katie, who had suddenly become deeply interested in a bundle of used napkins that some particularly rude guest had jammed between the cushions of the couch. “How about you, Katie?”
“What?”
“Date Addy? Yes or no?”
“I didn't date him when I was single.” Katie wasn't looking at either one of them as she tossed the napkins into the trash bag with more force than necessary.
“That's not really an answer. Would you date Addy?”
“Honestly?” Katie raised one eyebrow at them.
“No, lie to us,” Gracie teased.
“I wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole,” Katie said.
“Liar.”
“He's gorgeous. What can I say?” Katie shrugged her slender shoulders and brushed several escaped strands of hair back behind her ear. “Some days the only motivation I have to get out of bed and go to work is the knowledge that I get paid to spend eight to ten hours a day staring at his butt.”
“Is he bent over the whole time?”
“Does it matter?” Katie countered. “He's my daily eye candy. I'm not saying I'd want to marry the boy, but I don't know that I would pass up a one night stand with him. If I were single, of course. Which I'm not.”
“Speaking of Ian-.”
“Let's not.” Katie cut Gracie off before she could get started. “I'm trying not to think about Ian tonight. It'll only put me in an even crappier mood than the one I'm already in.”
“Is it that bad?” Gracie and Trish exchanged a look of surprise.
“Its...” Katie visibly hesitated and then began choosing her words with care. “Y'all know that Ian's indefinitely suspended from the sheriff's department. Let's just say that he and I are having some adjustment issues between having Hannah Mae and Ian becoming a full-time stay-at-home Dad. I'm sure we'll get it worked out. I'm just a little stressed.”
Trish and Gracie both nodded. “That's understandable,” Trish said, clearly waiting to see if Katie was going to reveal more about what was going on at home.
“Yeah. Its probably pretty normal. Especially considering the circumstances.” Katie frowned and then shook it off, replacing her frown with a smile that didn't go all the way to her eyes. “So, is everything just about ready for Saturday? What else do we still need to get done?”
“Oh sweet Jesus. I have a list.” Trish finished clearing off another table. They now had four completely full trash bags stacked beside the regular trash cans.
“She has a binder,” Gracie muttered.
“Someone needs to,” Trish said. “Gracie re-ordered the linens today and the rental company swears they'll be at the reception hall tomorrow. The flowers are all being handled by Mary down at the flower shop. We decided to go with real flowers in the bouquets and use fakes in the centerpieces. Mostly because we need so dang many centerpieces. The guest favors arrived last week. David and I have spent the last three nights putting them together with the candles and the soap in the little burlap sacks Miss Loretta found for us.”
“You got David to help you assemble 450 goody bags?” Gracie's surprise was obvious. “How on earth did you talk him into it?”
Trish winked at her and then pointed at her rather generously endowed chest. “I have my methods.”
Gracie laughed and Katie snorted. “I wish that worked for me,” Katie said with a glance at her own relatively flat chest.
“I wish I could get away with going out in public without a bra,” Trish told her.
Katie gave her a genuine smile. “Being built like a 12 year old boy does have some benefits. With that said, if you ever decide to get rid of the boobies, I'll gladly take them.”
Trish laughed as Gracie dumped another bundle of trash into a trash bag.
“I can't believe people are such slobs,” Gracie said.
“You think this was bad, just wait until you see what the reception hall looks like after your wedding. We had 40-something people here tonight. We're going to have 400-something on Saturday.” Trish clucked her tongue regretfully. “All of Curtis's college fraternity buddies got drunk and they completely trashed our reception. We lost a $3,000 damage deposit because they threw the chocolate fountain through a window.”
“I really hope that doesn't happen at my wedding,” Gracie said.
“It won't. You don't have a chocolate fountain or, for that matter, any windows. Your reception hall is a re-purposed barn.” Trish twirled one chunk of her long black hair around the tip of her finger. “I may have done it like that intentionally.”
“I was wondering why you were so opposed to the chocolate fountain.” Gracie was ready to be done with the clean up efforts. The majority of the trash was now inside of the trash bags the country club had provided them with.
“It's not even good chocolate,” Trish said. “It's got a bunch of wax in it.”
“Speaking of the reception, did Miss Loretta ever get the caterer sorted out?” Katie very intentionally pushed the conversation back on track.
“As far as I know.”
“The caterer never stood a chance,” Gracie said dismissively. “You'd have to be an idiot to argue with Loretta Walker about what she's serving at her son's wedding.”
“What are we serving?”
“More like what aren't we serving?” Gracie corrected. “If it's southern comfort food, it's on our menu. Rib eye steaks, collard greens, corn on the cob, fried chicken, shrimp, crawdads, four different kinds of potato. You name it, we'll have it. People are going to be talking about this wedding for years to come. Cal's Momma and Daddy have spared no expense.”
“Miss Loretta ordered enough food to feed 600 people,” Trish explained. “She's actually factoring in the likelihood that we'll have wedding crashers show up. I thought it was a little silly, but after what happened tonight, I've changed my opinion. Miss Loretta wants to make sure that no one goes hungry.”
“We're going to have leftovers for a month,” Katie said.
“I know,” Trish said. “Don't do any grocery shopping before the wedding. You're going to wind up taking home more food than you could possibly eat.”
“Lord have mercy,” Katie said with a shake of her head as Trish's phone started ringing.
She pulled the device out of her purse and frowned at the screen. “It's David.”
“Aren't they supposed to be having boys night out?” Gracie asked.
Trish nodded as she answered. “Hi honey. Miss me already?” She paused. “Yes. She's standing next to me. Why?” She frowned at Katie. “Ian is where? Why can't you go? We're just finishing up here. Uh huh. No. I guess. Really? Okay. I love you. Bye.”
“What's wrong?” Katie asked as soon as Trish hung up.
“Ian's apparently stranded somewhere on the Canterville side of Beauton Highway. He called David to go get him but David's drunk.”
“Are you kidding me?” Katie's already fragile good mood evaporated in an instant.
“Well, it was guys night and he's not driving.”
“I didn't mean about David. David can do whatever he wants. He's not my responsibility,” Katie put her hands to her her temple and began rubbing as if she suddenly had a massive migraine. “I want to know what my husband is doing in Canterville at this time of the night with our 2 month old?”
“Good question. A better question is why did he call David and not you?” Gracie asked.
“Maybe he's trying to give her a nice night out without bothering her,” Trish suggested.
“I wish,” Katie said with a sigh. “He's probably out doing something stupid and he doesn't want me to know about it. He only calls David when he needs to be rescued.”
“True,” Gracie gave the room one last glance. The cleaners Miss Loretta had paid for shouldn't have any problems handling the rest of the mess here. “We're mostly done cleaning. Do you want to go get him?”
“Give me a minute.” Katie held up her finger and dialed Ian's number on her own phone. It rang for three minutes straight and then went to voicemail. “Yup. He's avoiding me.”
“Maybe he's busy trying to fix whatever is wrong with the truck.”
“Maybe pigs can fly.” Katie punched in a different number. Two rings into the call, Ian's mother answered the phone. “Hi Maggie. It's Katie. Do you have Hannah Mae with you by any chance? Uh huh, you do? I thought you might. No, nothings wrong. Everything's fine. Is she staying the night with you or do I need to pick her up on my way home?” Katie pursed her lips and then nodded to herself. “No. I can't get a hold of Ian. Trish talked to David and he said something about Ian having gone out tonight. I thought he was home with the baby. When I couldn't get a hold of him, I called you. Oh no, you're good. Everything's fine. Thanks. Love you. Bye.” Katie hung up and then turned back to her friends with a big, fake smile on her pretty face. “I'm going to kill my husband.”
“Ian leave Hannah Mae with his mom again?” Gracie guessed.
“Yup. He probably hit the door running the minute I left for Beauton. So much for his promise to stay home tonight and save money.” Katie scowled at her phone as she tried Ian's number again with the same results. “He ditched the baby and went out to God knows where with God only knows who.”
“I wonder why he didn't go out with the rest of the boys?” Trish asked. She was already heading towards the massive table full of frog-themed presents that all needed to be hauled out to the truck so that they could be returned to the store first thing in the morning.
“Who knows?” Katie asked. “He's been making a lot of new friends lately. It's kind of weird, if you want to know the truth.”
“New friends?”
Katie nodded unhappily. “He's been working part time for a landscaping company out of Canterville on the weekends and sometimes during the week just to bring in a little extra money. He's made buddies with a couple of the other guys who work for the same company. He really likes them but...”
“But...?”
“They're not really our type of people, if that makes sense?” Katie shrugged. “I don't think either of the other guys he's been hanging around with even has a high school diploma. One of them still lives with his mom and smokes way too much weed. The other has like, three different baby mommas and he's been in prison.”
“Ugh.”
“I wasn't exactly thrilled when Ian first made the introductions. He says he likes spending time with them and he needs a break from Possum Creek. I don't know. It's like he doesn't want to hang out with any of our friends since everything came out about what happened to Casey. He's been spending all his free time hanging around at some pool hall in Canterville. He's been blowing every dime he makes and some of the money I make buying cheap pitchers of draft beer for his new buddies. My guess is that we're going to find his truck either broke down or run off the road somewhere been that pool hall and house. I'm also going to bet that the reason he called David instead of me is because he's with Lowery or Joe and doesn't want to listen to me fuss about them driving drunk. Lowery doesn't even have a driver's license. It's been revoked. Ian's been his taxi for the last couple of weeks.”
“Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ian at all lately,” Trish said. “We used to see him every couple of days but he hasn't been over to the house in weeks. I don't think he's been stopping by the shop during the day either.”
“He hasn't been,” Katie confirmed. “I've been trying to get him to start hanging around with David or Cal again, but he keeps giving me excuses about why he doesn't want to see them.”
“What kind of excuses?” Gracie asked.
“He says Cal's too busy with the wedding to hang out and he doesn't want Kerry to keep blaming David for Casey's death, so he's staying away from him. I don't know. It didn't make much sense to me.”
“David was cleared of having anything to do with Casey's death when Ian confessed,” Trish said.
“I know.” Katie frowned at her nachos.
“Maybe Addison can talk to him,” Gracie suggested.
“I doubt it,” Katie said. “I don't know what happened between Addy and Ian on the night Hannah Mae was born, but it must have been pretty ugly because they're really not speaking to one another anymore. Ian doesn't want to talk to me about it.”
“What does Addy say?”
“He says he lost his temper, but that Ian deserved it.” Katie pursed her lips for a minute. “I think Addy handed his tail to him. Normally the guys make up pretty quick after a fight, so I didn't expect it to last this long.”
Gracie considered what Katie had said for a minute and then shrugged. “They'll work it out eventually. They always have before.”
“I don't know,” Katie said. “Things feel different this time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don't really know how to describe it. You know how, sometimes bad things happen or people get into a fight and you know nothing will really come of it?” Katie poked at a frog shaped toilet bowl brush. “I mean, it sucks, but you know it'll be okay. Like when Kristy and I have a really bad fight or when you and Cal split up last year. We all kind of knew it was just a matter of time before life sorted itself back out right, you know?”
“I do know,” Gracie admitted with a nod. “Remember when Cal broke David's nose?”
“I do. David got over it. He probably should have gone to a doctor and had his nose straightened back out. Its crooked as crap now.” Katie halfway smiled. “Exactly the type of fight I was talking about, though. It was bad and ugly in the heat of the moment but it blew over in a week or two.”
“Less than that,” Gracie admitted. “I think it took three days. Four at the most.”
Katie bobbed her head in agreement and then sobered. “Everything feels different this time. At least, it feels different to me.”
“Different how?” Trish asked.
“I don't really know how to explain it. It's that final feeling you get when you know something is changing for good. A little bit like how it felt the first time David brought you around. Maybe it's not the best example and I'm not saying you coming into our lives is a bad thing. Exactly the opposite. I love you. You pretty much instantly became one of my best friends.”
“But?” Trish asked.
“But the first time I saw you with him, I knew our little group was getting another member whether the rest of us wanted you or not. I don't know if it was the look in David's eyes when he was watching you or the way he suddenly dropped the drunken asshole act he'd been playing at for years, but it was clear that everything had changed in the blink of an eye. You weren't a fling or a passing acquaintance who we'd all forget about in six months. You were instantly family.” Katie held out her hands in a shrug. “I'm probably explaining this really badly.”
“No, you're doing okay. I get it.” Trish smiled tiredly at her. “Its the feeling that things are never going to be the same again. Believe me when I say I've had that feeling a lot during the last six months.”
“Then you know what I'm talking about?” Katie asked.
“I do.” Trish sighed. “Kind of like how I knew the last argument I had with Curtis was really going to be the last. Its how I felt when I realized David was serious when he proposed. In my case, its been mostly good changes.”
Katie chewed the inside of her lip for a minute. “I don't think my changes are going to work out real well for me.”
“You don't know that,” Gracie said quickly. “Ian could just be blowing off some steam. He'll get himself back together once his suspension is lifted. Uncle Frank seems pretty confident that he'll get reinstated.”
“You only say that because you haven't met Ian's new friends yet.” Katie began packing some of the larger gift bags full with the smaller frog items so that they would be easier to carry outside. “Y'all want to come with me to go get Ian?”
“Sure. All we have left to do here is take the rest of the gifts to the truck,” Trish said as she picked up a toaster.
“I just can't wait to see what kind of mess Ian's gotten himself into this time,” Katie said with sarcastic cheer. “Did David say whether or not we'd need the wrecker?”
“He didn't mention it,” Trish said. “But like I said a minute ago, he sounded pretty drunk.”
“If we need the wrecker, I'm going to be ticked,” Gracie said.
“You're going to be ticked?” Katie asked. “You haven't seen ticked yet. If Ian's done something stupid and destroyed that truck, I'm going to kill him off and hide his body in the dang swamp.”
“Well, it's not like we don't have plenty of practice in that department,” Gracie grumbled as she picked up a bag full of gifts and headed for the parking lot.