Page 69 of Spooks & Specters

“I know you guys usually wear black leather when the paranormal leaders meet, but I was hoping we could do something a little dressier.”

“What are you thinking?” Connie asked.

“Well, how do you feel about tuxedos done in white and red?” Kit grabbed his phone again. “Let me show you what I’m thinking, and you guys tell me if you’re agreeable. I want you to like whatever you’re wearing. Here are some examples.” Kit handed over his phone when he found what he was looking for.

“I like the red shirt, vest, and pants with the white duster,” Hudson said. “And I really like the white top hat. It almost has a Victorian feel to the suit.”

“Victorian Goth maybe,” Connie added.

“That’s Raven, sweetheart, not me. But I do like this.” Hudson tapped Kit’s cell phone. “It’s very… elegant.”

“Of course you do,” Connie said, laughing as he took the phone from Hudson and scrolled to the next picture. “Oh, I like the white suit with the red scroll work on the pants and arms of the suit.”

“Those are just ideas,” Kit said. “I mean, seriously, feel free to do some looking around. I just wanted to give you an ideaof what I was thinking. I know you guys like red, and we’d be keeping to the color theme too.”

“We have a color theme?” Hudson asked.

“Well, I guess? I mean, there’s going to be a lot of crystals in the décor, and red is definitely my main color, thanks to the roses. Our wedding bands match too—red and white. I don’t know if I’m going to carry a bridal bouquet, but if I do, it’ll probably be red and white roses. So, yeah, red and white are our colors.”

“I like it. You can’t go wrong with red,” Connie said.

“I agree.” Hudson handed Kit his cell phone back. “I like the examples of clothing you picked for us. We’ll figure out a time to actually go look at things in person,” Hudson said. “How does that sound?”

“Excellent. And for something this big and elaborate, I’m going to need the best paranormal wedding planner there is in San DeLain,” Kit said.

Connie dragged his cell phone out of his pocket and made a note. “Let me do some asking around, and I’ll get a name for you. But we definitely need a wedding planner. All the research I have done stresses that.”

“And we need recommendations for…. Oh man, everything. Just everything. Flowers, food, the cake… wow. I’m already stressing out,” Kit said.

Hudson reached across the table and grabbed Kit’s hand. “This wedding planner? Is that not what they do? Plan the wedding?”

“You make it sound so easy.” Kit giggled.

With his other hand, Hudson pointed at Connie. “He is not only my Right Hand, he is also my assistant.”

“In other words, organizing things is what I do. I’d love to help plan our wedding,” Connie said.

“And I will happily help also. I’m not sure how good I’ll be at organizing things, but I amexcellentat growling at people,” Hudson said, flashing his fangs. “Most excellent.”

Chapter Three

HUDSON HAD no idea weddings were so… involved. Intense. Chaotic. Flat-out insane. There were invitations to be picked out and printed, cakes to be ordered, clothes, venue, flowers, catering, and the list just went on and on andon.

Why in the world anybody would take this on without help was beyond him.

Kit had touched on how he wanted red roses at the wedding, and lots of them, so that was one hurdle out of the way. And Hudson wasn’t worried about the venue. One way or another, they’d get the place and date they wanted.

“Okay, before we go any further, we need to set a date,” Kit said. “And we’ll probably need to set it a year from now.”

“A year?” Hudson asked. That made no sense. “That seems to be a long time to wait for something you want.”

“It usually takes that long to plan a big wedding, though,” Kit pointed out.

“Ordinarily, yes, I could see that. And if you want to wait that long, that’s fine with us,” Hudson said. “But we don’t have to.”

“What do you mean?”

Hudson shrugged. “What’s that old saying? Oh yeah, money talks. Pick a date, and I will make it happen.”

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