Page 3 of Jon's Helter Skelter Cold Case

“I don’t think we should be restricted by genders for our wedding party. With two men getting married, that means way too many groomsmen, and most of our groomsmen overlap.”

Ah. A wrinkle I had not thought of, but he was right.

“So I want bridesmaids, too.” Donovan nodded, sure of his own decision.

Well, if he wanted bridesmaids, then…I turned toward Natalie, who sat near the head of the table, and asked her, “Be my matron of honor?”

Her lines lit up with pure yellow joy, twined with golden love. “I’d love to!”

As expected of my sister. I got up from the table and scooted around so I could give her a hug. She hugged back, arms firm around my waist, body warm from the sun. I knew I could count on my sister. I’d always been able to.

I looked down at Skylar, who watched us with her own delight, and perhaps some wistfulness. Silly girl, I wasn’t done yet.

“Will you be my bridesmaid? Or I guess groomsmaid?”

Skylar immediately launched from her chair and joined in on the hug. “Absolutely!”

My best friend in the world was Donovan, but I could hardly ask him to be my best man, all things considered. Plus, I didn’t think I’d need one with Natalie as my matron of honor. That said… “Aaron, I want you as a groomsman.”

“Whole family’s getting involved.” Aaron grinned, white teeth flashing against his swarthy skin. “It’s my pleasure, Jon.”

“Thanks.” I had such amazing family, I really did.

Donovan pointed a stern finger at Garrett. “You can be my best man, butI swear to god, if you do something with a haunted theme, I will end you.”

Garrett laughed like the demented gremlin he was, not even remotely apologetic for his darker schemes. He put a hand over his heart, blinking those baby blues like he was innocent as the day he was born. “I can be good.”

“Ha! Fine chance of that.”

I knew those two had already promised to be best men for each other’s weddings, and I knew Sho and Garrett drew very close to the line of becoming engaged. After living with each other for over a year, they were a solid couple, and I didn’t see that changing in the future.

Mom fussed under her breath, “I wish his father was here for this.”

Dad and Neil were currently wrapped up in a case and hadn’t had time to make the drive over here. Being in the business myself, I completely understood.

“It’s fine. I promised to call them tonight and go over everything we decided. Um, speaking of, Alani? We do have one request.”

She gave me a go-ahead gesture.

“Can our grooms’ cake be your orange cake?” Please say yes. My taste buds were already singing. She generally only made the cake around Christmas and I neeeeeeded it before then.

Her lines lit up with faint surprise, then pride. “You really do love that cake. I’ll make it for you.”

Yaaaaaaaas! Victory~ “Thank you so much.”

Alani shot me a wink before going back to her planner. “All right, we’re making very good progress. Next thing we need tolock down is a venue and a guest list. I want you two to work on the guest list. I can work on the venue.”

“Sounds like a fair division of labor to me.” Donovan glanced at me. “Also, I’m saying this now, but I don’t want a huge wedding.”

Oh, fuck no. A big wedding sounded like so much work. “Guest list is one hundred people. Max.”

For some reason, everyone at the table gave me strange looks, like they were questioning my common sense.

Their reactions made me defensive. “What?”

“Jon,” Sho drawled, eyes rolling so hard they almost fell out of his head, “do you not understand how many friends you have? How many people will want to be there on your big day? Donovan, you as well, do you genuinely think you can get by with only inviting fifty people?”

Uh. The way he said that, it felt like I’d jumped to an assumption I should not have. “It can’t be that many. Can it?”

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