Page 9 of No Vow Broken

We shook hands and sat at the table. I took an empty seat next to my mother.

“The agents want to review the list for tonight’s dinner and the wedding one final time. You okay with that, Lexi?” Amanda asked.

“Sure,” I said. It wasn’t like I had a choice anyway.

Amanda slid her clipboard toward me. “The top list are guests for the rehearsal dinner and the second one is for the wedding. Would you two check them for accuracy, please? Agent Redoux, you should also have received the list of staff including cooks, waiters, photographers, and caterers for all the events. They have all been used for prior White House events and have been vetted. They’re required to always display their IDs.”

“Excellent, and thank you,” Redoux replied. “It saves us considerable time and effort.”

I slid the pen out of the top of the clipboard and studied the top list. Unlike Amanda, both Agent Redoux and Carmine had small electronic tablets. “If you want a quick overview, we’re going to have twenty-four people tonight for dinner. We tried to keep it to the immediate wedding party and close family. Twelve of us are staying overnight at Bluff House. As you know, it’s a historic house, so it has limited space for overnight guests. The rest of our guests are staying at the Lighthouse Resort Hotel and Spa, which is about fifteen minutes from here and is the location of the wedding reception.” I figured Agent Redoux already knew that but wasn’t sure how much Carmine had been told.

“Yes, of course.” Agent Redoux looked down at her list. “I have twenty-four guests listed for dinner tonight.”

“Correct,” I confirmed.

“Let’s go through the list, name by name, if you don’t mind.” Agent Redoux handed me her tablet.

I scrolled to the top. “For tonight’s dinner we have Slash and me, my mom, Clarissa Carmichael, and dad, Winston Carmichael, and my two brothers, Rock and Beau. Slash has his mom, Juliette, and his stepfather, Oscar Thurlow-Davies, as well as Slash’s two brothers, Stefan and Gio. My oldest brother, Rock, broke up with his girlfriend two days ago, so he’s coming solo, which is a change from before,” I said, tapping on the screen. “So you can eliminate his date from the list.”

Agent Redoux took the tablet and made the change, but before she could slide it back to me, I held up a hand. “However, my other brother, Beau, who was initially coming by himself, asked me yesterday if he could bring a date, since Rock was no longer bringing a guest. Beau said he’d text me her name, but he hasn’t done it yet. So, there’s another switch, although the number of guests stays the same.”

I glanced at Mom. “Do you know who Beau’s date is?” I was pretty sure she had a secret spreadsheet on everyone my brothers and I had ever dated or were dating.

Mom gave me a sour look and immediately pulled out her phone and started tapping on it. “I’ll get that name from my son, Agent Redoux. Please stand by.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Mom stepped away to call Beau while Agent Redoux kept going down the list. “Are there any other discrepancies?”

I considered. “It might help me to go through the entire list. We originally had both sets of my grandparents coming in for the rehearsal dinner, but since we had to move the rehearsal so early in the week, it just didn’t work out for them. They’re not arriving until Friday. So, they won’t make the dinner tonight. However, they will be at the wedding. Slash’s grandmother from Italy is coming and will be here tonight though.” I pointed out her name on the list. “And both of Slash’s brothers will be accompanied by their significant others. Vittoria is Gio’s wife and Alessa is Stefan’s fiancée.”

“Noted,” Agent Redoux said.

“We will also have my matron of honor, Basia Kowalski, and her husband Xavier Zimmerman, and Elvis and his girlfriend, Gwen Sinclair. My boss, Finn, and Slash’s best man, Tito, are also attending the dinner, along with two other close friends, Grayson Reese, who is one of my bridesmaids, and her boyfriend, Hands, although that’s just his military nickname.” I tapped on the screen. “That’s hisrealname. He’s one of our head ushers.”

When Agent Redoux nodded, I continued. “If you add Father Emilio Armando, who is officiating the ceremony, and Shannon, the first lady, that rounds out our party at twenty-four, which, in my opinion, seems like a lot of people for a dinner, but there you have it.”

A small smile crossed Agent Redoux’s face, but she didn’t comment, because Mom returned at that exact moment, an apologetic expression on her face. “I’m sorry, Agent Redoux, but I couldn’t reach my son right now. He’s a detective with the Baltimore police force and is often hard to reach. I left a message, so hopefully he’ll get back to me shortly. As soon as I have a name, I’ll pass it on to you.”

Agent Redoux made some adjustments on her tablet. “Thank you, Mrs. Carmichael, and no problem. If it would be possible, tonight we would like to either have someone who knows all the people coming or pictures of everyone, so we don’t have to ask for ID as they arrive. Would that be possible?”

“I’ll make those arrangements,” my mom offered.

“Now, we have a much larger list to review for the wedding. Do you ladies have time to discuss that list with me and Mr. La Rosa?”

I was on board, since it was way better than decorating and it had to be done. For the next forty-five minutes, Mom and I went through the wedding guest list name by name until the agents were satisfied everything matched up.

Finally, Agent Redoux stood, tucking her tablet under her arm. “Thank you for your time. Best wishes for a long and happy marriage. You’re especially blessed to have the Holy Father and Cardinal Armando in your family circle.”

If anyone had told me three years ago the pope would be at my wedding with a cardinal who was going to be my father-in-law officiating (long story), I would have thought they were completely out of their minds. First, I never expected to successfully date, let alone get married. Secondly, I’m not even Catholic, so I never thought I’d marry someone so highly connected to the Vatican and, by extension, the pope.

But that’s life for you. The variables are different, but essentially, lifeismath. Everyone’s life can be boiled down to a simple mathematical equation: Events (E) + Response (R) = Outcome (O). Well okay, there are a couple of important variables I could add such as luck and timing, but life is complicated enough.

Life is rooted in the logic of math, which is why I liked it so much.

I suddenly realized I’d taken too long to respond. I smiled, not perfunctorily, but a genuine one. “Thanks, Agent Redoux. I am blessed. Guess the math added up.”

She looked surprised at my response, because, of course, she had no idea what had just been going through my head. Still, she smiled back at me.

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