Page 37 of A Dead End Wedding

“No. Molly is bringing them with her. She has mine, too.”

“Are they horrible? The flower girl dresses?”

I stared at him. “Do you think I could show my face at Sunday dinner if I made Eleanor, Lorraine, and Aunt Ruby wear horrible dresses?”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

I grinned. “I know.”

15

Jack

Sunday: Wedding minus 6 days

I’d never been a churchgoer until I started dating Tess. Even then, it took a while for me to agree to it. I figured I’d feel entirely out of place. A fish out of water.

A tiger out of the jungle.

But it had never felt like that. The congregation had welcomed me as easily as they’d welcomed any non-supernatural newcomer, and I’d grown to at least like the singing.

Mostly.

Superior Tiger Hearing, after all.

So, I wasn’t even surprised when I walked into the kitchen to get coffee and heard Tess outside offering our troll guest some breakfast and inviting him to go to church with us.

“Not a chance,” he rumbled. For the first time, he sounded hostile toward Tess, and I walked out onto the back porch with my mug.

“Problem?”

The troll gave me a dark look, which you’d think would be tough to do with orange eyes, but apparently not.

“No problem, tiger. Go chase a mouse or something.”

I grinned at him. “Maybe after I’ve had my coffee. Aren’t you missing your swamp?”

Tess put her hands on her hips and gave us both her sternest, steely-eyed stare. “Okay, boys. That’s enough. Braumsh, I’ll bring you out a plate of breakfast, if you’re sure you don’t want to come inside and eat with us.”

That was maybe going a bit too far. Sure, he smelled better, but not great.

“I prefer the fresh air. I will have a swim in your pool. I will … enjoy the food.”

Lou suddenly streaked by me and raced over to the troll, who carefully picked her up and petted her.

“Don’t eat our cat,” I advised.

The troll bared his blocky white teeth at me and hissed.

Tess threw her hands in the air and stomped back inside. “I’m over this. I have to get ready for church. You two behave.”

“You are very lucky to have won the affections of such a woman,” Braumsh rumbled at me, just when I was turning to go back inside. “You don’t deserve her.”

I glanced back at him and smiled. “I know.”

After coffee and a hearty breakfast, I cheered up considerably, even after Tess made me take a tray of food out for the troll. I put it on a poolside table, but we didn’t speak again, mostly because he was lying stretched out on the bottom of the pool, staring up at the sky through the somewhat cloudy water.

I shrugged and went back inside, fed Lou and told her she had seriously poor taste in friends these days, and then Tess and I drove to church.

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