I’m impressed. And a little embarrassed that including a lot of these names didn’t occur to me.
“No one’s heard from Sway or Tawny since the raid Downstate, so we can cross them off the list.” Trinity swipes her marker so thoroughly over their names, they’re completely blacked out. “Too bad, so sad.”
I snort with laughter. “Do we even know what happened?”
“Nope,” Trinity answers without looking up. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
Hope chuckles.
Lilly squeezes her eyes shut and clasps her hands together like she’s praying to every deity she can think of. “And may they never find their way back home.”
“Carter and Mercy,” I remind Trinity.
She flicks her amber eyes up. “Got them.” Her tone’s somewhere near this isn’t my first rodeo. “Will Carter bring Bianca?”
“Uh, I’m not sure. Add her just in case.”
“Got it.” Trinity flips a page. “That covers Teller’s family.”
“Oh my God, does this make me stepmother-of-the-groom or something?” Hope asks.
“It does,” I tease. “I promise I won’t ask you to wear anything matronly.” I raise one hand as if I’m ready to swear on a stack of Bibles.
“Thank you,” Hope says with a prim nod.
It feels so good to be able to finally talk about this out in the open.
Trinity taps her pen against the page she’s working on. “What about your uncle, Charlotte?”
“I don’t know where Chuck is these days. I’ve gotten maybe one or two random texts from him and that’s it.”
“So, we’ll mark him down as a maybe.” She scribbles some more notes. “Your mom—oh, shit.” Trinity lifts her head, staring at me with wide, apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry. I forgot.”
“It’s okay.” I shrug, relieved at how little it bothers me.
“Geez.” Hope taps her finger against her bottom lip. “Now that I think about it, none of us have had our mothers at our weddings.”
“With good reason,” Heidi mutters. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and squeeze, and she hugs me back.
“That’s why this…” Trinity spins her finger in a circle, indicating each of us. “Our chosen family, our sisterhood, is so important.”
“Blood doesn’t guarantee love or acceptance,” Lilly adds.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “You don’t know how much it means to me that you understand. Other people say crap like, ‘Oh you have to forgive her, she’s your mother.’ As if just because she’s dead, I’m supposed to forget she betrayed me in the most evil ways.”
“Fuck ’em,” Trinity says. “If they haven’t lived it, they can shut the fuck up. Just because you’re related by blood doesn’t mean you owe them forgiveness.”
“Can we have that stitched on a pillow?” Lilly asks.
“I got your pillow right here.” Trinity whips one of the pillows out from behind her and smacks Lilly in the chest with it.
Lilly snatches it away and bops Trinity over the head.
“All right, girls.” Hope reaches over and grabs the pillow from Lilly’s hands. “That’s enough.”
“See? We don’t need a mom. We have Hope,” Heidi says, grinning.
“Amen.” Trinity raises her palms toward the ceiling. “Now, where do you want to get married?”
“Honestly, right in our own backyard,” I answer. I’ve given the location a lot of thought. “We certainly have the space.”
“And it’s close to the clubhouse,” Heidi points out. “So the, um, rowdier guests won’t stay all night.”
I chuckle and shake my head, refusing to admit I’d considered the same thing.
“Perfect.” Trinity claps her hands. “Backyard weddings are my specialty.”
“Are you going to open a wedding planning business next?” Hope asks.
“No, smarty-pants.” Trinity gives her a teasing shove. “I like to take care of my sisters. I don’t want you to have any stress on your special day.”
Hope’s mouth twists down. “Well, now I feel bad you did all the planning stuff for your own wedding.”
“But it was fun for me.” Trinity slides her gaze my way. “If you want to do it, I’ll step back.”
“No, no, no.” I shoot a quick look at Hope. “Pipe down.”
“Okay.” Trinity glances up and looks each of us in the eye. “How formal are we going to be? Matching rows of bridesmaids and grooms—”
“No.” I bite my lip. “If you guys don’t mind…we talked about keeping it small. Mercy and I have been friends for a long, long time. And Marcel wanted to include my brother…So we were going to ask Mercy, Heidi, Murphy, and Carter to maybe stand up for us.”
“Thank God,” Lilly mutters.
Hope blows out a similar relieved breath but doesn’t say anything.
“Is that okay?” I ask. “You’re sure you’re not—”
“The wedding is to celebrate you and Teller,” Hope says. “If you want to keep things simple, you should.”
“Thank you. Oh! We did want Grace and Alexa as flower girls. And Chance for ring bearer, if you think he’d be okay with it?” I ask Lilly.
“I think he’d love it. Thank you, Charlotte.”
“We want the little guys included,” I explain. “No need to find babysitters or anything like that.”
“I don’t know,” Lilly says in a teasing voice. “When there’s a toddler meltdown in the middle of the ceremony, it might make you think twice about having your own.”
She’s kidding but for some reason, her words hit me like a punch in the stomach.
Hope pins her with a look. “Whose toddler do you expect to melt down?”
“Ooo,” Trinity sings. “Retreat, Lilly. Retreat.”
“Charlotte?” Hope’s alarmed tone seems like it’s a million miles away. “Are you okay?”
Heidi touches my shoulder.
“What?” I swipe at my eyes, surprised to find dampness on my cheeks.
“Charlotte, what’s wrong?” Lilly sits next to me. “I’m sorry. I was only kidding.”
My throat’s too tight to get any words out. Heidi slides her hand over mine and squeezes. I glance up and she tilts her head, sympathy shining in her deep brown eyes. She knows.
“Murphy told you?” I whisper.
She nods. “Not until, you know, everything blew up.” She bites her lip. “I’ve been wanting to tell you I’m sorry for all the when will I be an aunt jokes but didn’t want to bring it up if you didn’t want to talk about it.”
At least I don’t have to actually say the words. The girls all seem to understand.
Hope runs her hand over my back. “When was it, Charlotte?”
I shake my head and blow out a breath. “Right around the time Rock and Teller got their news.”
“Oh, Charlotte.” Hope pulls me into her arms. “I wish you’d said something sooner. I’m sorry.”