The Final Reveal Read online

  Faith chuckled. “What’s this? Like the first time we’ve all sat down together without the men?”

  “Hey, it’s not that easy to do,” Minx cried out, “with them all at home. But now that they’re getting a couple jobs here and there, it should make it easier for us to meet without them catching on.”

  “I still think they should set up their own company,” Allison said.

  “It’s in progress,” Kat said. “At least in the thinking stage. Last I heard, they were considering a high-level umbrella company where they could fine-tune what they wanted to do.”

  “It’s great to be individual contractors for the odd job for Levi. But to get the insurance and overhead cost covered, they really should have their own umbrella company set up,” Faith added.

  “How do we feel about the men having a company?” Morning asked.

  “It’s all good,” Kat said.

  Honey turned to look at her and said, “I told the others.”

  “Oh.” Kat felt the heat rising up her cheeks. She glanced from one to the other. “It’s a crazy idea, isn’t it?”

  Minx grinned. “I already told you how I feel about it. I think it’s great.”

  Allison chuckled. “It seems too soon to think about marriage—at least in my case—but, if we want to have this all happen at once, it’s probably an expedient way to do it.”

  Faith nodded. “I like that. Expedient. Have it all happen at once.”

  “The thing is, there’ll have to be an awful lot of agreement between us all,” Kat said.

  “Exactly.” Honey brought out a pad of paper and a pen. “And some are big issues. We have to pick a day over the long Labor Day weekend, and we can’t change it. It can’t be changed because there’ll be way too much to set in motion. So, it’s people like Faith who will have the hardest time juggling that date, keeping it open.”

  Faith frowned. “Why me?”

  “Because you fly on weekends and we were hoping to do it on a weekend, which frees both Kat and me. Morning is painting, so her schedule is a little more flexible. Minx, you start your new job soon, and it’ll be a Monday-to-Friday job, right?”

  Minx nodded. “Yes, I’ll be working at the Women’s Crisis Center during the week.”

  “But could be on-call for weekend emergencies, correct?” Kat asked. “Can you maybe avoid being on-call for that weekend?”

  Minx shrugged. “I imagine I can. If it’s my wedding, I should be able to,” she joked.

  “I have time off coming,” Faith said. “So I don’t think that’s an issue for me. I can just book the long weekend off.”

  “Perfect.”

  Faith leaned forward. “If we want to do honeymoons, I might be able to help with some flights.”

  Kat sat back. “Honeymoons. I didn’t even give a thought to that.”

  The others chuckled.

  “Chances are we’ll do those individually at a later date,” Clary said.

  “What about Levi and Ice? Have they said anything more?” Honey asked.

  Kat shrugged. “I talked to her a couple days ago. She was coming up with a few ideas and so was Levi. When they have something firmed up, they’ll get back to us.”

  “But Labor Day weekend is a go?” Honey asked.

  Kat nodded. “So we get together for our surprise whatever midafternoon and have an early evening joint wedding?”

  All the women nodded.

  “That’s probably the easiest,” Kat said.

  “Depending on what we end up with as an excuse from our end. I’ll put an asterisk beside that,” Honey said as she wrote down notes.

  “If we’re all supposed to be ready, we’ll need wedding dresses. Is anybody here stuck on a color?” Kat asked.

  Morning chuckled. “Growing up, I always wanted white. But I’m totally open about it.”

  The women looked at each other.

  Faith shrugged. “I have to admit, I was hoping for white.”

  Kat nodded. “I’m okay with white. Allison, you were married before. Will that be a problem for you?”

  Allison shook her head. “I think white would be perfect,” she said quietly. “The only thing is, if we’re all in white dresses during the day before the ceremony, that’s going to be a pretty obvious sign.”

  “True enough,” Kat said. “So, we either have to have all the wedding dresses ready in a spare room, already at my house, so you can all come and get changed there, or the dresses have to be casual enough that we can all get away with it.”

  “I think whatever we come up with as an excuse, we need to have a reasonable explanation for why there’s a photographer,” Minx added.

  “Clary, do you have anything to add?”

  Clary shrugged. “I’m pretty amiable about it all. I never really expected to have the whole white wedding anyway. So I’m pretty jazzed to think I get to now. With Talon.”

  “And that brings up two issues before I get distracted. Is religion a factor for anybody here?”

  “I’m a believer,” Faith said, “but I was raised nondenominational and, with my schedule, haven’t been to church in eons.”

  A couple of the women had been raised Catholic but no longer considered themselves as members.

  The rest shook their heads.

  “So a justice of the peace works for everyone?” Kat asked.

  “Sounds good,” Minx said, with the others agreeing.

  “And the second matter,” Kat said, “does anybody have very close family members they want to come for the service?”

  The women all settled back as they thought about it, but almost unanimously they shook their heads.

  “No, and I think I’d rather take a break and go visit my family later on anyway,” Minx said. “My uncle is in Maine. I’d rather pop by and say hi to him on his own terms. Take Laszlo with me.”

  The others nodded.

  Kat asked, “What about having Laszlo’s family attend?”

  Minx shook her head. “I don’t think they’re physically in shape for that. Plus that might be another sign to our guys that something big is up.”

  Clary shrugged. “I don’t have any family left. It’s just Talon now.”

  “You have a new family now,” Morning said. Impulsively she reached across and gripped Clary’s hand. “Don’t you forget that,” she scolded.

  Clary grinned. “Are we really doing this? Are we really putting all seven men on the spot at the same time to get married right then and there?”

  Kat stared at all of them. “I really started this just for me. But then Honey thought it was a good idea. And I’m wondering, do we need to do all seven?”

  “Yes,” Clary said. “These men are bonded in a way I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. And, as such, I think they’ll feel left out if one, two, or three of them do this and the others don’t. I think they’ll also wonder why their girlfriends didn’t want this to happen too.”

  Kat nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Okay, so any other doubts?”

  All the women shared mischievous grins.

  “We’re all in then?” Kat looked for agreement from each of the women at the table, each raising their hands. “Good. It’s unanimous. And it’s happening on Labor Day weekend. We all need to decide if we want the same style for our dresses. We’re different body types. I think the dresses can be unique to us, but they also need to be relatively similar, at least in formality.”

  “I think casual summer wedding dresses for a September early evening wedding would be perfect,” Faith said. “And, if we’re all wearing white, then I suggest we each pick a different color for ribbons, bouquets, whatever, to help distinguish who we are, and we’ll have the ties and boutonnieres for the men to match our color.”

  That brought up a round of oohs and aahs.

  Clary smiled. “May I have peach then please?”

  Honey nodded. “I’m okay with you having peach. Anybody else?”

  Everybody around the table picked a color. When they fi
nished, the choices were lavender, fuchsia, dark purple, turquoise, peach and then it came to Kat.

  Honey looked over at her and said, “I’m going with yellow, and that leaves you. What color would you like to have?”

  The corner of Kat’s lips twitched. “Anybody got a problem if I go with red?”

  At that everyone gave a fat smile.

  “Perfect. Style of dress? Leave it open, floor-length, pencil style?” Honey asked.

  “Veils? Trains?” Kat added.

  Instantly there was a bunch of head shaking. “No trains, no veils.”

  “If you want a headpiece, that’s fine,” Kat said. “And, if you feel really strongly, then speak up because this is your wedding day.”

  “Did anybody think about what happens if one of the men says no?” Morning asked. “Or if they don’t all look absolutely overjoyed and overwhelmed?”

  “Is anybody here in doubt of who they want to spend the rest of their life with?” Kat’s voice was calm and low. “And I know that’s a hard question. We’ve all come together very fast in a tumultuous way. But I have no doubts myself.”

  Allison chuckled. “I’m the last one to have joined the group. And our relationship hasn’t been but several weeks long. I have more experience, in the sense I was married for a couple years. But I didn’t feel this much, this fast even after I married my first husband. Sometimes that makes me feel very guilty.”

  “I think that’s understandable, kinda like survivor’s guilt, but you should allow yourself to feel the full happiness of being in love with a great guy. You’ve been twice blessed,” Morning said gently.

  “Thank you, Morning. I’ll remember that,” Allison said with a single nod.

  Morning turned back to the others. “We’re all agreed this is what we’ll do, and we all presume the men will be overjoyed. If not, they’ll hide it really well.” She laughed with all the others.

  “On top of that, we should think about bouquets,” Faith said. “Do we want to do seven identical, as to the types and color of the flowers, each with its own respective color of ribbon? Or will they all be a different color and floral combination?”

  “I think different, but I want to get back to dresses. Trying to get seven of us to agree on a wedding dress would be a little more difficult,” Honey said. And then she chuckled. “I have to admit. I’ve carried this picture around with me for a long time. In fact, Kat and I used to talk about it.” She opened up the notepad in front of her to the back page and pulled out a sketch. She handed it around to the others. “That’s the wedding dress I have dreamed of all my life.”

  The women looked at it and nodded.

  “It’s very simple,” Minx said. “I like that. I can’t stand ruffles and bows and that God-only-knows-what doodad stuff. I like simple.” She tapped the sketch. “Actually, I really like this.” She frowned at it slightly. “You know? It would be easy to get everyone an ever-so-slightly different version of this. So we can have our own personality but the same style. Add in a colored bouquet to match the men’s boutonnieres, and honestly I think that’s great.”

  She passed it around again, and everybody smiled.

  Morning said, “If it’ll hold up somebody who’s as well-endowed as I am, I’m all for it. Because if I could look slim like that …”

  At that, the other women started in on her.

  “Morning, you’re perfect just the way you are. You’ve got curves, girl, and that’s something not all of us have,” Allison said with a chuckle. “I have more of a boy’s figure, and yet that style would also make me look very good.” She looked over at Honey. “This is an amazing dress, Honey. Kudos to you for recognizing it so long ago. I got married in a church, and I didn’t even have as pretty a wedding dress.”

  Clary said, “I never expected to get married, so I’m totally okay with having a wedding dress at all. But it is pretty, Honey.”

  “In that case, we need a dressmaker,” Honey said. “And, yes, I do have somebody in mind. We also need at least one hairdresser, if not two, for the morning of the wedding.”

  The women nodded.

  “Probably two or three, since there’ll be seven of us. And we won’t have a very long window to get away with this.”

  “Maybe three. Maybe one salon that has three really good hairstylists,” Honey murmured more to herself.

  Kat sat back and watched as all the women joined in. That was one thing about this group. They all had enough independence to be themselves, but they were all easygoing, laid-back gals who understood what really mattered in life, and it had nothing to do with the dresses. It all had to do with the men they were signing up to marry.

  “Music?” Kat asked.

  The women raised their gazes and frowned.

  “No clue,” Clary said. “I’m not much of a music person.”

  “Anybody here a music lover?” Minx asked.

  Faith nodded. “I am. I can come up with a repertoire as long as there’s nothing you don’t hate about it.”

  “If you’ll come up with one,” Kat said, “we can all give it a listen and see if there’s any changes needed. As long as we don’t all go crazy making changes, it should be good.”

  “Something light, something joyful?” Faith asked.

  The others nodded.

  Faith sat back. “I’m good with that.”

  “Food?” Kat asked.

  Morning beamed. “I’d say I could do it, but I’m not sure I want to,” she confessed.

  Kat leaned forward and tapped Honey’s pad of paper. “Put Ice down there for me.”

  Honey looked at her. “Ice doesn’t cook.”

  Kat grinned. “But Alfred does. And Bailey helps run his kitchen.”

  “Are they good?” Morning asked, chewing on her bottom lip.

  Kat looked at her with a smile. “These two people you need to meet.”

  Morning beamed. “As much as I’d love to do my own wedding, it’s a lot of work, and I really want to enjoy the day instead.”

  “Booze?” And there it went from subject to subject to subject. By the time they got to the guest list, ideas were popping out steadily.

  When their lunch arrived, Kat looked at the salad with chunks of chicken in front of her and said, “Did somebody order for me?”

  “Of course we did,” Honey said with a laugh. “Otherwise you’d never eat.”

  Kat smiled and dug in. She wasn’t sure how she managed to get so lucky. Not only did she have Badger now but she had a ready-made group of warm, caring women friends, something she’d never thought to have and now couldn’t imagine life without.

  Badger walked in at the end of the day, dropped his briefcase on the chair in his office, walked upstairs, slipped off his coat and hung it up in the bedroom closet. It had been a long day. He quickly changed into his trunks and headed to the pool.

  He walked into the kitchen to see Kat on the phone, a notepad in front of her.

  She glanced up, surprised to see him, smiled and quickly closed the notepad. On the phone call, she said, “I’ve got to go. Badger is home. Talk to you later.” And she hung up really fast.

  He frowned, went over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Hey, you didn’t have to hang up just because I’m home,” he protested.

  She chuckled. “Not an issue.”

  But it was. He just didn’t know what kind of an issue. Hating secrets, but recognizing it might be a good secret, he headed to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “Plans for dinner?” he asked.

  She smiled at him. “Chicken breasts. Cooked somehow. But I was waiting for you to get home. I wasn’t expecting you right away. How did it go with the attorney?”

  “It was good,” he said. “Lots of discussion among the guys. Lots of paperwork handled by the corporate lawyer. We should have a contract to sign in a couple days.”

  “Now that’s awesome,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming for you guys. What name did you decide on?”

  “Titanium Corp. Men in tr
ansition—waterproof, strong, resistant to corrosion … whatever your needs …”

  She stared at him, then smiled. “SEALs are waterproof, you’re all definitely strong inside and out, and being the most honorable men I’ve met you’re definitely resistant to corrosion. I love it!”

  “And,” he said “We’re all put back together with Titanium—thanks to you.”

  “It’s perfect,” she declared. “And covers the men involved and yet opens up for anything you decide to do. About time.”

  He laughed. “We just didn’t want to jump in until we were ready. Even now we’re not exactly clear what we’re doing.”

  “Understood.” She got up and pulled out the chicken breasts she had marinating in the fridge. “I’ve got defrosted and marinated chicken breasts. Just don’t know how you might want to cook them.”

  “We can throw some veggies on skewers and barbecue the whole lot of it,” he declared. He grabbed the veggies and started prepping.

  She smiled and stepped up to work beside him. They worked quietly together for several minutes. “Isn’t Talon’s birthday in September, close to yours?” she asked suddenly.

  “He’s the seventh of September.” He looked at her in surprise. “Why?”

  “Just wondering,” she said.

  He shrugged. “I think a couple more of us are in September.”

  “Really?”

  Something odd was in her tone. He nodded. “Why?”

  “Just might be nice to have a big party.”

  He thought about it and agreed. “I’m always up for a party. Especially if it’s with the guys.”

  She laughed. “Isn’t that the truth.”

  “Is that okay?”

  “Absolutely, it’s okay,” she said. “Maybe, if there are multiple birthdays, we should invite some outside people too?”

  “Go for it,” he said. “Invite who you want.”

  She beamed at him. “You know? You’re very generous.”

  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, kissed her gently on the temple and said, “If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

  She reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Hope you don’t regret saying that.”