I pulled Grandma Lyn into the foyer and shut the door behind us.“There’s a film crew here,” I revealed breathlessly.
“You hired someone to make a video of your special day? Oh, what a great idea!” my bonus grandma said with joyful tears shining in her eyes.
“No.” I dropped my voice to a whisper and pulled her close enough to whisper directly into her ear. “One of the guests brought a reality TV crew here. I didn’t know until earlier today. We have to be really careful about, uh…” I paused and glanced around like a crazy person. “About what we can do. If they catch it on camera, it will not be good for us.”
Rather than looking frightened as I was, Grandma Lyn actually had the audacity to laugh.“Oh, Angie. I’ve been keeping this secret for decades. Believe me, I can be discreet. Was that all you were worried about, or is there something more you wanted to say?”
“That’s all,” I said, both loving and hating how simple she made the biggest problem of my day seem.
“Then let’s get back to the others.” She put her hand behind my back and guided me back to the porch where my parents, Nan, Sharon, and Paisley had now congregated.
“What a lovely family you all make,” Sharon exclaimed as I realized too late I should have confided in Grandma Lyn about Alpha and his looming threat to ruin the wedding. “Obviously this is your mother,” Sharon continued on as she motioned from my mother to Grandma Lyn. “The resemblance is striking. That means the indomitable Nan must belong to you,” she said, referencing my father.
Nobody said anything to that, but I watched as Nan’s face pinched tight. She knew how much I loved her. Other than Charles, she was the single most important person in my life—and even then, she and my almost-husband were most definitely tied for first place in my heart. Still, she’d had a hard time since Pringle unwittingly uncovered her big secret: that she wasn’t biologically related to either me or my mom. We’d only just recently reconnected with Grandma Lyn, and it had been wonderful to welcome her into the family.
Wonderful for everyone except Nan, who couldn’t stop apologizing for playing accomplice to her old friend’s scheme and for keeping the secret for so long. In all honesty, she never planned to tell us.
But the truth was out there now and we’d been reunited, making our one, big happy family even bigger and—for the most part—even happier.
“Oh, silly me.” Nan bopped herself in the forehead, hard enough to leave a subtle red mark behind. “I forgot to stop off at the dry cleaner. I’ll just go run out and—”
“No, the dry cleaner is the first place we went after dropping off those two skinny cats,” Sharon rather unhelpfully provided. She blew out her cheeks and made a silly face. “Get it,skinny? You know, since they’re hairless and all!”
Nan completely ignored the poor attempt at a joke as she directed her gaze first to the ground and then to the front door.“Oh, oh, the cats! Yes, I should really go check on them, make sure they’re settling in okay.”
“Nan,” I called out before she could run off. “It’s okay. Please don’t go.”
I thought Sharon understood our unusual family dynamic, seeing as she’d helped me suss out the identity and location of Grandma Lyn, but apparently she had too much in her head to hold on to this one crucial detail. Still, she hadn’t meant to hurt anyone’s feelings—and she also hadn’t meant to upgrade my wedding from a simple circus to a three-ring affair.
I had to remember that.
True friends like Sharon came few and far between; I couldn’t say something in anger and risk losing her just because I was feeling a little stressed out.
Grandma Lyn stepped forward and looped her arms around Nan.“We just stopped in to say hello and to see if anyone needed our help,” she explained after pulling away.
I met Grandma Lyn’s eyes, then quickly glanced sideways toward Sharon, who appeared to be puzzling over what was wrong with what she’d said and didn’t notice the unspoken communication happening just in front of her.
“Sharon, was it?” Grandma Lyn piped up. “Why don’t you come back with us for a little bit. I’d love to get to know you better.”
“Oh, great idea!” I interjected, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.
Our resident reality star beamed.“Sounds perfect as long as I can bring my Chessy. I’ve already been away for too long, as it is.”
“Of course,” my mom and grandmother crowed in unison. The words were hardly out of their mouth before Sharon waddled over to the woods and began to call out for her kitty at the top of her lungs.
Well, that explained why the film crew had gone out the way. But why was Chessy canvasing the forest? Could he be in on the seagull’s evil plot to destroy my wedding? I definitely needed to devote some more time to doing a bit of reconnaissance, but my day and night were planned down to the minute and I was already running behind schedule as it was.
I wished I could recruit Grandma Lyn to help, but I also couldn’t risk hurting Nan’s emotions any more than they already were. Plus I was still incredibly worried about the film crew, even though she didn’t seem to mind at all.
Would I be like that one day, so comfortable with my gifts I no longer feared discovery?
I sure as heck doubted it.
At this point, I could hardly picture my life one day from now—let alone years and years.
Just one more day. I just needed to keep it together for one more day. Then I could reclaim my life for good.
7
Judging by the forlorn look that remained stuck to Nan’s face, she and I needed to have a heart-to-heart, but unfortunately there wasn’t any time for one. As soon as Mom, Dad, Grandma Lyn, Sharon, and Chessy rolled out, my cousin Mags and her great-aunt Linda rolled in.
“We’re here,” my fair-skinned, fair-haired, fair-everythinged cousin announced with aplomb.
“Let’s get this party started,” Aunt Linda trilled. Thankfully, they’d left their kitty overlord Shadow at home. Honestly, while I considered myself a cat person, I couldn’t take even one more demanding houseguest without losing my ever-loving mind.
The arrival of my relatives from Georgia meant the last of the out-of-town guests due in today had now arrived. Everyone else would be coming up tomorrow, including a few who planned on flying. I sure hoped no flights got delayed last minute, because we were now less than twenty-four hours from the main event.
Yes, less than twenty-four hours to go.
This was not a drill.
Charles had invited clients, colleagues, and a few local friends along with his family from California, but most of the guest list came from yours truly. The animals I knew had all agreed to watch from the woods, so as not to arouse human suspicion. My friends Bravo and Abigull—the good seagulls—had done a magnificent job tracking down my former clients, witnesses, and accomplices. They’d even invited Gloria, the mama grizzly we’d helped in Katahdin, although I secretly hoped she wouldn’t be coming for the sake of all the prey animals in attendance. Although maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to call the caterer and ask for an extra ten fish meals just in case.
“Angie, Angie, are you all right?” Mags asked, concern reflecting in her pale eyes. “You kind of disappeared into yourself.”
“Sorry, sorry! Just a lot on my mind,” I answered truthfully. Apparently Nan and Aunt Linda had already gone inside, because I now stood alone on the porch with my cousin. “How was the drive up?” I asked politely, even as my mind ran away with itself once again.
A dark shadow swooped overhead, and I craned my neck up just in time to see a flash of white feathers disappear over the house. Alpha, that had to be to him!
“It wasn’t too bad. We stopped at—”
I hated to interrupt Mags, but I had no choice.“Did you notice any seagulls following you? Or like an otherwise unnatural volume of seagulls?” I demanded, alternating between watching the skies and attempting to make eye contact with my cousin.