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, wheredo 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.