I’m not sure how much time passed before we were moved to a different location. The party was still going strong outside. I could hear the crowd and wondered if they’d even been aware of what had happened.

I must have been in a state of shock, because Nick leaned down and said, “Do you still want to get married tonight?”

I did. I really did.

I nodded and he said, “Wait here.”

Before too long had passed Rosemarie came bustling in. I’d forgotten she was dressed like Kim Jong Un, so it was a little startling to see. Several agents gave her a wide berth as she steam-rolled toward them. She was carrying something in her hands.

“Yikes,” she said, looking me over. “It’s like a stage production of Sweeney Todd in here. It’s just terrible what happened to Savage. I heard he saved that agent’s life. Jumped right in front of him and shoved him to the ground.”

News traveled fast. I’d just been told that from the agent whose life he saved.

“Nick said the wedding was still on,” she continued. “Come on. We’ve got to make you presentable.”

She pushed me toward the back of the church, behind the sanctuary where there was a small changing area behind the baptismal. Kate and my mother came right in behind us, carrying a trash bag full of something.

“What’s all that?” I asked.

“I’m a wedding planner,” Rosemarie said. “I always have a backup plan. Or at least I will once I start my own business. I’m learning from experience right now, so I’m making things up as I go along. The good news is I figure if I can make this wedding come off without a hitch then there’s nothing I can’t tackle. This wedding is a doozy.”

My mother pulled out a pair of her sewing sheers and came toward me. If I hadn’t just been through a traumatic experience I probably could’ve dodged out of her way faster.

“Hold still,” she said. And then she cut my dress from the bosom all the way to the hem. The blood had started to dry in places, so the dress was stuck to me, and she and Kate tugged from each side until I was standing naked.

“I’d like to reach a point in my life where I stop being naked in front of people. When does that happen?”

“My mom snorted out a laugh. You’re a woman. That never happens. Wait until you have children. You’re all sprawled out on the delivery table, and complete strangers are walking in looking at your bits. When Phoebe was born there was an observation class of twenty men watching me. I swear half of them had never seen a naked woman before and the other half couldn’t grow facial hair.”

“That’s nothing,” Rosemarie said. “I had hemorrhoid surgery a few years back. Most painful thing I’ve ever done. By the time I went back for my post-op I was stripping out of my clothes walking through the waiting room of doctor’s office. He didn’t even have to ask me to crawl up on the table of all fours. I would’ve done it in the checkout line at Walmart if it meant getting some of that numbing cream.”

Kate had stayed silent and she had a thoughtful look on her face.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s a lot of blood,” she said, looking me up and down. “You’re covered in it.”

“It’s not like I’ve got a shower on hand.”

“Weeellll,” Kate said, looking slightly apologetic.

“Oh,” Rosemarie said. “Oh, my.” And then she crossed herself.

I didn’t know what was happening, but I didn’t like the looks I was getting. The three women came at me all at once, and they pushed me toward the narrow stairs that led up to the baptistery.

And then I stepped off into empty space and plunged into cold water. I came up sputtering. “Are you kidding me? I can’t bathe in the baptismal? I’m covered in blood.”

“Now that you mention it,” Rosemarie said, crossing herself again. “It seems kind of fitting. But just in case, why don’t you hurry and get out.”

“It’s freezing,” I said, teeth chattering as I made my way over to the ladder.

“Here,” my mother said. She’d managed to find the stash of choir robes somewhere and draped it over my shoulders.

“Wow,” Rosemarie said, looking into the baptismal. “That’s a lot of blood.”

“Yeah,” Kate said. “I didn’t think the water would turn red like that.”

“Maybe they’ll think it’s wine,” my mother said. “Come on. We don’t have all night. Those people out there are getting antsy. They won’t serve from the cake and ice cream truck until y’all get married. There will be riots soon.

They ushered me back into the changing area. My skin was pebbled and I couldn’t stop shaking.

“Damn,” Kate said. “That airbrush stuff really works. It still looks like it was just applied. That can’t be healthy for you.”

“Did everyone bring the backup clothes?” Rosemarie asked. “This is desperate times and desperate measures.”

My mom and Kate dumped out the trash bag they’d brought in, and out fell a pile of clothes.

“We had to scrounge what we could get in the clothes department,” my mom said. She held up a square of denim and a plaid shirt. “Nina Dempsey said you could wear her overalls. She brought them just in case.”

“That woman is all heart,” Rosemarie said. “What else is there? Did you look in my trunk?”

“Yes,” Kate said. “And we’ll talk about that later. We found your emergency overnight bag of clothes. Nothing in there will fit Addison.”

“What about my Snuggie?” she asked. “That’s one-size-fits all.”

“It’s also open in the back like a hospital gown,” my mother said. “There’s already one full moon out tonight. We don’t need to see another.”

“But it’s white,” Rosemarie said. “And it’s got pockets.”

I wasn’t sure what pockets had to do with anything, but the one things I did know was Snuggies were warm. And I wasn’t.

“Let’s do it,” I said.

“I’ve got an idea,” Rosemarie said, and she ran over to the closet where my mom had gotten the choir and baptismal robes. In another cabinet were the stoles Pastor Charles would wear when he was baptizing someone.

“It’s black,” she said. “But I hear people wear black to weddings now days.”

They wrapped me in the white Snuggie and wrapped the stole around my waist several times before tucking the stray ends underneath.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I think you’re going to get frostbite on your lady bits,” Kate said. “You’ve still got a lot of real estate showing back there.”

“I’ve got safety pins,” my mother said, rummaging through her bag. “I’ve always told you girls to carry an emergency sewing kit with you. This just proves my point.”

It proved the point that in more than thirty years of life, I’d needed an emergency sewing kit once. The odds were in my favor. But I was glad she had it.

She finished sewing me up, and I was pleasantly surprised with the final outcome. It wasn’t great, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

Kate was looking back and forth between me and Rosemarie. “I feel like we’re about to go to a meeting of fascist dictators.”

Nick knocked on the door and said, “How’d it go? Are you ready?” And then he caught sight of me. “Interesting choice.”

“It was this or your mother’s overalls.”

“She’s always thinking of others,” he said, and then he held out his hand.

He led me out of the church and we made our way toward the distillery. The sea of people parted for us this time and there were cheers as they realized the wedding was about to take place.

“They’re excited about the cake and ice cream truck. We had to put an extra security detail around it because people were starting to get violent. The booze truck has already run out. My grandfather sent for two more.”

“He’s a smart man,” I said.

“Yes, he was smart enough to bring his own bottle and avoid the lines.”

Rosemarie was already waiting at the top of the steps for us, her bible in hand.

“She reminds me of someone,” Nick said, and then he snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. She looks like Dr. Evil.”

“Come on, you two,” Rosemarie called out. “I can smell the Italian buffet inside the distillery, and I need some lasagna in the worst way. You have no idea how hard it is to trick all these people into believing they didn’t hear gunshots.”

“How’d you accomplish that?” I asked.

“Because I’m a wedding planner. We plan for everything. When the agents and cops started running, no one paid much attention. But I knew some heavy stuff was about to go down when they moved Nick’s grandfather inside. As soon as the gunfire started I had the foresight to start the fireworks. It was really spectacular. It’s a shame you had to miss the show. And no one knew what was really going on.”

“Fireworks?” I asked. “Why did you plan for fireworks?”

“I figured it would be nicer to leave to fireworks exploding in the sky than being pelted with rice and birdseed. That shit hurts.”

Rosemarie held up her hands to silence the crowd. I was surprised it worked, but I figured everyone was probably confused why she was starting our wedding ceremony like it was the beginning of the Hunger Games.

Kate was to my left and Mike, Kate’s husband, was standing next to Nick as his best man. Despite the contentiousness of our two families, everyone was there, standing on each side of us as we were about to make a lifelong commitment—everyone but Scarlet—but I knew she was there in spirit. In the end, we might disagree, or get fed up with each other, or even hate each other at times. But we were family.

“Dearly, beloved—” Rosemarie began, her voice loud and strong.

“Hold on a sec,” I told her, and then I turned to look at Nick. I was going to tell him about the baby. I swear I was. But at the last second I chickened out. “I just wanted to say I love you,” I told him.

He looked at me kind of strange and then gave me a half-smile. “I love you, too.”

“Dearly, beloved—” Rosemarie said again.

“Sorry,” I said. “I just need another minute.” I turned back to Nick. “We’ve never really talked about having children. Do you like them? Are you opposed to them? What if we get some and we end up not liking them?”

The people around us were leaning in so they could hear what I was saying, and then I heard the whispers run through the crowd as the news traveled from person to person like a game of telephone.

Nick’s brows raised. “You want to talk about this now?” he asked.

“It seems like an important topic to discuss before marriage,” I said. “And we’re right here before marriage, so…” I swallowed hard. “So I thought we should talk about it.”

“Okay,” Nick said, patiently. “I think I’d like to have children someday. And I’d especially like making them with you.”

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. “What about if we don’t like them or we’re not good at being parents.”

“Addison,” he said. “Relax. Think how many times our parents screwed us up, and we turned out okay. We’ll be great. And if one of them turns out to be like Aunt Scarlet we can always ship her off to France.”

I nodded and tried to smile. I was nervous. I just needed to tell him. Instead, I turned back to Rosemarie and said, “We’re ready.”

“Nothing like waiting until the last minute to discuss big ticket items,” she said. And then she looked at me pointedly, knowing I was a big chicken. But I didn’t stop her again.

“Dearly, beloved—” she said for the third time.

The ceremony was a blur. I knew she was speaking, and I knew I must have said all the right things in the right places, but I couldn’t have told you what was being said. Before I knew it, Nick was leaning down to kiss me and a roar of applause and cheers sounded behind us.

When he finally let me go, I was out of breath, and I was pretty sure my Snuggie had come undone in a couple of places. Nick was a very powerful kisser.

He was smiling, and I said, “I’m pregnant.”

I didn’t say it loud, but it was certainly loud enough for him to hear.

“Did you seriously wait until we were married before you told me that?” he asked.

“Scarlet said men get skittish about pregnancy. I wanted to make sure you were locked in. Or as least where I could legally take half your fortune if you decided to bail.”

His lips twitched and he pulled me into him again. “You’re serious?” he asked. “About the baby, I mean.”

“Yes, little Scarlet could be in there cooking as we speak.”

“Why are you trying to scare me off?” he asked. “I already married you. I’m stuck with you for the long haul. And you’re stuck with me.”

He had a funny look on his face, and I wondered what was going on. I had too many emotions running through me to be able to think straight. “There’s no one I’d rather be stuck with.”

“Good,” he said. “Because I think that having kids and working cop hours aren’t the best thing for a family.”

“What?” I asked. “I thought you loved being a cop.”

“I do. But I love other things more. Like you. And little Scarlet.”

“You’ve got to stop calling her that. You’re going to jinx us.” I was in a complete state of shock. I’d never thought of Nick doing anything else. “What would you do instead?”

“There’s been a Dempsey in the senate for a lot of years, and my grandfather is about to retire. I was thinking it might be good to stick with tradition.”

I arched a brow and said, “Did you seriously wait until we were married before you told me that?”

He shrugged. “Too late. You’re not going anywhere now.”

“As long as I’m with you I’m happy,” I said. “I don’t care if you’re a cop or a senator. Or if we have twenty little Scarlets.”

“Tap the brakes there,” he said, wincing.

“This is the start of a new chapter in our lives. And hopefully it’s going to start with cake because I haven’t been able to think of anything else since I last ate it.” And then I remembered what Nick’s cake looked like. “We’ll start with the bride’s cake. You haven’t had enough to drink to hack off a piece of yours yet.”

He looked confused. He was probably going to get that look several times throughout the reception. I hadn’t told him about the band from the strip club.

“After you, Mrs. Dempsey,” he said, holding the door of the distillery open for me. “All new chapters, at least the good ones, should start with cake.”

Yep. He was definitely the right one.”