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“Oh dear.” Jazz looked back towards the parking lot. She’d been in such a rush she hadn’t paid any attention to the group gathered by the cycles. Since she knew some of the firefighters Will worked with rode bikes, she figured it was just a group of them talking shop or whatever it was they did.
“We have an officer here to take an accident report, but do you happen to know who owns the large black bike with silver and blue flames?” the concierge asked, looking incredibly nervous.
“Let me find the groom. I’m sure he can point us in the right direction. Could you wait here for a few minutes while I track him down?” Without waiting for an answer, she took off to find Will.
Slipping past the doors and into the large banquet hall, Jazz was scanning the crowd when Will, her best friend’s fiancé, spoke from directly beside her.
“You’re late again,” he chuckled from her side.
“I know.” She made a face at the man who’d become like a brother to her. “Victoria and Reginald had me in a death grip and wouldn’t let go. Not even when I threatened to pee in the middle of the convention center. It was crazy. I thought I was going to have to cut off my arms.”
Will tried to hide a smile but was unable to completely smother it. “I still think it is weird that you call your parents by their first names. Why can’t it be mom and dad or, at the very least, Vickie and Reggie?”
Jazz stared at him for a second in complete silence before letting out a loud peel of laughter. “Vickie and Reggie?” Repeating the names again out loud caused her to cackle even more.
“Damn, girl. You’re wound tight tonight, aren’t you?”
“Blame my parents. They’re crazy and make me crazy too,” she snorted. She looked around the crowd. “Where’s my sister from another mister?”
Will nodded to the far corner. “Over there with her mom and some of the family that came up from Texas.”
“How’s it going so far?”
“Well,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Her dad already came by and left with his new girlfriend, which caused a ruckus of course. One of the aunts with an oxygen tank keeps getting tangled up in the chairs every time she moves, and we need to keep tabs on one of the elderly uncles who wants to smoke inside. He’s wily and pretends to be deaf so that’s been real fun. He gave Nix the finger earlier when he took his lighter away.”
“Wow,” Jazz breathed. She locked eyes with Winter where she was standing across the room. Her friend was smiling but there was an edge to it that didn’t bode well for anyone. “I’m going to go save her from her mom before the stupid woman says the word ‘diet’. Have you already made sure that the band knows to avoidCotton-Eyed Joe?”
He nodded. “Already spoke with the band and her mom was warned earlier but you may need to reiterate it. Oh, and you’re missing an earring,” Will added on just as she was about to walk away.
Her hands shooting to her earlobes confirmed that she was missing one of her gold hoops. “Ugh! Hey, there was a black cycle with fancy flames in the lot outside that the hotel shuttle bumped. Management is looking for the owner. I figured it was one of your guys. Sound familiar?”
Will was nodding before she even finished talking. “Sounds like Leo’s bike. I’ll find him and we’ll get it taken care of. Dinner is scheduled soon, so you may want to start having folks move toward the tables, if you can.”
“On it!” Jazz promised as she moved across the large area. Tucking her lone earring into her bag, she hurried to Winter and the laughing women surrounding her.
Chapter 2
“What the fuck was that?” Jazz gasped, trying to clear her nostrils of the awful stank surrounding the women they’d just escaped. It was so thick she worried it might be a safety hazard for some of the older guests that were toting around portable oxygen. There wasn’t a setting high enough to combat the cloud following that group around. “Are those people for real?”
When Jazz had walked up, she hadn’t been able to believe her ears. The women had been teasing Winter about snagging a hot firefighter, including the speculation that the bride-to-be was trapping the groom with a pregnancy. It was almost enough to make her start swinging but she refrained—barely. Instead, after a few well-placed elbow jabs to the worst of the bunch, she’d gotten her friend the fuck out of their clutches.
“Yup, and they’re family too. I knew there was a reason why I never visited them,” Winter said dryly.
“Did the one in blue seriously ask if you poked holes in the condoms?” The fumes around the group must have gone to her head because there was no way that had actually happened.
“Yep, that’s Erma. She obviously thinks that this is a love match,” Winter deadpanned before both women started laughing hysterically.
“You should have seen your face!” She gasped, unable to control her giggles. She fanned her eyes to keep from ruining her already ruined makeup. “I thought we were about to go to jail.”
“I wanted to pick up that centerpiece and hit her with it!” Winter giggled, somewhat maniacally. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”
“Anything for you,” she chirped before looking back at the group with a grimace. “Your family is crazy.”
“So is yours,” Winter shot back with a snort. “Did they have a doctor for you to marry at this ceremony that you justhadto go to tonight?”
“How did you know?” she asked, her shoulders slumping. Her parents had become more of a problem in the recent months, and it was driving her bonkers. “This one has been divorced three times but has his own practice. Oh, and he wants kids, but doesn’t really want to raise them.”
“That’s nice,” her best friend snorted sarcastically.
