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“Bitch, you did not just try to steal this camera from me,” Imani laughed as she darted away.

“It’s my fucking camera!” Zann argued as she took off after her. “If you fall and break it, I will kick your ass!”

“I’d like to see you try!” Imani taunted as she scampered nimbly up the stairs that led to the resort’s sweeping patio with the camera cradled protectively against her chest.

Their playful bickering was interrupted by the sound of Kit shouting, “Come on, Yas! Give it up! It’s my turn!”

“What the—?” Zann craned her head to try to see what Kit was shouting about. And then she swore under her breath when she caught sight of the black quadcopter drone she’d brought for the ceremony zooming over their heads. She wasn’t surprised that Yas wanted to take it for a quick spin to test out the controls in the conditions, but she had only brought one spare battery, and they wouldn’t have time to charge this one back up before the ceremony if there was something wrong with the backup and they burned this one out playing. “Oh, fuck me,” she groaned as she followed Imani in veering toward the small, grassy area to the side of the main building where it seemed like Yas had set up shop for the test flight.

“I’ll leave that to Wikipedia,” Imani joked as she caught up to her. She glanced over her shoulder and grimaced. “Shit, Aspen better not be out there with them. They have total line of sight to the patio.”

Zann hummed in agreement. Aspen had been adamant that she didn’t want to see Eve in her dress before the wedding.

“Oh, thank god.” Imani breathed out a loud sigh of relief when they were able to see the entire lawn, and there wasn’t a sign of Aspen.

“She’s probably inside with Alder and the kids,” Zann guessed. After they’d finished their pictures, Stella had offered them the small conference room next to her office to use as a base of operations. And then she yelled, “Everything okay?”

“Oh yeah.” Yasmine threw a quick grin at Imani and Zann as they crossed the grass toward her and Kit. “Pics of the girls go all right?”

“They did,” Imani confirmed.

“Where’s Jack?” Zann asked.

“Inside playing Pokémon with Nash,” Kit replied as she tracked the drone.

“Of course he is,” Zann chuckled. She touched Yasmine’s shoulder. “You almost done? That has a battery life of about forty minutes, but I dunno how long you’ve been running, and I’ve only got one spare.”

“Yeah, I’m done. It’s been up for under five,” Yasmine shared, her gaze flicking from the LCD screen on the controller to the horizon. “I just wanted to take it for a quick spin before the show starts.”

“Totally get it,” Zann said.

“Can I fly it back?” Kit asked.

Yasmine shrugged. “If Zee says it’s fine, I got what I needed.”

Zann huffed a laugh when Kit turned to her with wide, puppy-dog eyes. “Yeah. Sure.” She waved for her to go ahead. “But nothing crazy.”

“You got it,” Kit agreed, grinning as she held out a hand for the controller.

Zann stood beside Kit to watch the returning drone. She peered at the LCD screen on the controller and, because Kit was more interested in testing the drone’s maneuverability than its photographic capabilities, asked Yasmine, “Was the camera responding okay?”

“Yep,” Yasmine reported. “Zoom and focus were good. Had no trouble taking a still while the video was running.”

“Nice.”

Kit giggled as she brought the drone to a hover above their heads. “This thing handles like a dream, Zee.”

“I know.” Zann grinned. “Just bring her down slowly, ‘kay? I’ll grab it.”

Once the drone was down and powered off, she swapped the battery for the backup so that Yasmine would be able to run it the entire ceremony without any problems, and tucked it back into the protective foam cutout in its case. “You going to run it from here?” she asked Yasmine as she snapped the lid shut and held it out to her.

Yasmine shook her head as she took the case. “I’ll launch from the patio,” she said as they started making their way toward Stella’s office. “It’ll give me a better view of the ceremony so I can keep tabs on what’s going on beyond the scope of the camera.”

Inside, they found Jack and Nash huddled up with the boy’s Switch, hot in discussion about the best way to capture whatever Pokémon they’d discovered, while Aspen scrolled on her phone and Alder fussed with June’s hair.

“You better not break that,” Zann told Yasmine and Kit as she made a course for Aspen while they swerved toward a small table on the other side of the room to look at something on the drone. She rolled her eyes when they both flipped her off, and turned her attention to Aspen. “You ready, Asp?”

Aspen nodded and pocketed her phone. “I just want to get down there.”