“Oh, I don’t have to go to the dinner,” Bianca said in a soft, sweet voice. “I’ll be perfectly fine in the kitchen. Please don’t change your plans for me. I would just feel terrible. ”
“No, it’s okay, I guess. Just keep your mitts off of the scarred-up one. He’s mine and I’ll cut you if you even look at him sideways.”
Bianca’s big eyes went wide. “Um.”
“She’s joking,” Edie told her sister. “Aren’t you, Gretch?”
“Sure. Joking.” Gretchen gave Bianca her most evil looking smile and waved them in. “Come on. You can meet the other guests.”
Edie limped forward, eyeing the foyer as they walked in. Double staircase, lined with red carpet. She sincerely hoped she wasn’t going to have to go up that. “Nice house.”
“Oh, it’s a beast,” Gretchen said easily. “Comes with the man, though, so I don’t mind it so much.” She shut the door behind Bianca and Edie and then paused. “So. Before we go in, I need to talk about my fiancé.”
That sounded ominous. Edie kept her face carefully bland. She’d googled Hunter Buchanan on the Internet but hadn’t been able to find any pictures of him. Was he super old and Gretchen was marrying him because . . . money? It didn’t sound like something Gretchen would do, but Gretchen thrived on impulsive decisions and she was impossible to predict.
“I’m sure he’ll be lovely,” Bianca said in a sweet voice.
“Actually, he’s not,” Gretchen told her bluntly. “Which is what we need to talk about.” Her gaze fixed on the two women. “Hunter’s a bit shy. He doesn’t like it when people stare at him, because he’s got a lot of scars and he’s missing a few fingers. I’m telling you now so you’re not surprised later. And I’m also telling you because he’s camera shy and if you guys are hoping for some sort of singing-or-dancing-down-the-aisle bullshit, it’s not going to happen. In fact, if anyone suggests it, I will rip your tongue out.” She eyed Bianca. “I’m very protective of Hunter, and the only reason we’re having a big wedding is because I want it and because he wants to make me happy. If it was up to him, we’d bring someone here and get it done in an afternoon.”
“I’m sure he’s fine-looking,” Bianca continued in her little-girl voice, but Edie put a hand on her arm to shut her up.
“No staring,” Edie repeated. “Got it. As for the whole singing and dancing thing . . .” She gestured at her leg. “If they do that, they’re counting me out, too.”
“Oh, right.” Gretchen brightened. “That makes you even more perfect for my motley wedding party.”
“But—” Bianca began.
Edie squeezed her arm again. One of the reasons that Bianca and Gretchen didn’t get along was that Bianca was convinced she could make everyone love her with a few sweet words, and Gretchen loathed fakeness. It would be best to keep the two apart and, not for the first time, she regretted bringing her younger sister. But she needed Bianca here, sadly. And she liked that she didn’t have to do this alone. “It’s your wedding, Gretchen. It’ll be exactly how you want.”
Gretchen beamed at Edie. “I fully intend on being a bridezilla. I mean, why not, right? A friend of mine just had a big destination wedding and it was awesome, but I think I want to have things here so Hunter doesn’t feel quite so out of his element.”
Edie glanced around at the big house as they walked down a long hall, thankfully not up a staircase. “You could certainly hold a lot of people here.”
“Indeed,” said Bianca, who clearly didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. “There’s a very gothic, old world look to this place that’s positively charming.” Her gaze fell to a Chinese vase on a nearby table and Edie could practically see the dollar signs tallying in Bianca’s eyes. “Have you considered renting it out for weddings?”
“God, no,” Gretchen said, giving the sisters a horrified look. “I barely want to have my own here. Luckily the rose gardens are flat-out magnificent.”
“Your cat?” Edie inquired again.
Gretchen blinked, clearly distracted. “Oh, right. Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind today. Come on up to the bedroom. Igor’s probably commandeering the blankets.”
“Oooh, the bedroom?” Bianca cooed. “We’d love to.”
Gretchen changed direction, heading down an entirely different hall. This corridor had paintings lining one wall and heavily draped windows along the next. Artful end tables rested along the wall every few feet, and each one had a vase filled with roses of different varieties. “This is mine and Hunter’s private quarters,” Gretchen explained as they walked. She gestured at doors as they passed them. “That’s his gym, and over there is his office.” At the far end of the long, winding hall was a huge pair of double doors. “And the bedroom,” she said, heading for it.
Edie’s leg was aching from all the walking, but she did want to see the cat. Most of the time, she liked cats more than people. When Gretchen opened the double doors to the room, she eyed it as she would for her own cats. There was a deluxe cat fort set up in one corner of the room, and a perch set against one of the massive windows, which made Edie happy. Curled up in the center of a massive bed was a beige wrinkly bag of flesh that stretched his long legs as Gretchen went and picked him up.
“Iggy doesn’t mind it here, but he tends to get lost so I try to keep him confined to this room,” Gretchen explained. “The house is just too big, and this room’s practically a thousand square feet as it is.”