it’s an easy decision to stay on the cube crew. With all the arrests that have come from our work, there’s not a whole lot left to sift through, but we keep at it, hoping one last piece of the puzzle will present itself; Marc Doucet is still at large, and while we’ve been able to track his movements via his telephone to some degree, thanks to the quick thinking of Alice Inwonderland Guckenberger, he still hasn’t implicated himself in any actual crimes.
I shake my head. “No, thanks.” I can’t think of a better way to torture myself. Clothes shopping with May? Nope. Motherhood hasn’t changed me that much.
“But you have to,” she whines. “We’re finishing up the wedding plans and I need your input.”
“I already masterminded the plan to get your wedding back on track by moving it forward and finding you that caterer. I think I’ve done my duty.”
She frowns at me. “Don’t make me put you in another headlock.”
I have to smile at that. She did take me down once, but I doubt she could do it again. I’m ready for her now, plus I’m no longer encumbered by nausea.
I point at her as I click a button on my keyboard, rewinding the current recording a bit. “Listen here, Bo Peep . . . you even try to put me in a headlock, and I’ll have you so tangled up in your headphone wires, you’ll have to call in a posse to rescue your sorry butt.”
She leans in close and whispers loudly, “If you do that, I’ll tattle on you. I’ll tell them you did it and overexerted yourself at the same time. Lucky will scold you big time.”
“You’d better not.” I’m trying to stay serious, but it’s impossible. Somehow, whenever I chat with May, I end up feeling like I’m ten years old again. I think I was a lot less bitter back then, too, because I’m finding her more funny than annoying these days. Damn hormones . . . they’re making me soft. After these babies are born, I’m signing up for double workouts with Dev.
“Please?” she pleads. “I’ll buy your babies matching booties.”
It’s so stupid, but her silly little bribes always manage to get me. Who cares about booties? Apparently, I do. “Fine. I’ll go shopping with you, but I’m not going for more than an hour.”
“No problem. I can power-shop. The question is . . . can you?” She wiggles her eyebrows up and down at me.
I snort. “Please. I can power through anything, including one of your silly shopping trips.”
“Better wear your running shoes,” she says under her breath, putting her headphones on and clicking keys on her computer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
When May said power-shop, she wasn’t kidding. Jenny is her wingman and I’m the slacker trailing behind, whining about my feet. She was right; I should have worn running shoes, but I stuck with my work boots, which have heels that are doing a great job of killing me. We’ve only been here for forty-five minutes, but I swear to God, we’ve already visited half the stores in the mall and covered about five miles in the process.
“Come on, you have to keep up. We still have another four shops to go into before our time is up.” May snaps her fingers over her head at me.
“Can we stop for a drink or something?” My tongue feels like it could stick to the roof of my mouth with little effort.
Jenny answers me when something shiny in a shop window catches May’s attention. “You can have some water; that’s it. Everything else in this entire mall is either caffeinated or full of sugar.”
I roll my eyes, making a mental note never to shop with either of these two again. They’re hardcore and of the opinion that every single piece of fabric in the entire place must be touched and evaluated before we can move on to the next. I don’t say anything else, deciding that drawing attention to myself is a bad idea. I need them to focus on their mission and get this over with.
Twenty minutes later, we’re finishing up at the last store, the place where we’re supposed to pick out our bridesmaids dresses. Jenny holds up a black cocktail number.
“This one is gorgeous,” she says, shaking it at me.
I roll my eyes. “Sure, if you don’t mind my potbelly hanging out on the front of it.” The thing is skintight.
Jenny fake-frowns at me as she moves the dress away. She puts