Epilogue #3
“I know,” Daddy says smugly. “I might make it a new ritual. Blindfolded Breakfasts. But you know what the great man said, ‘Live each day, as if it were your last.’ I want every minute with you, Emmy. Feed me, baby.”
Grinning at Master Niall, I lean forward and spear a bite of eggs and sausage.
“I’d best be off anyway,” Master Niall says, stealing another piece of melon before wiping his mouth and hands. “Gotta get dressed and be at the airstrip by ten. Limos leave here for the drop zone at eleven. Don’t let Max make you late, one-upping shiteheel.”
Daddy laughs before he takes the bite of breakfast and chews. “See you there.”
“You will if yeh look up,” Niall says. “Drop him off across the hall when you’re ready to have this sad sap outta yer hair, Emmy. Shaan’s ready to make him presentable.”
I make a last-ditch effort. “What will Shaan be wearing, Master Niall?”
He makes a zipping motion across his mouth before bounding up out of the chair and smacking a kiss on my cheek. Then he grabs Daddy’s face and smacks a kiss on Daddy’s lips.
Daddy sputters. “Red, red, you wanker.”
Laughing uproariously, Master Niall strolls out of our suite.
I wipe Daddy’s mouth with one of the nice napkins that came with breakfast before I offer him a bite of scrambled eggs and pancakes. After he chews, he says, “Not bad but nowhere as good as yours, sweetheart.”
I wriggle at the praise. “Food here is good, though. So much to choose from.”
We’ve been utterly spoiled for choice in the cuisine-department since coming to Vegas. We’ve had sushi, comfort food at a very upscale diner, Italian, surf and turf, and gorged ourselves at a totally ridiculous buffet that had over five hundred different foods. I’ve never been so stuffed.
Even Master Javier’s had to admit that the food in Las Vegas is very good, although he looked only slightly less agitated than when we water-balloon-bombed him as he said it.
“Have you had a good week, baby?” Daddy asks as I feed him.
“Uh-huh. Have you?”
“It’s been wonderful. More than anything I’d hoped for. I haven’t been to Vegas before except for work. We’ll come back, just you, me, and Livvy, don’t you think?”
I giggle. No, I don’t. “Daddy, if you haven’t figured it out by now, your friends are never going to let us vacation alone. And you don’t want them to. You love having them around.”
Daddy’s hands circle my waist and squeeze. “I’d protest but you’re right. You know me too well, little girl. You got one thing wrong, though. They’re our friends. These people are here for you just as much as me.”
Given how tightly our circle of friends has gathered around us in the past month, with Niall, Shaan, and Vashi finding a house in Queens, Jiro and Laurel taking an insanely luxe co-op in Gramercy Park that’s almost wall-to-wall windows, and Daisy buying a summer house on Fire Island just down the beach from Master Nico’s, I can’t argue with him.
I see my friends, little and Big, every day.
Even as I lose my last real family to the shadows of dementia, I’ve gained the biggest, most loving family I could imagine.
And with four exceptions, they’re all here in Vegas to celebrate our wedding.
Daddy grumbles as I lead him to Niall’s suite to change into his wedding clothes.
He’s had me in his lap for the last half-hour, first bouncing my way to a mutual O even more delicious than the fruit salad, then cuddling in the afterglow.
He suggests we just show up in towels at the Little Chapel and spend the rest of the morning fucking until the limos arrive.
While his suggestion has a lot of appeal, it would really disappoint my bridesmaids, who have bets going on whether Daddy faints when he sees me in my wedding gown.
I trade Daddy for Vashi and take the clothes bag she’s had with my gown in it, since I know Daddy’s sneaky ways. If it had been hanging in our closet all week, he’d have gotten a look at it somehow.
Hand-in-hand, Vashi and I return to the suite while she tells me about winning a thousand dollars in the casino last night. She was playing poker. Master Niall says she has the best poker face of anyone he’s ever played.
But she can’t beat me at Hearts.
Vashi checks the amazing henna she’s done on my hands and forearms while we wait for the rest of my attendants.
I can’t really call them bridesmaids because one of them’s a boy.
It’s kind of a silly tradition anyway and I almost did away with it until I heard about the crazy competition going on between Master Niall and Max for the title of Daddy’s best man.
Then I decided we needed a full bridal party to defuse their competition before someone got hurt.
Probably Max, since Master Niall’s very muscley.
Although Max was scheming to get Master Niall locked up for twenty-to-life for a crime he didn’t commit, according to Cynnie.
Men.
Anyway. While we wait, I try to get what Shaan’s wearing to the ceremony out of Vashi but she’s just as tight-lipped as her master.
Niall’s right, she does have a good poker face.
She barely smiles when I make outrageous suggestions: one half of a Yellow Submarine, Baby Shark, a Minion.
She just pats my hands and tells me the henna’s set perfectly.
I finally get my baby back when Bren arrives with the other attendants at nine.
Livvy burbles her new sound at me, “ah-goo,” and laughs when I kiss her fingers and toes.
Bren and Vashi get to work on my hair, creating a complicated mass of braids to hold up my tiara and veil.
Everyone else sits for Daisy as she does their hair and makeup.
I offered to bring in a pro but Daisy demanded “the honor” in exchange for being part of the bridal party.
I don’t know why she ever thought she wouldn’t be.
Maybe she thought I’d only want subbies.
But as soon as she RSVPed, I knew what I wanted her to do.
I can’t walk down the aisle without my Best Mommy Domme.
Daisy’s just finishing Sammi’s makeup, in extravagant emeralds and marine blues to go with his outfit, when there’s a last knock on the door.
Laurel answers and gives True a big hug as she enters with her foster-mother.
We’ve had to pull some major strings to get her here, since her case-worker was against her traveling out of state, even for a wedding.
But after I asked True to be my flower girl, Maude promised she’d make it happen and she did.
True sits for Daisy, who does more green and blue makeup but adds splashes of pink. I watch this avidly for hints. Bren planned the flower girls’ outfits and won’t tell me what they are.
It’s a little worrisome how good my friends are at keeping secrets.
Daisy does my makeup last, keeping it mostly natural except for pink, white, and gold wings around my eyes.
While Daisy puts on her suit, Aggie and Vashi help me into my dress, which is definitely a three-person job with the corset, tutu, train, cape, and veil.
The corset, train, and cape are heavy with metal and beading but I’ve practiced in them several times and by the time we’re ready to go, I’m managing them on my own.
Bren, True, and my baby have disappeared when we come out of the bedroom. I stamp my white, platform Mary Jane. “What are they wearing?”
Everyone laughs. Laurel pats me on the shoulder. “There have to be some surprises, even for the bride.”
I roll my eyes. She giggles and takes my hand as we troop downstairs to the limos.
Daddy’s limo has already left and our limo has tinted windows so Daddy won’t see me.
The limo driver grins when he sees us in our outfits and seems in really good spirits as we roll toward the drop zone.
He plays “I’ve Got The Magic In Me” by B.o.B.
and “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas and we all sing along.
Sammi and Daisy harmonize like they’re professional singers.
When we get to the drop zone, a sandy lot near the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, there are three other limos, two SUVs, and a red Cadillac waiting.
I try to peer into the other cars but the windows are all tinted like ours.
I know one is Daddy’s and the groomsmen’s.
Bren, True, and Livvy might be in the third limo but who is in the other one?
When I ask, my attendants trade secretive smiles but no one answers me.
“I hate you all,” I huff.
Cynnie kisses me on the cheek. “But we lurve you, Emmy.”
I roll my eyes at her.
The driver opens the moon roof and I forget all about my pique as a silver plane circles in the bright blue sky overhead. One after another, eleven bodies dressed in brilliant white spill out of the plane. Even at the distance, I can see they all have slick, black quiffs, except one.
I squeal and point at Irish Elvis. Vashi squeals with me.
The Elvi circle in the air and join hands.
They drop together in a huge circle for several terrifying minutes, although they look serene.
Finally, they separate. Their chutes pull them higher with a jerk.
We clap and whistle as they float down. When they land and remove their chutes, they surround my limo.
One of them blows a note on a pitch pipe, and then all of them break into “The Wonder of You.” They have lovely voices. Not as good as The King but that’s an impossible standard to measure up to. I can pick out Master Niall’s voice among them: a deep baritone. His accent makes me grin.
Tears threaten when I hear them change the lyrics to “that’s the wonder, the wonder of little you.”
Daisy leans across the footwell and dabs at the corners of my eyes. “We’re going to put the waterproof claims of the mascara and liner to the test today, aren’t we?”
I nod helplessly. Daddy got them to change the lyrics for me. I blink through a crystal veil.