Page 22 of A Dead End Wedding

Tess laughed. “Hey! Watch it! Molly is my age! And yes, you absolutely get to be my co-maid of honor, with Molly.”

“Aunt Ruby thinks it’s funny that you want her, Eleanor, and Lorraine to be the flower girls,” Shelley said, grinning. “I think it’s awesome! I even have a surprise planned!”

“Oh, boy,” Tess said. “Shelley, I really appreciate your enthusiasm, but please don’t do anything crazy with your magic. I’d like to have a calm, peaceful wedding.”

Shelley burst out laughing. “This is Dead End, Tess!”

“She’s not wrong,” I said ruefully.

“Tess, Jack, I have a new trick to show you!” She grabbed our hands and tugged us toward the house.

“I have one to show you, too,” Tess said, her eyes gleaming, and she held up a dog collar.

“Let’s see what pugs really think about.”

Turns out, pugs mostly think about bacon.

Pickles did her new rollover trick. And the magic of the collar made us hear her thoughts, because of course dogs can’t really talk. So far, the thoughts were exactly what you might have expected.

“BACON NOW PLEASE.”

Tess frowned. “I hate to say it, but I wonder if this is a dud. Maybe someone enchanted the collar to project the thoughts we all expect our dogs to say. I mean, Anastasia ‘said’ bacon, too.”

“Ask her a question that only she would know the answer to!” Ruby, who watched a lot of mystery series, said excitedly.

“Who is Shelley?” Tess asked.

The little pug drunkenly trotted over to Shelley, still dizzy from the rolling. “SHELLEY LOVE.”

“That was pretty specific,” Ruby said, but with a hint of doubt.

Tess nodded and then looked at me with a grin. “Pickles, who is Jack?”

The pug trotted over to me, did the puggy head tilt, and stood on my foot. “JACK BACON STINKY CAT.”

I burst out laughing and picked the little dog up to rub her belly. “Okay, that’s her. I told her when we were here forbreakfast last Sunday, she was a stinky pup and needed a bath. Then I snuck a slice of bacon to her.”

Shelley looked thoughtful, but finally she shook her head. “I don’t want the collar, Tess. It just doesn’t feel right. Like I’m spying on her thoughts. I don’t know. We get along fine as we are.”

The screen door swung open, and Tess’s Uncle Mike walked into the room. “Now, that’s a fine piece of thinking, Shelley.”

Mike Callahan was an Irish American retired engineer in his seventies. He liked Ford vehicles, could fix anything, and had been the calm center of Tess’s childhood after her mom died and her dad took off. He’d spent a long time warning me off Tess, until he understood how much I loved her, and then he’d welcomed me to the family in his quiet way.

The threats of turning me into a tiger-skin rug had even decreased.

Ruby had a big spread ready for lunch. Cold chicken, salads, homemade rolls, and a cherry pie for dessert. Tess, the best baker in the world, hadn’t had much time to bake lately, so I was very happy to see that pie.

Until Mike picked it up, put it right next to his plate, and gave me a narrow-eyed look. “I have to let you in the family, but nobody said I have to let you devour most of the dessert.”

Ruby tsked at him and deftly took the pie away. “I’ll put it on the counter until we’re done with lunch, and then you can each have two slices.”

“Me, too!” Shelley shouted.

“If you have room,” Ruby said, smiling.

If I’d had to pick any family, anywhere, to take on a troubled child who’d been through the horrors that Shelley had, I’d pick the Callahans. They’d given her so much love and support, and it had made a tremendous difference.

“Okay, let’s put this out there, because I know Shelley already heard about it,” Tess said grimly after we finished eating lunch. “There’s a magic component to the Courage Trial. Shelley is not, repeat not, going to compete in it.”

---