“I love you, Titus.”
“Then I am the luckiest man on the planet.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “And I would marry you tomorrow and make sure you’re mine forever, but I feel like I can’t steal Duke and Olivia’s thunder, if you know what I mean?”
Kylie pressed her face to his chest. Marriage didn’t matter. Not really. It was a piece of paper. Maybe that was part of the whole not quite human thing. “Whenever we get around to it is fine, Titus. I’m happy enough just to be with you every second possible until we can make it official.”
“Deal,” he told her warmly. “Best deal ever.”
Chapter Thirty-One
The old Moonrise Theater might not have had the same glow as some of the newer places on the Branson strip, but tonight it looked like a top notch venue. Of course, the crowd wasn’t bursting out of the seams, but Titus was surprised to see so many people present. So surprised, in fact, that he was pretty sure he was going to do his best to duck out of his duties as a groomsman.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Kylie said quickly, snagging his arm just when Titus might have slipped out a side door. “If I let you escape, Ellie will kill me. And I have to admit I’m pretty sure she could do it.”
Titus grunted. “She wouldn’t dare. I’d be after her so quickly she’d never manage to get in the killing blow.”
“Nice thought,” Kylie said wryly. “No doubt Ellie would be using me as wolf bait. You’d come in for the rescue and she’d truss you up and cart your ass down the aisle anyway.”
They were in one of the wings watching guests mix and mingle as they waited for the three sets of double doors to open so they could take their seats. Somewhere behind the doors that led backstage, the wedding party was finishing their prep work. Titus should have been back there with them but he couldn’t manage it. He was far too restless.
“What’s wrong, Titus?” Kylie slipped her arm through his and tugged him into motion. They were apparently going to promenade around the foyer with him in his ridiculous gray tux. He felt preposterous. “You look like a million bucks. People are all smiling and waving at you. I just saw Ms. Wankenfurter and she was telling me how incredibly handsome you look in your tux. Of course, there was a good bit of suggestion in that compliment, but I think it was genuine all the same.”
“Wait.” Titus frowned. “Ms. Wankenfurter is here? Why?”
“I put her on the guest list,” Kylie said with a shrug. “This is a huge wedding. Olivia wanted it that way. Maybe it’s just the love of being on stage that makes her want to put on a spectacle like this. I don’t know. But it’s her day and I wanted her to be happy and Ms. Wankenfurter was absolutely thrilled. You have no idea.”
Titus listened to Kylie’s words and realized she was prattling on purpose to keep him distracted. That was fine. He could listen to her voice all day long. She was incredibly soothing. Everything about her made Titus feel more relaxed.
Or maybe that was the flowers. The scent of all the bouquets strewn about and attached to every banister, pillar, and available surface made his head spin. He was probably getting high on flowers.
“Psst,” Kylie whispered, making a point to wave at a knot of men and women all nicely dressed. “That is Duke’s family from whatever small town he lived in before. You need to wave at them.”
“Right.” Titus dutifully waved and nodded and smiled at Duke’s family and noticed they were all staring at him with strange looks on their faces. He could not help but wonder if Duke had told them that Titus was a werewolf.
“Stop it,” Kylie chided gently. “You’re doing that thing again.”
“What thing?”
“That thing where you get super paranoid the other members of our crew have somehow ratted you out and now everyone knows you’re a shifter.” She turned to stare at him.
Titus exhaled a sigh. “Is it that obvious?”
“Probably only to me. You get this hunted look on your face.” She gently kissed the sleeve of his suit jacket. Just a light, playful kiss. “Not that I can blame you. It would be really scary to have a big secret like that and suddenly tell a group of people and just take it for granted that they weren’t going to spread it around.”
He turned sharply to stare at her. “I’m not taking anything for granted. If I didn’t think that they were trustworthy I wouldn’t have hired them in the first place.
She didn’t actually say anything to that. She kind of stared at him. Pointedly. For several minutes in fact just to remind Titus that she was right. He had hired these men and Ellie too, because Titus trusted them. And the men and women they had found for themselves were equally trustworthy. Adam, Olivia, Laurie, and Mindy were all unique in their own right. They were good matches for Titus’s friends and he should probably stop second-guessing everything.
The doors swung open and people surged toward the auditorium as though there were a really hot Branson show on stage. Of course, there was. It was called “The Wedding Show” and everyone had certainly done their best to dress the part.
Titus watched a gaggle of little girls dressed in tutus and leotards with ballet slippers go twirling by. They were some of the students from Olivia’s dance school, which held classes in the theater. Adam was managing the acts in this place now and Olivia was running the dance school and handling the historical aspect and tours of the old theater. It had turned out to be a fantastic opportunity for everyone. Even the high-powered Branson personality Harvey Lightman, who was currently entering the theater with his latest blonde dish of the week on his arm. Harvey was actually smiling and laughing. He was wearing a smart linen suit and had a jaunty orange carnation in his button hole. The round little man had once been Olivia’s sworn enemy—sort of. Now they were colleagues. But that had been Adam Cathcart’s doing more than anything else.
Titus turned and gazed at his mate. “You look beautiful, Kylie. I like you in anything—or nothing—but I do like the blue. It suits you.”
“Thank you.” She blushed and Titus could not help but notice the filmy material of the blue wraparound dress really flattered her athletic build. He had the most attractive woman in the world on his arm. “I suppose, if you promise to dance with me at the reception, I will agree not to run away from the wedding party.”
“Wow, Titus, that’s a huge concession.” Kylie looked like she was struggling not to laugh. But she let go of his arm and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Don’t you dare run off and leave me here all alone. Do you understand me?”
“Loud and clear.” He watched her trot away and wave to Ms. Wankenfurter, who had—thankfully—not tried to sneak Pugsley into the theater.
“There you are.” Ash said from behind Titus. “Ellie told me that she’d made Kylie promise to keep you out here in order to prevent you fleeing the scene.”
Ash slung his arm around Titus’s shoulders and Titus almost groaned as he realized that this was apparently the next person on Titus watch duty. “Aren’t we ready to start yet?”
The sound of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” echoed from the auditorium doors as people sat down. Next up on the wedding soundtrack, “Ave Maria.” Or maybe Jesu, “Joy of Man’s Desiring.” Who knew? At this rate it was all just classical tripe in Titus’s opinion.
That made Titus think of something very specific. He turned to Ash and gave his friend a hard nod of approval. “You know what, I want to thank you for not going through this whole wedding charade.”
“Considering Mindy’s brother had just overdosed and she has no family left, she decided the whole wedding thing would have been more depressing than celebratory,” Ash admitted. He shrugged. “But I have to say that I’m not entirely sure how I feel on the topic.”
“What?”
Ash pursed his lips and his expression grew thoughtful. “Well, all of this is just a way for Duke to proclaim to the entire world that Olivia is his. He wants to make sure she and the rest of Branson, and maybe the whole world, know he wants this woman to be his. It isn’
t about pomp and circumstance. It’s about making sure you declare in front of everyone that matters that you’re in this for life. Don’t you think?”
Titus had never particularly looked at it that way. Shifters didn’t actually do wedding ceremonies. They didn’t do legal marriages. Half of the population didn’t have a birth certificate or a Social Security card. They lived a cash existence, which was why there was no possible way to produce legal proof that his brother Jason had ever been alive.
“Are you and Kylie getting married?” Ash wondered out loud. His tone was nonchalant, but Titus could sense the curiosity beneath it. No doubt there was some speculation on whether or not Titus was the marrying kind.
“Yes.” Titus didn’t even feel the need to hesitate. “I would have married her already, but I didn’t want to steal Duke and Olivia’s thunder.”
Ash cranked his head around and gave Titus a look of pleasant surprise. “You know, just about the time I don’t think you really care about all of those little social things that aren’t necessarily a big deal, you go and do something like that and I realize you’re far more human than we all give you credit for.”
“Does that surprise you?” Titus wasn’t sure if he’d just been paid a compliment or given an insult. “I’m half human. Sort of.”
“Exactly,” Ash agreed. Not far away, the door from backstage was opening and the rest of the male portion of the wedding party was coming out trailed by a photographer. “You’ve always been different, Titus. We all knew that. You would do things or say things or something would happen and we would be confronted with the fact you just weren’t like us. Not exactly. And maybe when Mindy told me what she suspected, I wasn’t really all that surprised.”
“Your Mindy is one hell of a woman,” Titus said gruffly. He folded his arms and felt silly making this kind of statement to Ash. “I really like her. I did from the start. The woman is a fighter and she’s smart. She’d make a good investigator.”
“I agree.” Ash shook his head and sighed. “And if I wasn’t sure you’re already very attached to Kylie, I would absolutely knock your block off for noticing. Even though I’m pretty sure you could decapitate me before I got a single punch in.”
“I’m not quite that fast,” Titus mused. “But close.”
“Hey!” Younger was practically bouncing as he walked up and slung an arm around Ash. “Are we all ready to line up like kindergarteners for the processional?”
“Why kindergarten?” Titus wanted to know. He stared at the group and shrugged. “Keep in mind I never attended school so this whole processional thing just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“The ultimate home school experience,” Duke said dryly.
Younger snorted. “Try raised by wolves. Literally.”
They all thought this joke was hilarious. Titus let them. But when he had to make the walk to the very first set of double doors so he could lead the way down the center aisle, he was glad to have them at his back.
“By the way,” Titus told Duke as he got ready to walk in. “You can tell your blushing bride that I find it appalling that she intentionally made me go first. And don’t try to say she didn’t do that with all of her choreographing.”
“I’ll let her know,” Duke called back to Titus. “But I can already tell you she’ll laugh and tell you to stuff it.”
Titus wondered what had happened to the cool façade he usually wore on his face. It seemed to be gone. He was smiling of course, but he felt ridiculous. Maybe it was the suit. Maybe it was everything that had happened. He felt more exposed and yet exhilarated right now than he’d ever felt before in his life.
Then he spotted Kylie. She was sitting with Ms. Wankenfurter on the aisle seat not far from the front of the church. Titus found her gaze and suddenly he couldn’t even recall what else was going on in the room. The auditorium was full. “Ave Maria” was indeed on the playlist. And Titus just didn’t have the time to notice. He was too busy watching his beloved watch him. He would never get tired of seeing that twinkle in her eye that told him he was absolutely the only one in her life that she cared to be with. She was it. She was his one and only and he was hers. That was what mattered.
Behind him, Ash and Younger tromped along. No stage fright for them. From the corner of his eye, Titus could see Younger was busy treating this like a military exercise. At the rehearsal last night, he’d been trying to teach all of them the left, right pattern necessary for any good march maneuver. Of course, the girls had been laughing so hard they wound up dancing circles around him just to ruin his rhythm. But wasn’t that was being with friends and having a good time in life was all about?
They lined up at the front of the auditorium just to the left of the huge arbor that had been brought in to form what Titus called the “wedding scene.” It was laden with roses donated by a local florist that Adam knew and Kylie had claimed the entire thing was absolutely magical.
If Kylie wanted arbors full of roses, then Titus figured he might have to get her some. But then, the woman could have asked him for the moon and he’d have done that too. He would happily make anything happen just to see her smile. It was his thing.
The music swelled and Titus spotted the ladies coming down the aisle in their bridesmaid outfits. They were dressed in pale blue, which was no doubt why Kylie had picked the blue dress. The pretty color flattered the bridesmaids with their hair all piled atop their heads and their high-heeled shoes. Even Ellie looked radiant and Titus could see her looking for Adam in the audience just like he had looked for Kylie.
Ellie, Laurie, and Mindy all lined up on the right side of the arbor as Olivia made it to the top of the aisle and the entire audience rose to their feet. It wasn’t Olivia that Titus watched though. It was Duke. The way he looked at his bride made Titus feel good inside. He hadn’t really worried about whether or not his employees were happy or not. He’d cared more about their productivity than their eternal souls. But right now, he could see the benefit in having them feel good, in making sure all of them were happy at home and at work. In the end, that was what really mattered.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I can only hope,” Titus said in a voice that managed to carry to the other end of the reception hall. “That I can endeavor to be as happy in the rest of my life as Duke and Olivia are with each other. I wish them all the best in the world!”
There was a clinking of glasses and then a round of applause. Titus sat down beside Kylie and waited for the toasts and well-wishing to go on. There was a quartet in the corner and a dance floor and more flowers than you could shake a stick at. The catering tables were so full of good food that they were nearly buckling beneath the weight. And case after case of good wine flowed from the Oak Barrel Hill Winery, along with champagne. It was like the entire town of Branson had decided to thank the Rock Wolf Investigations family for getting rid of Hilary Allenwood’s reign of terror at the Branson Register. And no matter how much Titus wished all of this was just due to Duke and Olivia’s individual merit, he knew—as well as the rest of his team—that this was about far more than just one happy couple.
“That was a lovely toast,” Kylie whispered in his ear. “I’ve never thought of you as the gracious speechmaking type.”
“I’m not,” Titus grunted. “I looked it up on the Internet.”
Kylie smothered a laugh and pressed her face to the sleeve of his dress shirt. At least he’d gotten to ditch the tuxedo jacket and tie. It was like the photographer had been determined that several hours wouldn’t be enough to capture every perfect moment on film for posterity. But now that was over and the reception was heading toward drunken revelry at a startling rate of speed.
Soon enough, the couple was cutting the cake and shoving it in each other’s faces. The quartet was playing and people were heading for the dance floor. Titus did not waste a second. He took Kylie’s hand and led her out onto the floor fully aware that practically everyone in town was watching.
“You promised,” Titus t
old Kylie with a wink.
She put her hand on his arm in a way that suggested she at least knew her way around a dance floor. “And I keep my promises,” she told him warmly.
They swayed together to the music. Titus gradually forgot about everyone else. He forgot about the Hilary mess and the Sergeant Caprico mess and the mess his life had been since his brother Jason had met Heidi Allenwood in a bar in Bozeman. None of that mattered anymore. He was a million miles away and with the woman he loved.
“Uh oh,” Kylie whispered as Titus twirled her around the floor and managed not to bump into the other couples. “I see Ms. Wankenfurter sneaking goodies into her handbag.”
“Tell me if she tries to add a bottle of champagne, that would be something to watch.”
Kylie giggled. “I think she’s making her purse into a doggie bag for Pugsley. She kept saying how awful it was that he couldn’t come and enjoy himself.”
“Should we tell her the prowler is well and truly gone?” Titus wondered out loud.
Kylie was already shaking her head. “No. I don’t think so. If we did that, she would have nothing to occupy her when it comes to prying into everyone else’s business. Since the prowler sightings started, she’s stopped adding to her spy files.”
“We should really contrive to steal those files for ourselves,” Titus mused thoughtfully. “They would be a big help in my business.”
“Right. Because that would most certainly convince her the prowler was still at large.” Kylie dissolved into a fit of giggles and pressed her face into his shoulder. “Sorry,” she said a bit breathlessly. “Too much champagne.”
“I happen to think you’re adorable and sexy when you’re tipsy,” Titus told her.
Kylie stopped giggling. “Oh my God, Titus! Was—was that real?”
“The jacuzzi incident?” He cleared his throat. Might as well just come out with it. “Yeah, it was real.”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 118
