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Marie stood in the center of the roo, with a sweetheart neckline, a narroaist to show off her figure, and a sweeping gown Her brown hair was pinned up, cascading down in a riot of curls, and she wore flooven through it No veil

I guess she’d gotten her fill of white tulle during the lih I wasn’t sure she even noticed who I was Nope, she zoned in on the beer, grabbing one and popping the top off using her engageed almost the entire bottle, then set it down and turned to face herblack leather for her wedding,” Lacey proclai item in her hand—Marie’s vest with her “Property of Horse” patch

“Horse wants me to wear it,” Marie snapped “It’s io with your dress,” Lacey snapped back “It’s ridiculous This is your day—you should look like a princess!”

“If it’s my day, why can’t I decide what I wear?” Marie asked, her voice rising Lacey’s eyes narrowed

“Because I’m your mother and I knohat you really want!” she yelled “Fuck, I need a smoke”

“I don’t want my dress to smell like smoke,” Marie shouted back “And I wantproperty patch!”

“No!” Lacey hissed She looked around frantically, then spotted a pair of florist’s scissors on the counter Snatching thely “Stay back, or the patch gets it!”

We all froze

“What if you take the patch off the vest and put it on the dress?” I suggested suddenly, inspired by the scissors “That way you can still wear it, but the vest won’t ruin the lines of the dress for the pictures”

“You can’t pull off the patch,” Cookie declared “That’d be like divorcing Horse But we could make a copy of it and pin that on her”

Silence fell across the rooht a silent battle with their eyes

Lacey’s nostrils flared

“I could live with that,” Marie said slowly We all swiveled toward Lacey She nodded slowly

“I’lared at each other a er Lacey held out the vest slowly and Marie snatched it back Dancer grabbed the vest and took off downstairs, presuo smoke and do so us with her eyes, one by one “When I come back, the patch will be on the dress in such a way that it’s not visible from the front, for the pictures If I see it from the front, we’ll have a probleh to save your asses We have an understanding?”

She swept out of the roorowled

“I need another beer”