Page 13 of Badd Baby

"And you’re gonna deny you have a man period, too?"

"You're an annoying ass bitch, Ella-Smella," he mumbled.

She just laughed. “He tries to find nicknames he hopes will annoy me as much as Donkey annoys him, but they’re all stupid. Like Ella-Smella.”

He glared at me. "If you call me Donkey, I won't tell you the solution I found for the wedding."

"Wait, solution? You said you had an update!"

He shrugged. "The update is that I found a solution."

Ella stopped what she was doing at stared at us. "Wedding? You guys aren't…"

Duncan cackled. "Us? God no, we just met a few days ago. We're just friends." He quirked an eyebrow at me. "For now."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Dream on, Bullwinkle." To Ella, then: "It's my friend Raquel and her fiancé, Hamish. They were supposed to be getting married at The Old Toby Inn the day after tomorrow. And they have fifty guests coming."

"Oh," she breathed. "The Old Toby Inn that burned down yesterday?"

“That's the one," I answered.

"Wow, that's…they must be freaking out."

"They are." I glared at Duncan. "I asked Duncan if he had any ideas, and apparently he found a solution…which he hasn’t told me about, yet.”

"It's called dramatic suspense—you may have heard of it," he said.

"It's called my friends are having panic attacks, so maybe don't keep the news to yourself."

"Fine, fine." Duncan took the red basket from Ella as she brought our food to the booth nearest the bar where we're sitting. "So, you may or may not be aware, but we have locations outside of Ketchikan. Salient to this discussion is the location in Anchorage, which is now, thanks to Dee and Hunter, a fancy sit-down place. I called Dee and explained the situation, and she's agreed to let your friends use the back room for the reception. It can hold at least a hundred people, and they use it for events all the time. As for the wedding itself, there's a hotel not fifteen minutes from the restaurant, and they do have rooms available, as well as a conference room where the wedding itself can happen." He shrugged. "I know it's not ideal, but there's just nothing available in Ketchikan, and I did ask everyone I know. Even the Airbnbs are all booked."

I covered his hand with mine. "Thank you for doing that, Duncan. Let me call my friends and see what they say."

I took my phone outside and called Lindsey, who then added Raquel to the call, with Hamish listening.

"Rune, you said you have a solution?" Lindsey prompted.

“Yeah, I do. Well, Duncan does."

"Who's Duncan?" asked Hamish in his thick Scottish burr.

"My friend. He's a local." I hesitated. "It is a good news, bad news situation, though. The good news he found you a hotel with rooms and a conference room as well as a nice restaurant that can host the reception."

"And the bad news?" asked Raquel.

"It's in Anchorage," I answered.

There were a few moments of silence—I can almost see the couple trading looks, having a silent conversation.

"Anchorage, is it? How far is that from Ketchikan?" Hamish asked.

"Uhhh, I have no idea," I answer. "Hold on." I poked my head inside. "Duncan? How far is it from here to Anchorage?"

"Oh, it's not that far," he answered. “A five-hour flight, or maybe…a day and a half drive? Two if you're taking your time."

I relayed the answer to Hamish, who guffawed. "It's no that far? It's a thousand fecking miles! A two-day drive! You Americans have a bloody fucking warped sense of distance."

"What choice do we have, baby?" Raquel asked in her soft, sweet voice. "We’ve got all our friends coming. We can’t cancel on them, and there ain't a single room available anywhere in Ketchikan."