Page 61 of Dozer (Rolling Thunder MC #14)

Chapter 61

Daisy

Dozer had a few days home with me, without needing to go into work, which was mostly nice with short periods of horrible, especially the oral training first thing every morning. He showed me his wolf on his second day back, and it was kind of anticlimactic, to be honest. I mean, he’s huge and beautiful, and I loved walking through the woods with him and Champ, but I didn’t much like talking to myself, so we just walked without anyone talking. Well, I guess I talked to Champ a lot, but mostly, he followed the wolf, so walking him on a leash was easier and didn’t need as many verbal cues from me. I still carried the treats and rewarded him for walking the way he’s supposed to when on a leash.

I asked the wolf if he wanted a treat, but he just glared at me, so I put the bag back in my pocket without further comment.

There’s a lot of silence when I’m under speech restrictions, so it isn’t that I wasn’t comfortable with it, but I was happy when he changed back to human before we came out of the woods and went back into the house.

All my wedding plan stuff was in a huge notebook, with a to-do list in the front, and then sections behind for each major thing — flowers, venue, clothes, and reception, which was divided into food, cake, decorations, and music, though that last part was completely empty because Master assured me he’d handle the music, and he said the subject was closed so I wasn’t to ask him about it again.

Everything major was planned and arranged for, with the exception of buying my dress, and that happened a few days before my trip to see the piercer for my first checkup, where he’d tell us whether Master could start using the piercings to lock me up yet. I had a feeling he was going to say the labia piercings were fine, but the Christina piercing needed more time.

I was a nervous wreck about my mom coming on our shopping trip, but it turned out okay. Gen had set an appointment with someone, and she’d sent her my sizes, plus a few dozen pictures of me in the kind of clothes I like to wear, and in a bathing suit, so she could see my figure without clothes, and the woman said she’d have dozens of dresses in my size ready for me to try on. We went to a few other bridal places for me to try things on before we went to the appointment, and that made me appreciate the bridal specialist oh-so-much more.

And that’s when I found out my mother had arranged for some special couture dresses to be made available for me to try on as well — dresses I’d have never even considered if I knew Dozer was paying for them, but my mother wanted to pay for part of my wedding, and I guess she figured this was a sidestep around Dozer’s decree that he was paying for his own wedding and didn’t need help.

I secretly hoped the dress I liked best would be one of the regular dresses that were expensive, sure, but not stupidly expensive.

But wouldn’t you know it, the one I fell in love with was a one-of-a-kind from a designer I loved, back when I had no idea about the cost of things.

One doesn’t try mega-expensive dresses on alone in a dressing room. The bridal specialist helps you into and out of them, zips and unzips them, and makes sure they’re back properly on the hanger.

When the last dress was off, I said I needed to use the restroom, thinking I’d call Dozer and talk to him, but the bathroom was in the hallway just outside the private room we were in, and the wolves would hear our conversation.

I considered sending him a picture of me in both dresses, but I wanted it to be a surprise when I walked down the aisle, so I merely texted him, I wanted to like one of the dresses Gen had arranged for me to have available to try on, but my mother had some couture one-of-a-kind dresses brought in as possibilities, and I fell in love with one of them. I feel like I need to check in with you about it before deciding, though. I’ll be fine with the $2300 one, because I would never ask you to spend $90000 on a dress, so I can only get the one-of-a-kind dress if I let my mom pay for it.

$90,000? With four zeros?

Yeah. I’ll choose the other. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked, but I really, really like it. You’re right, though. It’s too much to let her spend on me.

No, I didn’t say that, I just wanted to be certain I had it right. Are you at a place where you can talk?

No. I took the last dress off and said I need to use the restroom, and then I’ll be back to talk to them about my top five, but really, it’s between those two, I just haven’t told them that yet. Do you need me to find a way to get farther away, so we can talk?

Stay put. We can do this over text. I’m glad you checked in with me. How has your mom been today? Do you want to give this to her? Let her buy your dress? Or would it make you uncomfortable? Do you think she’s going to hold it over your head, or do you think this is her trying to tell you she wants to do something special for you?

She’s been great, which is surprising. I think I’d like to let her do it, but only if you’re comfortable with it.

I want what’s best for you. If you think it’ll help you and your mom if she does this, then go for it. If you think it might be used to hurt you down the road, if she can hold it over your head and put you on a guilt trip over it, then pick the other. You have to know I’ll be happy in whatever you choose – I just need you walking down the aisle, and then dancing with me and my brothers after, during the reception, and I want the huge tiered wedding cake, and the kick-ass groom cake Matty helped you design. That’s it. Your choice on the dress, little flower.

I love you.

I love you, too.

My mom had likely spent a great deal of money to have those dresses made available to me. The most expensive dress was nearly a quarter of a million dollars, but it hadn’t made it into the top ten because it was meant for a woman with bigger boobs and it did not work on me. I’d thought it was going to be perfect until I put it on, and I was relieved it wasn’t.

When I stepped back into our room, I told everyone, “Can my mother and I have a few moments alone, please?”

“Certainly,” the bridal expert said. “We have fresh Earl Grey tea in a pot on the dais, delivered while you were in the restroom. Feel free to sit and talk. I’m going to take your friends out to enjoy our shoe department. Text one of them when you’re ready for them to return.”

My friends would have a blast trying on shoes. I noted there were enough chairs on the dais we could’ve all sat up there, and I imagined it was expected we’d stay up there with the tea, away from the dresses. A small sign on the table by the teapot indeed had instructions to keep all food and beverages on the dais.

I poured tea for myself and my mom from the fancy teapot into the fancy teacups. I put two cubes of sugar into mine, and then some cream, and my mom did the same.

My top five were hanging on the wall on the other side of the room from the dais, each peg a different color.

“My top two are hanging from the green peg and the purple peg. I’m in love with the purple one, but I also love the green one. Not as much, but I love them both, and there’s a huge price difference between them. That wouldn’t have mattered to me, once upon a time, but I’ve learned the value of money, and now it does.”

“Both pieces flatter your figure, and both look stunning on you, but the one on the purple peg makes you glow, dear daughter. I’m sorry you felt you had to leave us, and even more, I’m sorry you didn’t feel as if you could return when things went bad for you. Dozer would not be my choice for you, but it’s clear he loves you, and what matters is that he’s your choice. You should choose the dress that will make you sparkle and shine on your special day. It won’t hurt my feelings if you choose the other, but it’ll help me feel a little more a part of things if I know I’ve been able to help you be the beautiful bride we all know you’re going to be.”

She started to lift her tea and then seemed to change her mind. “I think I like you better now. I didn’t dislike you before, I’ve always loved you, but you were a defiant teen, and I admit sometimes I was glad it was time for you and your attitude to return to school. What I’m trying to say, is that as much as it annoys me for you to stand up to your father and me, I’m also a little proud of you for it. I’m a strong woman surviving in a cutthroat world, and I wanted to raise a strong woman who could continue my legacy, but you don’t want that, which is fine. I still see a strong woman, though — strong enough to walk away from millions of dollars in order to find herself and be her own woman. You are absolutely my daughter, and that means you’re going to pick whichever damned dress you want to, and it’s your wedding, so that’s the way it should be.”

It was everything I ever wanted to hear from my mother, and never expected to.

But I was not going to cry.

“Thank you. Seriously, I mean…” I stood. “I need to hug you, I think.”

She stood and leaned in to hug me, and told me, “Thank you for letting me be part of this, today. Now text one of your friends and tell them you’re ready for them to come help you decide.”

And then came the politics of deciding who to text. I wanted to text Harmony, but she’d understand why I chose to text Gen. It’s logical, right? The person who arranged for the trip needed the appearance of being in the know.

Sorry about that. We’re good in here. Come back when all of you are ready.

Moms sometimes need more handholding even in the best of circumstances. Harmony’s headed back now. The rest of us are trying shoes on, but we won’t be long.

“I have it narrowed down to two,” I told them about five minutes later, when they returned. “Out of curiosity, though, any chance I can get ya’ll to stand by the one each of you like best?”

Half of them like the one on the purple peg the most, and the rest were split between my second choice and one I hadn’t much liked at all. Funny how we see ourselves versus how others see us, yes?

But I told them which two I liked best, and then listened to my friends talk about the pros and cons of both — though no one brought up the price difference. I’m not even certain they knew the prices, since I only knew because I’d asked the bridal person while I tried them on.

Okay, scratch that, the wolves had to know because they’d have heard us talking.

Well, they’d been up on the dais drinking tea while I’d been changing into one dress after another and doing a little modeling show for the ones that weren’t hideous, so it’s possible they’d been busy talking and hadn’t been listening.

“Do you need to try them both on again?” the bridal consultant asked.

“No. It’s the one on the purple hook. I’ve decided.”

“Excellent choice. Our seamstress is close, and can be here by the time you’ve chosen your shoes. Let’s go out and pick, and then bring back the ones you like best, so you can try them on with the dress. She’ll need you in the shoes before she makes any alterations in the length.”

“I like the length as it is,” I told her. “It was designed to be tea-length in front and have a train in the back, but I like the way it comes to just above my ankles in front, and I’m good with the train as it is, since that fabric can be pulled away for me to dance at the reception.” And then it would come to just above my ankles all the way around.

“I would like to go ahead and pick out the shoes,” I added, “but I don’t think we need the seamstress. I love the way it fits.”

“Let’s have her look it over anyway,” the bridal lady said. “It was just a touch loose around the bodice, and I believe it will look even better if it’s taken in a smidge.”

“She’s right,” Gen said. “It’s perfect, but it can be a little more perfect.”

I wasn’t going to win this one, so we all trouped outside to look at shoes, and then I put the dress back on and walked around the room wearing all the shoes.

“I want these for the ceremony,” I finally told them, holding up a dainty pair with four-and-a-half inch stilettos, “because they are the perfect shoes to go with the dress.” I held up another pair, a half inch shorter, lacy, and with a wider heel, an ankle strap, and a criss-cross over the top of my foot for even more support. “And these for the reception, because they’re about as comfortable as four-inch heels can be, and if I’m going to dance the night away, it isn’t going to be in stilettos.”

“An excellent choice,” the bridal lady said, and then I stood in the taller heels while the seamstress pulled and tugged at the dress, and she got everyone’s opinions on what she could do to make the dress that I thought flattered my figured perfectly even more flattering. Not that she asked for anyone’s opinions, but she got them anyway.

* * * *

Dozer

Our women didn’t know we were going to be at the Atlanta Rolling Thunder Bar when they arrived after the nightclub, and that had taken some doing, but we pulled it off.

They thought they were doubling up on beds at Bud’s house. He has a shitload of spare bedrooms, and nine ol’ladies had come down, plus Micca and Bethany, which meant two to a bed and one would sleep on a sofa in the sitting area of the one of the spare rooms.

But we’d made alternate plans, of course. Bubbles and Lexi would stay with Texas and Sparkie in their spare bedroom. Brain, Harmony, McGyver, and Iris were at Shadow’s house, and that left enough beds at Bud’s house for the couples, with Micca and Bethany sharing the pullout sofa in the den.

And Bud was hosting everyone at his house the following morning for breakfast, including those who’d housed some of the Chattanooga people, and anyone else from Atlanta who wanted to show up.

I’ve seen their little butler-slave in nothing but a cock cage, but he wore his butler outfit when we arrived with our drunken ol’ladies in the early morning hours, and again for breakfast the next morning, when he was the sole waiter for around thirty-five people. He fed us all and kept everyone’s drinks filled, but he ran his ass off doing it.

We discovered over our meal that Bud had cooked forty pounds of bacon, and Nicki had helped break dozens and dozens of eggs, but Beau had scrambled all the eggs, and he’d made the biscuits, and the gravy, and he’d peeled and cut the potatoes into wedges, though he’d baked them in butter rather than frying them, to simplify at least part of the process.

“Miss Nickie,” Matty said, his voice more respectful than I could ever remember hearing it, “would it be possible for me to help Beau clean up, once everyone’s finished?”

“Oh, sweet boy,” Nickie told him. “Beau can handle it without help, and he’s getting an extra allowance he can buy more books with because he’s had to deal with so many people. He’ll be fine, and he wouldn’t want someone else doing what he feels is his job.”

She looked at Razor, and he told her, “Yes, he is a good boy, and I’ll make sure he’s suitably rewarded with whatever you text me.”

“Matty and my Nickie have bonded,” Bud said with a wry grin. “And that’s all any of you need to know about that. Bubbles, my Angel tells me you’re restoring an MG, and she spent part of a Saturday helping you.”

“She was a huge help,” Bubbles told him, and then the conversation moved away from the topic of Beau and Matty.

When I’d been sent away from Chattanooga, I’d tried to rejoin the Atlanta chapter, but Bud was just as ticked at me as the Chattanooga people. He isn’t gay, but his wife is a switch. She’s submissive to him, and he allows her to be dominant to a full-time male slave who lives with them, and who works as her assistant in her writing career.

I’ve learned in later years that Matty and Razor visit with them and the four go to BDSM clubs together. If I’d known when I’d been sent away, I wouldn’t have bothered asking Bud. Of course he was pissed at me, after the way I’d treated Matty at first.