“What are you doing?” Ava asked again, this time with her hands on her hips.
Slightly turning to look at her daughter-in-law, she smiled. “I’m going to play another hand.”
Shaking her head, Ava said, “Oh, no.” Reaching across Beatrice, she began to gather up the chips, stuffing them in her jean pockets. “You will not have your son on my case about you losing a ton of money.” Bending down, she gritted between her teeth in Beatrice’s ear so no one would hear her. “Langston told me about your gambling problem.”
Beatrice gasped. “He didn’t!” She was mortified. She was going to have a chat with her son. He didn’t have to tell his new wife all the family secrets.
Ava couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on, let’s go to the bar to celebrate. You sure can afford to treat us all.”
“Amen to that,” Beverly said, linking her arm through Beatrice’s as they strutted off to the bar.
The younger crew breathed a sigh of relief as they sat at the bar sipping on cocktails. The senior wrecking crew hadn’t gotten into any mishaps…or so they thought. After the third round of drinks, one of the older ladies thought it’d be fun to start a conga line in the bar. Karen and the others thought it was rather funny, with Joan leading the line and all. All would have ended well there, but noooo… the old gals really had to let their hair down.
With the assistance of the big Texan from the poker table, Beatrice climbed up on the bar and began clapping her hands and throwing glasses to the floor like she was at a Greek wedding or something. It didn’t help matters that Ben, that’s what the big Texan’s name was, encouraged her performance by clapping and throwing glasses right along with her.
“Whoo! Go Beatrice!” Donna hooted. Turning to Janet, she shouted over the music, “She’s really not so bad. And she’s having a good time, too!”
After ten minutes of the foolishness, the bartender threatened to call security and demanded someone leave their credit card information to pay for the broken glasses.
By the time Karen and the girls alternated between telling Lisa and her workers their adventurous Vegas tale and enjoying a continental breakfast, they were all set to head back to Karen’s place.
As the mother of the bride Donna had made certain she, Janet, and Nita were the first to be styled, dressed, made up and ready to work. Janet and Nita had their hands full with getting the children dressed. And boy was that a job, considering that between Karen, Starr, Summer and Ava there were eight children in all. Well, minus one, because Kyle insisted on getting dressed and arriving to the hotel with Dom.
The living and dining rooms doubled as one huge dressing room. And Donna was in charge of the bridal party.
Ava and Summer had their hair and makeup done and were in Kyle’s room putting on their dresses.
Now she was off to check on her girls. Breezing into Ashley’s bedroom where Benji, makeup artist extraordinaire, had set up shop, she again admired his work as he lined and filled in Starr’s full lips. “Looking good,” she winked at Starr, giving her the thumbs up sign. She chuckled when Starr returned the gesture and Benji huffed, “Sit still Miss Thing, or I swear I’m going to paint a mustache on you.”
Moving on to Karen’s bedroom she stopped in her tracks. “Wow, look at you!” Donna gushed as she spied Jackie the hairstylist putting the finishing touches on Karen’s hair, styled in a fancy French twist with loose tendrils framing her face. Tears began to mist Donna’s eyes. “Baby, I’m so happy for you. Dom is a good man.”
Karen reached for her mom’s hand and gave it a tender squeeze. “Thanks Mom. But please don’t cry or you’ll make me cry, too.” Giving her mother’s hand another squeeze, she teased, “You don’t want me wearing sunglass to hide my puffy eyes do you?”
As hard as she tried she couldn’t keep a few tears from falling. “Of course not, baby,” she said through a watery smile.
Jackie smiled at mother and daughter. Reaching for the box of tissues she always kept handy when doing bridal parties, because someone was bound to cry, she handed it to Donna.
Donna thanked her. After dabbing her eyes she kissed Karen on the cheek. “Let me get out of here and go see if Janet and Nita need help getting the children dressed.”
“Thanks Mom,” Karen smiled as she hopped out of the chair. Just as she was about to go tell her sister they could swap spaces, she and Ashley nearly collided as the child charged into the bedroom.