And how is Jamie doing?"

"Fine. He seems to be spending a lot of time in the shower," I noted quietly, my voice so low that even Jamie's super hearing couldn't pick it up.

Dick chuckled, followed by Zeb and Gabriel.

"What?"

"Remember that summer I turned thirteen and my mom complained that she couldn't ever get me out of the bathroom?" Zeb asked.

"Yeah, but that's because you were-" I slapped my hand over my mouth. "Oh!"

"Welcome to the wonderful world of parenting," Zeb said. ""It's one big, horrifying miracle."

"Augh!" I grumbled.

My color schemes were limited to what would go with the pewter-gray gown...except for the bridesmaids' gowns. I'd already decided that they were going to be a distinctly nonmatchy lemon yellow that Jolene's aunt Vonnie would have to special-order. The kind of yellow one would find on takeout menus or particularly urgent Post-it notes.
In fact, if the outdoor lighting failed, we could use the color of their dresses to illuminate the ceremony.
And yes, i had to use a vendor who hated me, because Vonnie held the only pattern left in the continental United States for the "Ruffle and Dreams," the very dress I'd had to wear in Jolene's wedding. Revenge would would be mine, for a few months, until i revealed the dove-gray bridesmaids' dresses i actually planned for them to wear.

Can we get a whiteboard,like on Law and Order?" Andrea asked.

Dick nodded. "I was thinking official 'Keep Jane from Being Murdered Task Force' T-shirts.

He stroked a hand across my shoulders. "You know, I've never seen this agressively intellectual side of you before. It's rather disturbing and yet somehow a little sexy."

Which is pretty much how we define our relationship", I said.

I have ways of making extra money when I need it", he said, slightly offended. "When Gilbert needed money for graduate school, I sold a kidney on the black market for tuition."

We can grow those back?" I asked.

It wasn't my kidney.

It took me awhile to learn the rules. OK, it took the librarian in me weeks of careful obsessive research to learn the rules. There was a label maker involved. I'd rather not go into it.