He called a council of advisers. Teela and Haydn. The only couple he knew other than his own parents who had their shit together. They took shelter in a sitting room where there were two more dogs, a terrier wearing a bandana and a large brown poodle with one eye.
“I have this problem,” he said. The poodle sidled up to him and leaned on his leg. Its head level with Grip’s hand.
Teela got straight to it. “Jay.”
Except Haydn said, “Evie,” and the two of them squared off.
“Why would you say it was Evie?” Teela said.
Haydn made a what gives gesture and said, “Why would you say it was Jay?”
“It’s obvious it’s Jay. He left Evie once.”
Haydn reached for Teela. “I left you once.”
She smiled and walked into his embrace. “That was different. We weren’t really together.”
They were going to kiss and make up in a minute and Grip didn’t have time for that. He stroked the poodle’s head. “Guys. Not helping. So not helping. Evie’s not dressed. She thinks she’d going to wreck Jay’s career. Jay is dressed, he looks ace, except for the puke green face and he thinks he’s going to wreck Evie’s career.”
“Is that all?” Haydn asked.
“That’s a lot,” Teela said.
Haydn wiped a hand over his face. “Tee, sweetheart. We had that same worry. We almost weren’t a thing without getting past it.”
Grip cut in. “How exactly did you do that?” If they told him it took months, no one was ever going to ask him to be bridesman again and he would need to drink a shitload.
Teela looked up at Haydn. “We talked a lot.”
“We learned how to trust each other,” Haydn said. “I knew there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Teela, but that I wasn’t a mind reader and I shouldn’t make assumptions about what she wanted from me.”
“And I figured out that just because he’d do anything for me that didn’t mean I couldn’t speak up for myself about what I wanted.” Teela said.
Haydn put his face in Teela’s hair. “She’d do anything for me too.”
She sighed. “True. So many dogs.”
One of those dogs licked Grip’s hand. “But you’re not married.” There was a sparkler the size of a small island on Teela’s finger and Grip knew from Evie that Haydn had a vasectomy reversed in case Teela should ever want kids. If that wasn’t evidence of a commitment, he didn’t know what was.
“It’s complicated,” Teela said.
“That is not what I want to hear right now.” Grip looked at his watch. Way off schedule.
Haydn ran a hand through his hair. “We need to find the right time. There’s this year’s awards schedule and I don’t want to have to drag Teela along on a promo tour and she just opened a new office, and we were building this house and—”
Bandanna dog yawned and Grip took that as his cue and cut Hollywood’s sexiest man alive off. “All I’m hearing is excuses.”
“You’re right, Grip.” Haydn turned to Teela. “Want to get married t
oday?”
Her eyes bugged. “Today?”
“We have a celebrant. We have the people we love here. My dad is visiting. There’s no media circus to worry about. We can work out how to fit a honeymoon in.” He frowned. “But you don’t have the dress or the shoes.”
She threw her arms around him. “I have everything I need. More than I ever thought possible. Let’s get married today.”
Grip held his hands up. “Okay, okay, wigging me out.”