Alien in the Family

with great joy and pride.”
    He let me go and turned to the audience. “Beloved guests, please welcome Jeffrey and Katherine Martini.”
    We got a standing-O, led by Chuckie and Brian who were still working at not cracking up. I was kind of impressed, though.
    Martini grinned. “First act as a married man is to tell you all to get over to the other ballroom right next door. All that running worked up an appetite.”
    This was met with cheers and laughter, as everyone did what he said. “You’re so good with the Commander thing.”
    “I command you to wear that dress every day on our honeymoon.”
    “Nice try. But no.”
    He sighed. “Your father warned me about this.” He scooped me up into his arms. “Can’t hold you the way I like in this dress. So, I guess it’s okay if you don’t want to wear it all the time.”
    I kissed him. “You’re so good to me.”
    He put me back down. “True, true.”
    Christopher shook his head. “Only the two of you would have ended up turning your wedding into a track meet.”
    “It could have been worse.”
    “Yeah, we might have had a superbeing formation.” Christopher looked around, as if he were waiting for something. “Well, small favors, I guess.”
    “Yeah, that’s how I feel about it.”
    “I see why we paraded all over the room,” Jareen said. “Sort of just ends and everyone wanders off.”
    “Not normally,” Jerry told her. “Only when Kitty’s involved.”
    Reader came over and pulled me away from Martini. Jeff. Guy I was now married to. Reader hugged me tightly. “You looked great. Even upside down.”
    “Yeah, the twins stayed inside.”
    “For the most part.” He laughed. “Next wedding I run, I’m not going to be in the wedding party.”
    “Don’t count on it. You’re the guy everyone wants with them, James.”
    He kissed my cheek. “Tell me that later.” He let go, and there was a twinkle in his eyes.
    “What are you planning now?”
    Reader just grinned at me. He put his arm around Gower, and they headed to the ballroom.
    Martini made sure no guests or members of the wedding party were straggling. Once we were alone, he stroked my face. “So, wedding of your dreams?”
    I thought about it. “Married the most gorgeous, wonderful man in the galaxy, so yeah, pretty much.” He took my hand and led me back down the aisle. “We running away already?”
    Martini laughed. “No. I just wanted to walk down the aisle with you this way, as a married couple.” We looked at each other the whole way. It was romantic and sexy. We reached the end, and I flung myself at him. He gathered me up and kissed me, deeply, passionately, and for a long time.
    I heard someone tap a microphone. “Jeff, if you and Kitty can stop making out for a minute, the rest of us are starving.” Christopher sounded as though he was trying not to laugh.
    Martini ended our kiss, sighed, and let me slide back to the floor. “No problem. I sleep with you tonight, not him.” He swept me up into his arms and strode through the now empty ballroom into the bigger, very full ballroom. “They’ll be pretending to faint from hunger if I let you walk it.”
    “Humph.”
    He grinned. “Really. Wear this on our honeymoon.”
    I rolled my eyes. “We can play Chase Me, Chase Me or Pretend Attacker tonight, you know. The suite’s big enough.”
    “Mmmm.” His eyelids dropped and he purred. “I love how you think.”
    We got to the head table, and things started to blur again. Lots of great food. Lots of long speeches, some funny, some touching, some dull. Reader cut off the dull ones, earning himself yet another gold star in drill sergeanting.
    “Only known Kitty and Jeff a short time,” Jareen said for her toast. “But once you find your soul sister, she’s yours for life. So, take good care of her, Jeff—you don’t want to find out how we avenge our sisters out my way. We make Renata’s girls look like babies. Oh, and Kitty? Way to go on landing His Royal Hotness.” The girls in my wedding party were howling by the time she was done, Wahoa almost literally.
    Christopher got the mike. “I’ve had no choice but to know Jeff all my life.” Lots of A-C chuckles for this. “But if I’d been able to pick the person who I’d go through everything with, risk my life every day with, and even fight with, I couldn’t have found anybody better than Jeff, even if I’d searched through two solar systems.” I heard sniffles from the audience. He closed his eyes