Alien in the House

have two dudes so far. How many girls are on Naomi’s side?”
    “Abigail, of course, and she’s Maid of Honor. Also confirmed and, please God, not changing. Then you, Amy, and Caroline.”
    “Really? I hate to sound really stupid and out of it, but Naomi hasn’t actually asked me.” And I had to figure if she hadn’t asked me, then she hadn’t asked Amy or Caroline, either.
    Chuckie gave me a major “duh” look. “You’re the human face of American Centaurion. Even if we all hated you, you’d be in the wedding. Besides, you’re my best friend. Mimi’s always planned to have you in the wedding party.”
    “Well, you know, happy to and all that. Will she be mad that you’ve told me?”
    “No, I think she assumes you already know. She’s having trouble with not being able to read anyone, so she’s choosing to believe that everyone else is now reading her.”
    Interesting. “Okay, so you need a couple more guys, right?”
    “Oh no, I need more than a couple. Remember how your husband was inviting everyone to be a groomsman when you were engaged?”
    “Vividly.” I’d had to pull in gals from the Alpha Centauri system to fill my side. Conveniently, they’d been on Earth helping us handle a much smaller invasion than the one we’d just gone through. We’d done better with Invasion Lite than we’d done a few months ago, but Earth still being here and populated by humans and our Earth A-Cs was absolutely one for the win column.
    “Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” Jeff said, sounding a little hurt. “Besides, it was nice to have everyone involved in our special day.” That Jeff could say this with absolutely no humor in his voice showed how much more romantic than me he was. Because I couldn’t think of our wedding as “our special day” without having to control my Inner Hyena.
    Chuckie shook his head at Jeff. “Again, whatever spin you like, but it boils down to the fact that Mimi’s doing the same thing. Serene, Claudia, and Lorraine are back on bridesmaid duty, there are a couple gals I’ve met twice and I don’t think you actually know invited, and she’s not done.”
    “Why so many? Of course, I’d have been okay with just you and James up there with me, but I know I’m different.”
    He grinned. “Yeah, you are. And I think she’s asking what feels like half the world because everyone’s encouraging her to do it. By everyone, I mean on the political side. Her parents and brothers have pretty much given up and just smile and nod whenever Mimi suggests anything.”
    “What’s Abigail think?”
    “She tried sanity for a while, got tired of being snapped at, and has joined the rest of the family in the smiling and nodding department.”
    Okay, so Naomi was turning into a freaked-out Bridezilla. Understandable and no worries, we could get that under control. I hoped.
    I’d seen some of this over the past months, but even though I’d made both Gower girls our Cultural Attachés, they hadn’t really done much since losing their powers, including stay at the Embassy. Wondered now if I should have forced them to work to keep their minds off of what they’d lost. As with the situation with ACE, nothing I could do about it at this moment. Tabled the worry for another time.
    “Okay, so, who else have you asked to be on your side of things?”
    Chuckie sighed. “No one.”



CHAPTER 5
    “W HY THE HECK NOT? Is there something wrong you haven’t told me?”
    Chuckie snorted. “No, if we ignore that we have world governments involved in my wedding plans, nothing’s wrong. But . . . I have exactly two friends, Kitty. You and Cliff. And that’s it.”
    “That’s not true, not any more at any rate.”
    “I suppose.”
    “King Alexander’s your friend. I’d count Councilor Leonidas, too. And I can promise the other dudes we know from the Alpha Centauri system like you, too.”
    “Fine, but without ACE we can’t contact them, so I can’t mention them, or what we actually want kept secret will quickly be all over the news and give our enemies free rein to try whatever they want.”
    “Surely you have more options than this. I mean, what about Brian?”
    “Really? Your ex who’s now married to Serene? The guy who hated me all through high school? Why don’t we see if we can bring Antony Marling back from the dead and have him in the wedding party, too?”
    “Airborne always stands ready. The flyboys live to be in wedding parties, and I’m sure Tim, as the Head of