“I thought you said the tickets were going to solve things.”
“It cut down the attendees,” I conceded. “However, Crawford still thinks that people are just going to show up and want to purchase a ticket at the door. He’s concerned that we are going to have crowd-management issues. He’s bringing in extra people.”
As we walked along Main Street and into the town square, city workers were already setting up the Jumbotrons to broadcast the wedding to the crowds.
“It’s a good thing you’re photogenic,” Meg said, bounding up and giving Hunter a kiss. “The wedding is being livestreamed.”
“Is there another festival today?” I frowned, looking around at all the vendors with tables set up.
“This is the party favor selection meeting,” Amy said behind me. She spread her arms wide. “Ta-da!”
“Don’t those already need to have been ordered and manufactured?” I asked in concern.
“They are,” Ivy assured me, setting out two sample gift bags. “The rest of the vendors are selling official Meg-and-Hunter merchandise.”
“They can just sell it,” Meg said. “I don’t need to be involved.”
Amy raised a finger. “We told people their products needed to be approved before they could sell them, because otherwise…”
Several townspeople, attracted by all the activity, were already browsing through the merchandise.
“Get your official Harrogate wedding erectile dysfunction tea!” Ida called loudly from her table. “Guaranteed to make you as big as Hunter.”
Amy sprinted over to her.
“Ida, we cannot sell that as official merchandise!”
“Why the hell not?” Ida demanded. “I’m a small-business owner. I should be allowed to sell what I want.”
“You can,” I told her, “but it cannot be official wedding merchandise. This is an official Harrogate event. Representatives from the governor’s office will be in attendance. You are not going to hawk penis-enhancing tea while the governor is walking around with his kids.”
“Why don’t you sell normal tea?” Meg suggested.
“If it’s normal, no one’s going to want to buy it.” Ida pouted.
“Selling food products that could make people sick is a health violation,” I said.
“Actually,” Ida conceded, “there isn’t anything different in here from my normal after-dinner tea—just a little extra mint and a fancy label.”
“Call it wedding tea, and let’s move on,” Amy said.
While Amy, Meg, and Ivy talked to the vendors, I hung back with Hunter.
“Josh and Eric said they were sending over the custody-case files to you,” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. “Did you have a chance to look them over?”
Hunter clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’m helping them out with the case. Obviously, I don’t want you to lose your little brother. But I have been through this scenario with my father. He abandoned our younger brothers, and I’m their guardian. However, we went through the foster-care system, so there was a track record. The children were listed with the City of Harrogate Child Protective Services as abandoned.”
Hunter was in full-on lawyer mode.
“In your favor is that you have physical custody. He is enrolled in school in this jurisdiction. He has friends and a life here. If your dad is anything like mine, he probably just wants to win. He doesn’t necessarily want to take care of Alfie.”
“Tatiana wants him for her Instagram photos,” I said bitterly. “My dad is going to ship him off to military school when she’s tired of him.”
Hunter rested a hand on my shoulder then said seriously, “In family court, the judges assume people are lying, so don’t go in with a laundry list of complaints. We’ll structure the argument that it’s in Alfie’s best interest for a long custody transition period. There should be a year-long visitation period. First, there will be supervised visits, then Alfie will spend the day alone with your father, then he can sleep over at his house. Those types of schedules are always onerous, and I highly doubt your father will be diligent about not missing a meeting, especially if he has to drive two hours each way to Harrogate on a Tuesday evening for a thirty-minute visit. Once we have established a pattern, we can show he has no intention of being in Alfie’s life. Then we can file for custody.”
“Sounds like a long shot.”
Hunter shrugged. “With some of my brothers, the strategy was to go around and around with the foster-care system and stall until the kid turned eighteen and ran out the clock. We could try to do that here. You do have guardianship of him.”
