Gwen leaned forward. “I think you look nice.”
“Thank you,Gwen,” I said as I flung my cape back hard enough to hit Ruby on the shoulder.
Beside Gwen, Harvey bounced his foot aggressively. She placed a hand on his knee and then turned to me. “He’s not big on funerals.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Leonard isn’t even dead. And my granddaughter callsmedramatic.”
“I think it’s a nice idea, actually,” I told her. “And it was nice of you to come,” I whispered.
“Good exposure therapy for me,” Harvey said with his eyes trained on the ceiling.
“I’m here for the show.” Ruby glanced around with a mask of indifference.
“I haven’t seen her walk in yet,” Gwen whispered, and I inferred thathermeant Hollis.
Someone tapped my shoulder, and I turned to find Morgan standing in the empty row behind us. “We have a runaway bride.”
“What?”
“Well, not quite runaway, but on the verge of running away.”
I shook my head, still not understanding her.
“Leonard has cold feet,” Ruby deadpanned.
“Well, I don’t know what to say to him,” I said.
“You’re the one who recommended he do this in the first place,” Morgan said with a huff.
I looked over to Ruby, the palms of my hands suddenly slick with sweat. Had this been a mistake? Did I push Leonard to do something he didn’t actually want to do?
“That old queen spent way too much money on all of this to miss his own party.” Ruby groaned. “Come on. I’ll go with you.”
I didn’t argue or point out that Ruby was probably the last person Leonard wanted to see as we followed Morgan to the office across the hallway that I’d never actually been inside of before.
We walked in to find a very beige space with ivory sofas, calming music, and lavender air fresheners.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“It’s the we’re-sorry-your-grandpa-died room,” Ruby said.
Morgan shrugged. “Well, today it’s Leonard’s dressing room, but on most days it’s the room we send mourning families to when a loved one has passed away. So yeah, it’s the dead-grandpa room.”
Leonard sat in an accent chair with his fingers digging into the armrests.
“I’m going to update the minister,” Morgan said as she slipped out of the room.
I sat down on the sofa to the left of Leonard and Ruby gingerly sat on the coffee table in front of him with her legs crossed so that Leonard couldn’t even look up without seeing her.
“What’s going on?” I asked Leonard. “The place looks great. And there are lots of people here too.”
“This was a bad idea.” He wore a lavender suit and a matching cowboy hat—both of which of course matched his cane.
“Okay, well, seeing as this wasmyidea, I’m going to have to disagree with you,” I told him.
Ruby sighed. “I should never have quit smoking.”
“I agree,” Leonard sneered. “You might not still be haunting this mortal plane if you hadn’t, and wouldn’t that be ideal at the moment.” He turned to me. “What is she doing here anyway?”
