And there it is. The best sight in the world.
Sadie Stewart, wearing one of her trademark brighter-than-Times-Square smiles, walking down the aisle towards me where I’m waiting.
Except I’m the officiant at this wedding, not the groom. And she’s walking the bride down the aisle, beaming at Emily with excited joy. Sadie’s filling in for Emily’s late father today. After all, it needed doing, and Dean and I were both occupied. So she’s insistent that the beautiful, smoky heather coloured dress isnota bridesmaid dress, even though she’s playing that role as well.
For a few scant seconds I savour this small moment, just for me. It may have to tide me over for the rest of my days.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Eli is choked up with happiness as the love of his life walks to meet him. He looks like the cat that got the cream. Emily, one of my favourite people in the world, radiant as any bride I’ve ever seen in a vintage white dress down to her knees, has love for Eli shining brightly in her eyes. Dean, my other cousin, keepsgrinning as he stands next to Eli, looking better and healthier than he’s looked in many a long year. His service dog, Click, is also wearing a little tuxedo, and he’s melting hearts with his sweet, happy, teddy-like face and eagerly wagging tail. Dean’s girlfriend, Liaden, plays the piano and singsHaloby Beyonce with her power ballad voice. As generically wedding-y as the choice is, it’s perfect, and lyrically significant for this happy couple in a way it may not be for everyone else that chooses it.
And I get to conduct the wedding ceremony and marry them to each other in front of our friends and most of our family.
Life doesn’t get much better than this.
Although actually, I think as Sadie hands Em to Eli with a huge smile, it just might. Maybe. If I play this one hundred percent correctly with no missteps.
It’s been a few months now since that dickhole, Peter, dumped her. I don’t think he broke her heart as much as he broke her pride, her sense of where her life was at and where she was headed. She’s been off her game ever since, still my sparkling firecracker, but quieter, more subdued. Less outgoing. The challenging glint in her eyes is starting to return, though, and I’m going to fan that flame any way I can. I’ve missed her, the real her, the one who called me out on all my shit and never let me get away with anything. I want that back.
I wanther,for good.
And in my bones, I know the time has come to lay my cards out on the table. To tell her that she’s everything I’ve ever looked for in another human being, and that, if she’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making her happier than she ever dreamed of being. I’ve waited years for this chance, and I’m finally,finallygoing to muster up all my courage, accept the risks, and take it.
It’s time.
“Goddamnit, Dean,”I say, hugging him, “you had me chopping onions like a motherfucker.” His speech was perfect, signed by him and translated aloud by Liaden, and I wasn’t the only person getting misty as they spoke together. I know he’d been feeling awful about Em and Eli having to cancel their original wedding plans when he had his final breakdown. I also know the way he put his heart into his best man speech would have more than made up for it in their eyes.
As if he ever needed to.
And anyway, the whole day has been a roaring success so far. The staff at Quilley Park on the edge of town really pulled out all the stops and did a great job, from the fairy lights and flower displays running across the room to the wait staff, for whom nothing is too much trouble. There’s no doubt in my mind that this venue and this day was so much better than the day they originally had planned: a decked out barn where they’d have had to do all the decorating, the food, and pretty much everything themselves rather than letting the professionals do it so they could enjoy their own big day.
Hopefully now Dean can accept that they made the right decision. He’s a lot less self-deprecating these days, but today’s wedding magic can only help to underline that for him.
He grins at me.Thanks, but Liaden was the one who made it pop.
“But you wrote the words,” she protests to him, turning and giving me a hug that makes her pink hair tickle my chin. “Andyou, Reverend Mills, played the ceremony exactly right, by the way.”
“Thanks, Rizzo.” I’m relieved she thinks so. I know some people expected me to take the piss out of the whole thing, but aside from the Klingon joke for Em and a couple of one-liners to calm their nerves at the start, I was serious throughout, and treated the event, and the honour of conducting the ceremony, with the warmth and gravity it deserved. I’m a joker, not an asshole.
And Eli and Em seem happy with how it went, which is all that ever mattered to me. Right now, they look surgically joined at the hip as they greet the guests in turn. My younger sister, Tippi, who flew in specially from her latest trip around Europe. My other sister, Theda, and her rainbow haired wife, May. Our mother broke her leg skiing in Vale three weeks before the wedding, or she’d be here, too. Uncle Kit, out of his ripped jeans and motor oil stained t-shirts for once, wearing his suit from yesteryear that’s still pristine. Auntie Woowoo, in a dress she likely hand-dyed herself, busily loving on Click who follows her around devotedly like the the most adorable little dude in the world. Even Eli’s stepmother, Aunt Kate, has been making a fuss of him, and she claims to be afraid of dogs. Uncle Joe hugs Emily warmly, seemingly happier with his son’s second choice of wife; but then, that’s hardly a high bar, since Charmaine was selfish and mean as a pissed off cat. Dean’s sister, Neroli, even managed to make it all the way from Canada, though she needs to be back in a couple of days. I think she really wanted to meet Liaden, size her up and assess how likely she was to break her brother’s heart, but she looks like she’s been well and truly won over given how the two of them have been linking arms and giggling together all day.
And there’s Sadie, chatting to her brother and her niece. She’s relaxed around them the way she isn’t with many otherpeople. I’m pretty sure I can include myself in that select group, but it’s still great to watch her with them. Eleanor is, what, eleven or twelve now, and it’s clear from the rapt way she gazes at Sadie that Sadie is the cool aunt. Because of course she is: beautiful, tatted up, and a take-no-shit badass.
Dean coughs.I could do with another break,he signs to Liaden, giving her a meaningful look that I’m pretty sure anyone with half a brain cell could interpret.
“Anything you say, my love,” she says, immediately jumping to take his hand and lead him off to the breakout room Em organised in case Dean felt like he needed to take five at any point. He’s been dealing with the music and the party atmosphere better than I ever thought he possibly could, but that’s the second time they’ve gone there in the past hour. I’d be concerned about him if it wasn’t for the fact that they seem to come out of there looking decidedly rumpled, and that Liaden is trying to grab his other hand to stop it from squeezing her ass as they go.
On the other hand, though, their insatiable lust for each other does give me a great opportunity to take Mr and Mrs Gastright to one side and tell them about my wedding present.
I’ve been looking forward to this moment all day. And since they got engaged.
And for the past ten years.
“Sorry to interrupt, Pickle,” I say to Tippi, sliding my arm around her neck and interrupting her conversation with Eli and Em, “but I need to borrow the newlyweds.”
She squeezes my arm under her chin affectionately. “Ya really wanna speak with this yutz?” she asks them, squeaking when I rub my knuckles on top of her blonde curls. She travels a lot and spends more time in the States than I do, so while she doesn’t sound as American as Theda, who lives in New Orleans, she has more of a noticeable twang than me. I love both Thedaand Tippi very much, but if you forced my hand and told me Ihadto pick my favourite sister, Tippi has the edge. She’s just buckets of sunshine and wisecracks, and never lets anything get in the way of what she wants. Although she’s eight years younger than me, I kind of want to be her when I grow up.
“Trust me, you really do,” I tell them with a wink.
“Fine,” Eli jokes, “but Tip, if you do to my wedding cake what you did to my eleventh birthday cake…”
