“Wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” Auntie Woowoo says happily.
“Damn straight; about goddamn timesomeonemade an honest man of my boy. I’m just glad it’s you!” Mom lifts her glass to me with a pointed look, telling me without words that she’s happy for my good fortune. I’m told I look nothing like her; she’s about a foot shorter than me, with salt and pepper hair in a highly modern precision cut, pristine clothes, and more angular features like her brothers, Kit and Joe, but I’d say the lion’s share of my personality comes from her. We have the same sense of humour and gregarious, extroverted nature. People are drawn to her wherever we go, and it's been wonderful to see her and Wendy together again, lighting up the room with their happy reunion chatter. They’ve always been close, and they’re casting their friendship net over Cathy, too, including her in gift plans. Mom squad goals.
“Happy to have done so, and thanks also for the warm welcome,” Sadie says to my mother. They’ve only met a couple of times before now, but Mom always said she was a keeper, and that I should pull out all the stops to win her over. She always knew I was gone for Sadie, and applauded my taste, and fiercely hoped it would happen in the end. The two of them have hit it off outrageously ever since Mom landed, on instant hugging termsand fondly taking the piss out of me together, while I sit back and love every minute.
Mom always told me when I was a boy that I’d need a wife who could keep up with me, and preferably even run rings around me. From her approving grin, she seems confident that I’ve done it.
“And, finally,” Sadie says, pointing at her stomach, “thank you to this little nugget, who forced my hand and made me see what had been right in front of me all along.” She gives me a soft look, and I can see the telltale watery shine in her eyes. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here, babe, and I think this little one was the universe’s way of finally getting it through my thick skull. I’m sorry I needed it spelled out for me by mother nature, but I’ll spend my life making it up to you and making up for all that time I wasted being blind. I’ve seen the light, and…it’syou. So I’ll love you with everything in me, day in and day out, through everything that gets thrown at you…the way you’ve always loved me.” She reaches for my hand, and I take it, kissing her knuckles as I maintain eye contact, my own vision swimming.
“Woman,” I say quietly, just loud enough for her to hear, “you were worth every second.”
Sadie
Today has been perfect.
I’ve always been a bit eye roll-y about weddings. Lots of fuss and frills for a single day, and it always seemed ego-driven to me.Look at us, we’re in love, and so stylishly,too,blah blah blah. But I get it now.
Yes, I like the dress I’m wearing, but I’d marry Leo in my maternity jeans and one of his old t-shirts, in any venue he’dcare to choose, without flowers or jewellery or anything. Just as long I got to be pronounced his wife by the end of the day.
And besides, he deserves whatever kind of day he wants. I’ve taken part in the arrangements, sure, but I told Leo at the start that our wedding day was about him getting the huge display of love and commitment that he so deserved. And seeing him smile, reach for my hand when I was still a few feet away from him along the aisle, and the way he kissed me soundly, heedless of our whistling audience, has shown me I was wrong about all of it. Marriage. Weddings.Him.
And I don’t want anyone else making the same mistakes I made, wasting time when they could be happynow.
So, instead of tossing the bouquet, I quietly handed it to Nat. I know Tim like I know myself, and no matter how firmly he shuts down whenever the subject of Nat is raised, I know my twin has never stopped loving her for a second since they were fifteen. In spite of all the well-intentioned nonsense our parents put in place that he and Nat still keep up, he’s just quietly continued to love the mother of his daughter without even thinking of having anything in return. And I don’t believe for a second that it’s one sided. She looks at me in surprise, and when I hug her, I whisper in her ear.
“Sort things out with Tim. Seriously, it’s time. And it’s not too late.”
Her eyes are huge as she looks at me, full of history and confusion and longing, but I smile at her encouragingly. Tim gives me his ‘what are you up to’ smile-frown, but I say nothing more.
I also swing by where Wendy and Kit are having a cuddle as they talk to Dean and Liaden, and take Wendy to one side so I can give her a thank-you hug. “Thanks for everything,” I murmur to her.
She returns my hug. “For what, honey?”
I rock us from side to side exaggeratedly, making her laugh. “When I called you, you gave me advice from the heart, and you didn’t try to pressure me into keeping your great-niece or nephew. You putmefirst, and…that’s actually pretty incredible. Not a lot of people would have been that way. So, thank you.”
She gives me a squeeze as we step back. “You were family even before today,” she says, her voice soft with sincerity.
Kit puts his arms around her waist and stoops low to rest his chin on her shoulder. “Darlin’, you’re radiant,” he tells me, full of the Gastright charm. “And if you and Leo get to be half as happy as me and my Titsy-Woo -” He coughs as Wendy elbows him in the ribs.
“Titsy-Woo?” I crack up as she goes pink, smile-pouting and hittting his arm a few times.
“Er… Nickname,” he says, not as sheepish as he should be, grinning unrepentantly. I think he must be a little wasted to have let that slip. We say our goodbyes, and honestly, I’m ready to go home and fuck my husband.
And then an arm is slung around my shoulder, just like at Emily’s wedding. But this time, I’m not startled. Even when Gary caws from Leo’s other shoulder, content as can be.
“Reckon I can come up with a better nickname for you?” he asks me, his breath tickling my ear before he gives my earlobe a light nip.
I rest my head against him. “You’ve got the rest of our lives to top it. Do your worst.”
“You got it, Sizzlebutt.” He dips his head and kisses my neck, and I shiver a little as I feel the covert tickle of his tongue on my skin. Just like that time at the bench, just after he told me how he really felt. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah.” Absolutely, now that his body is warming my back, and his aftershave is filling my senses. I wonder if making love will feel different, now that he’s wifed me up, or the same?
Making love?Inwardly, I tut and roll my eyes at myself. Thank fuck I married him, since I’m a sap now.
“Don’t be ridiculous,”I tell him firmly at the door of our home.
“It’s tradition.” He continues to manhandle me, and I wriggle half-heartedly in protest I don’t really mean.
