Claire found her way to her brothers, standing at the side while the ceremony was conducted. Simple and short, my children managing to hold their attention for all of it, even Callum who was rather happy in Marie’s little sister’s arms.
“I pronounce you husband and wife.” The words were final, both an end and a beginning.
“You may kiss the bride.” The celebrant gave me a huge smile and stepped back, the collective audience of our families, my kids and her sister Bernadette holding their breath.
All eyes on us. It wasn’t that we weren’t used to that, being who we were.
I held her face gently in my hands, one slipping round the back of her head, my fingers totally messing with her hair but she could tell me off later.
Then I kissed her, deep and long and without a care for the fact that my kids were watching.
There was a smattering of applause and a deliberate cough from Bernie.
I stopped the kiss. “We can carry that on later.” I made sure it was quiet enough so no one else could hear, Marie’s cheeks turning pink.
“If you’re lucky. There are six of us here now so this is officially an Irish wedding.” She let me take her hand as we turned and faced the rest of our small party, Claire the first to run to us and I scooped her up in my arms, surprised every time at how big she was getting.
Marie bent down to hug Jackson and then Max, who was smiling now, the seriousness having faded. I wondered if it was relief. He’d carried too much on his shoulders and while Marie hadn’t tried to take it away, she’d shared it with him.
He was the one I worried about most.
“Congratulations,” Aiden Green offered me his hand. “You seem to make my little sister very happy. We probably have more to discuss but it can wait until you’re more settled.”
“Thank you. I have another couple of months off work to help get things settled.” Although I’d been in the office twice during the last week, just to keep in touch and I hadn’t been there very long. “I need to get the kids settled in school and appoint an au pair.”
Aiden nodded. “I have eight siblings. I do know what it’s like.” His eyes twinkled. “Can’t imagine what it was like to be an only child.”
“Nowhere near as much fun.”
He nodded, saying no more and I wondered what stories were there that I’d (hopefully) never know about.
We headed to the restaurant we liked best for a Sunday lunch when neither of us wanted to cook, a small room reserved for us. It’d been Bernadette who’d organised it, taking away a job from Marie who was in the midst of ordering every soft furnishing known to the human race.
Bernadette was headed back to Ireland in four days. I’d actually miss her, as much as we bickered on an hourly basis she was fun to have around and the kids, especially Jackson, loved her.
But those goodbyes were on hold. I had a bride to be with.
We went home to an empty house, my parents taking the children for a night back at their place, Bernadette wrangling herself a stay there which she said was so she could help with Callum, but I knew it was so she could have a good nosy round.
“This is the only time we’ll know what it’s like to be here on our own.” Marie sat down on the huge sofa that’d been delivered three days ago, her wedding dress completely crumpled but her smile was big.
“For a while.” I sat down next to her, picking up her foot that was bare, her heels discarded as soon as we walked through the door. I pushed down on the sole with my thumbs, eliciting a moan. “One day we’ll be here on our own because they’ll have all grown up and moved away. They’ll have families of their own.”
“We have the teenage years to survive before that. And the returns home when relationships break up or they run out of money or just life.” She sat back and grinned at me again. “It’s going to be a rollercoaster.”
“What do you mean, going?”
She laughed, moving her feet away and scrambling on the sofa so she could straddle me, a cushion falling off.
“It’s been a rollercoaster since you asked me to make you a coffee.” She started to undo the buttons of my shirt, my tie long since abandoned somewhere.
“I’m still waiting for that coffee. Just saying.” I toyed with the straps of her dress, not having a clue how to get her out of it and doubting that she’d like it to be torn. “How does this thing come off?”
“Zip at the back. This is the only opportunity to do this on this sofa.”
My shirt was gone now, my cufflinks discarded onto a nearby side table, although one had already fallen off, probably to be found in another decade along with random lego bricks and hair ties.
Fumbled fingers found the zip, tugging it down and lowering the straps off her shoulders, trying to slow things down because we were alone for the first time since we’d left New York but this wasn’t likely to occur again for months if not longer.
