Page 51 of His Wall

I drank my whiskey.

Declan stood at 9:40 p.m.

He tapped the side of his glass with a fork until the room came down. He stood at the head table with Thea beside him, her hand at the small of his back, Lena asleep on her shoulder.

"Alright. Two minutes. I promise."

"He's lying," I said, into Claire's ear.

She almost laughed.

"Two years ago I gave a toast at this woman's birthday in a restaurant in Brooklyn. I was so nervous I drank an entire glass of water before I started talking and forgot her name halfway through."

The room laughed.

"I have learned. Tonight I have notes."

He held up a folded napkin. The room laughed again.

"I am not going to use the notes."

The room groaned.

He talked about Thea. He talked about the year before they got married, when she had told him to leave her alone and he had not. He talked about Lena, who was now drooling on his wife's shoulder. He talked about second chances and the people who showed up when it mattered. His eyes found mine across the room.

I raised my glass.

Nolan, on Claire's other side now, raised his and nodded once.

Claire's shoulder touched my arm.

She did not move it away.

Declan finished in twelve minutes. The room applauded. Thea kissed him on the cheek with the baby still on her shoulder. The quartet had been replaced by the eight-piece swing band and they came in low and warm with something I did not recognize.

I took Claire's hand.

She looked at our fingers.

"Dance with me."

"I don't dance, Julian."

"Neither do I."

I pulled her onto the floor anyway. We were not the first couple on it. Declan and Thea were already there with Lena handed off to Thea's sister. Nolan and Soleil were 3 ft. away, and an older couple I did not know were doing what looked like an actual foxtrot.

I put my hand at Claire's waist. I lifted her right hand in my left. She put her left hand on my shoulder.

We did not move.

We stood with the music around us and her fingers pressing the smallest amount into the wool of my jacket, and after a few seconds I pulled her in tighter and her cheek almost touched my jaw. She let me. Her hand on my shoulder went from a hold to a grip.

I turned my head a fraction. My mouth brushed her temple.

She closed her eyes.

She exhaled against the side of my neck.