by Lily Morton
“More than ready,” I offer smiling, and then straighten my jacket which my mum had disarranged.
“I must say that I never thought we’d be in this position now.” I look up, a retort on my lips but he hushes me dramatically. “I just never thought that you’d ever settle down.” He pauses. “Well until she walked through the door and then I somehow always knew that she was it.”
I smile. “She is mate. She’s it for me. No one else, ever.” I mean it. Those last four words are inscribed on the inside of her wedding ring.
He carries on. “I’m honoured that you chose me to be your best man Pip.”
I look at him steadily. “Same could be said for you Matt. I couldn’t think of anyone else that should be where you are. You’re my brother and you always will be.” The choice had been easy for me. Sid’s my best friend too but it was always going to be Matt, and Alys had wanted Sid to give her away. The pair of them are incredibly close and always ganging up on me, and the knowledge that he will be bringing her down the aisle to me means everything.
Matt reaches out and hugs me and for a second as we cling together memories flash through me of times spent kicking a ball around the park, telling each other dirty jokes and bending double laughing. The way that he used to ring up school pretending to be my uncle when in reality I was bunking off down at the record shops. I think of his scared, defiant face when he confessed to being gay and the utter blinding relief when he knew that it didn’t matter to me. I remember the bruises on his face and body, and the way that he’d slunk to my house as if he couldn’t think of anywhere else to go when his parents kicked him out. All the years and all the memories together of scrimping and saving and his utter belief that we’d make it all coalesce into this one moment in a dusty waiting room that smells of incense. Tears fill my eyes and I kiss the top of his head.
“It’s you and me Matty always. No matter what happens in the future it’ll still always be us that will be best friends.”
He sniffs inelegantly making me laugh. “Yes best friends,” he mutters and then we step back and slap each other’s back, too used to each other to be embarrassed by tears.
There’s a bang on the door and Seth eases into the room with one of Charlie’s twin girls on his hip. They’re identical but due to the absence of any squirming to get down I’m betting that this is Cora, which makes sense as Charlie will be keeping Maizy close to him to alleviate potential shenanigans. “Ready ladies?” he asks in his deep voice. “Jesus, tears. What are the two of you going to be doing next? Plaiting each other’s hair or maybe your periods will synchronise.”
He bursts out laughing and I smile at him. “Hi Mrs M,” I try, and once again the sucker falls for it, spinning round quickly in panic in case his octogenarian groupie is behind him. Matt and I crack up laughing and he sucks his teeth insultingly at us.
“You can laugh. You haven’t seen her. She’s showing more flesh than a stripper convention. One of the old ladies just crossed herself when she got up and showed off her leopard skin thong.”
“I feel your pain,” I say piously. “But I can no longer lead your wild, rock star life as I am about to marry the love of my life.”
He smiles. “They’re just coming so you need to get out there.”
“I know,” I say indignantly. “I wish people would stop saying that like I’m some sort of flibbertigibbet. I’ve been trying to leave here for ages if only people wouldn’t keep falling on me and declaring their love for me.”
“Oh fuck off,” Matt says and Seth laughs.
I brush past them. “Laugh it up fuzz ball,” I shout.
“Don’t you dare Han Solo me. There is no way that I am Chewbacca in this scenario,” Seth shouts after me and we all enter the chapel laughing. Looking around I check the chapel carefully, not that anything has changed since I last obsessively checked it an hour ago. It looks just like it should for her. It’s a beautiful old chapel with gorgeous stone walls, high wooden open rafters and ancient old pews lined in red velvet. At the moment it’s lit by lazy streaks of sunlight which fall through the stained glass windows onto the old flag stoned floor in faded streaks of blue and gold and red.
I spot Charlie and wink at him while noting that he is indeed seated holding Maizy carefully and tightly on his lap. It never fails to make me laugh that the ultimate man whore hell raiser has such dainty little daughters.
I love that all of my friends have accepted Alys so much. They love her and she’s become part of our mad family. One of my best memories is the day of her and Elen’s graduation ceremony. We’d pooled their allocated seats and all managed to go. I’ve never been so proud of anyone as I watched my girl in her sexy cap and gown walk up to get her degree. The Mexican wave that Mick and I had initiated had caused a few laughs, but the best bit of the day had been fucking her in a cleaner’s cupboard in her gown and mortar board. I’d made her wear her glasses too.
I feel a touch on my shoulder and cough uncomfortably at what I was just thinking about in church as I turn to see Father Reilly smirking at me. Yes smirking, he does nothing but that. Alys and I had to take a few months of instruction before he’d marry us which is common, but the boys had all found it hilarious. Part of this process had included him hearing our confessions. He’d stopped smirking then because I’d taken great delight in detailing every known transgression that I could think of. It had taken hours and he’d looked pretty shaken when he’d emerged. Although he’d got his sangfroid back fairly quickly, crossing himself and saying insouciantly, “I’d have asked for the Cliff Notes Bram and brought sandwiches if I’d known I was going to be in there that long.”
The opening sound of Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’ rings out and all my attention is gone then, drawn straight down the aisle to the one thing in my life that means everything to me. The most precious, the most private of my joys in a life spent in public excesses of all kinds.
I see Daisy walking in first strewing petals about with more enthusiasm than grace making me smile. She waltzes down the aisle dressed in pink even down to her little pink combat boots. She’s also moving much more quickly than they’d planned until she’s nearly running as she gets near to me. Finally, abandoning her basket she leaps at me and gives me a massive hug around my knees. I can hear people laughing as I pick her up, hugging her hard before passing her into Mick’s waiting arms. She curls up contentedly on his lap putting out a hand to touch Elen’s belly. She’s seven months pregnant with her and Mick’s first child and wears a heavy gold band on her hand.
The bump is the reason why she isn’t walking down the aisle like Mabe, Viv and Nell are at the moment. Alys had asked her to but she’d said that the thought of being on her feet all that time was too tiring. So instead she organised everything wedding related to the extent that Mick and I called her Elenzilla, and she’s wearing a similar dress to the other women. She’ll make toasts at the reception and otherwise fulfil her role as Matron of Honour.
I smile at the ladies as they come nearer, seeing out of the corner of my eye how Charlie smiles at Mabe as if there’s no one else around, and I also note how Seth’s eyes follow Viv every step of the way despite Lucy hanging on his arm. I sigh, making a mental note to start some matchmaking of my fucking own, but then Sid and Alys hove into view and all my attention is instantly on her.
She rests lightly on Sid’s arm who is grinning like a maniac and I feel my throat tighten. She is one of the most beautiful women that I have ever known and trust me I’ve known a few, but she remains utterly oblivious to her looks. Today however she is almost glowing like she’s bathed in sunshine. She’s carrying a large bouquet of white peonies. Ever since she admitted that they’re her favourite flower I always send them to her every few days just to see her face, alight and soft and warm with love as she looks at me.
I would pay anything, give away my last penny if she would always look at me like that throughout the rest of our life together. She means everything to me and although I fucked about an
d nearly fucked up everything, I will never do that again because I know what I have and nothing will ever come close to what we have now between us, that we’ll build on for the rest of our lives.
They come level to us and I exchange a hug with Sid, ruffling his hair and enjoying the healthy tan on his face and the clearness of his eyes, and then he passes her hand to me and I draw her close, hugging her tightly in my arms, burying my head in her neck and inhaling her warm scent of Dune perfume. I hear the congregation shifting and laughing but they can go fuck themselves because we’re not starting our lives together until I say something to her.
Lifting my head I smile at her and kiss her lips because I can’t be this close to her and not do that. She smiles at me tearfully, her navy eyes wide and deep and her mouth a soft pink cushion. “I love you,” I sign carefully, my own version of the vows that we’re about to take, and one that I’ll keep until the day that I die. “I love you to the utter heart of me. You’re my family, the joy of my soul. No one else ever for me love because there is, and there only ever will be, only you.”
Glossary of Irish Endearments
A cheadsearc (uh KHAYD-shark) – first love
A chroi (uh KHREE) - my heart
A ghrá (uh-GHRAH) – my love
A mhuirnin (uh-WUR-neen) – darling
A stór (uh STOR) – my darling
A thaisce (uh HASH-keh) – my treasure
Thank You
Thanks must go first to my husband who is my best friend. He has always believed in me and without his support and infallible ability to make me laugh none of these books would ever have been written.
My two boys, the lights of my life – thank you for being funny, sarcastic, kind, loving and loyal and for never reading these books. You make me very proud.
Thanks to my sister. She’s a busy working mum but still always makes the time to read my first draft. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it because no one else manages to be both supportive and bracingly honest.
I also owe a huge debt to my mum and dad who have always surrounded my sister and I with both total love and a very strange sense of humour.
Bloggers play such an important role in a book’s success and I’ve never met a nicer community than the readers and bloggers that I’ve met since I started writing. However, special thanks must go to Chrissy Weston and Renee McKinney at Book Happiness Blog who have been the most supportive, helpful people around. Chrissy in particular has championed the Beggar’s Choice series from the very beginning and I bow down to The Queen of the Typos. Chrissy - who could forget Sid’s one eye – well spotted!
Lastly thanks to you, the readers. Thank you for taking a chance on this book. I hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I never knew until I wrote my first book how important reviews are. So, if you have time, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads or any other review sites. I can promise you that I read every one, good or bad, and value all of them. When I’ve been having a bad day writing sometimes going back and reading the reviews makes it better.
Contact Me
Website: www.lilymortonauthor.com
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