We didn’t take the jackets on honeymoon with us.
We didn’t even go on honeymoon.
At around eleven thirty on our wedding night, Shain interrupted my attempts to teach Liam the words and dance moves to “We Go Together” from Grease and told him there was a call regarding work he needed to deal with.
I carried on dancing with Sash and Maggie, not really taking a lot of notice of his absence until our guests started to leave and questioned where my husband was so they could say their goodbyes.
I made apologies on his behalf and eventually wove my way from the marquee to my grandparents’ house, which was where I found Liam, Luke, Shain, and Dan all pacing the kitchen and talking on their phones. Will was at the kitchen table on his laptop, and I felt like all eyes looked to me as I entered the room.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Lori, who was busy boiling the kettle.
“A helicopter filled with miners leaving an island up off Darwin was in an accident, there have been fatalities, not sure how many yet.”
My eyes found Luke’s, but his were already on me even though he was on the phone. He held out his hand, beckoning me forward, and I went to him.
He pulled me against his side, and I could feel his body shaking.
“Is there anything I can do?” I stood up on tiptoes and asked directly into his ear. He shook his head and carried on his conversation with whoever was on the other line.
None of us got any sleep that night, except my grandparents, who I sent up to bed at around three. Marie, Maggie, Sasha, Lori, and I made the boys continuous cups of tea and coffee and fed them leftovers from the wedding buffet.
By six in the morning, I had changed out of my wedding dress and into a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
I made my way back down to the kitchen to find Liam and Luke still on the phone, Will still at the table drinking what I assumed was yet another cup of tea.
“You doing all right sunshine?” Will asked me.
I gave a half-hearted shrug. I was tired and disappointed by the way my wedding night had gone, but at the same time, I felt bad for what the boys were going through, not to mention the poor people involved in the accident.
“Where’s your dress?” Liam snapped. It was a tone he’d never used with me before.
“I was uncomfortable so I changed.”
“You could’ve waited.” My mouth dropped open a bit and I just started at him blinking.
“For what? It’s not like you’ve had time to help me out of it.”
His right eye twitched twice and I knew it was a look of hurt that I saw on his face before his gaze darted to Will and then back to me. His hand went to the back of his neck the way it always did when he was stressed or struggling with what to say. He breathed heavily through his nose before saying, “Sarah, people fucking died tonight, I had other shit to deal with.”
“I’m well aware of that, that’s why I dealt with the shit of taking off my own wedding dress, to save you the trouble.”
He flinched at my words.
“I didn’t mean it like that Sarah and you know it. I would never…”
Before he could finish, his phone rang again. He ignored the call. A few seconds later, Luke’s phone rang. Liam and I stared at each other as Luke answered his call, and Will hesitantly went back to working on his laptop.
“Taxi will be here in twenty minutes,” Luke told Liam.
“You going to the office? Take the car, I’ll get a lift from someone.”
Liam’s head dropped back, and he stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds. Luke was watching me, Will had stopped typing, and I knew without looking at him that he was looking at me too. My husband’s gaze finally met mine and I thought for a moment he was going to cry.
“Bub, I have to go to Australia.”
I laughed. I had no clue why, but I laughed.
“What?”
“We managed to get on a flight at lunchtime today.”
“But what about—you can’t just leave me—we’re . . .” I trailed off as I finally took in his words. “You’re fucking kidding me?”
“I have no choice. I have to be there.”
“You have every choice, and you don’t have to be there, you want to be there.”
I turned and started to leave the room, but Liam grabbed me by the arm and spun me around.
“Slow the fuck down,” His teeth gritted together as he got right in my face and spoke. I heard the sound of a chair scrapping across the flagstone floor and both Will and Luke appeared over Liam’s shoulders.
“Take your hands off me,” I told him very quietly. He looked down at where his hand was wrapped around my arm and instantly let go.