There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. All I could hear were sniffles and the occasional sob. All I could see was Sarah.
“I promise you, Liam, I will always try to be the woman I was raised to be. I promise you, Nan, Grandad, and Luke, I will always do my best to make you proud, and I thank all three of you from the bottom of my heart for today and every day that you’ve been there for me when no one else was. I ask you all to stand now and raise a glass to Mai, Archie, and Luke, the people that guaranteed I had a future, and to Liam, the man that is my future.”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Was I supposed to stand or sit? Mai’s hand reached out and took mine.
“Do you realise how very lucky we are to have her in our lives?”
She was dabbing under her eyes with a hanky as she spoke.
“I do, Mai. It scares the shit outta me if I’m being honest with ya. I’m so worried that I’ll let her down.”
She squeezed my hand again. “Just love her, Liam. Love and protect her.”
“Protect her from who?”
“Herself mainly. When the self-doubt slips in, just reassure and remind her what an amazing person she is.”
I nodded as we both watched Luke pull his sister into his large frame and envelop her in his arms.
“You’ll have him to answer to if you don’t.” She tilted her chin in her grandson’s direction.
“Meeehhh, he’s a pussy. I’m more scared of you.”
“And so you bloody should be,” she said with a chuckle.
***
Hand in hand, we wandered amongst our guests. My entire family had flown over the week before, and it was the first time in a long time that I’d seen both of my parents in the same place at once.
My mum never moved on after their divorce, and my dad just separated from his third wife. I wasn’t sure if I was worried that he hadn’t left my mum’s side.
Sarah had asked both of my sisters if they’d like to be a part of the wedding, but they’d both declined, stating that one maid of honour was enough but my twin nieces, Everly and Eden, had been beyond excited to be Sarah’s “princesses” for the day. Especially when they saw their dresses.
Sarah had kept everything about her and the bridesmaids’ dresses from me but to be fair, I’d told her she could have whatever her little heart desired. I just wasn’t expecting her to be so secretive about it all. I must admit though, watching her become so focused, organised and bossy about our wedding, turned me the fuck on. She was invested and she was happy, which made me happy and just a little bit hard.
All I had been given were directions for what I should wear.
Casual.
Cream.
Waistcoat or vest but no jacket.
Tie.
Just to be sure, she then sent me pictures of exactly what she wanted the groom’s party to wear.
I had to say, although I knew fuck all about this kind of thing, it was pretty obvious that my girl knew her stuff. Everything looked exactly like a page from one of three hundred and seventy trillion wedding magazines that Sarah had shoved under my nose these past few months.
“I need to find Sash, can you see her?” Sarah whispered into my ear as we smiled and nodded at something her nan’s friend Eileen was saying. I think it was some sage advice about never going to bed on an argument if we wanted our marriage to last.
I slid my arm around her waist and brushed my thumb over the curve of her hip.
I had a little surprise for Sarah later and despite the service and speeches being over, the adrenalin hurtling through my system all day hadn’t abated by one iota. I was about to do something I hadn’t done since I was in grade two at St Jude’s Catholic Primary, and Sarah had no clue it was about to happen.
Eileen wished us good luck and made her way to the bar, Sarah turned and wrapped her arms around my neck the instant she left our sides.
I kissed her neck.
“Why do you need Sasha? It’s our wedding day. I’m all you should need,” I whispered into her ear, knowing full well the reaction her body would have to my warm breath on her skin.
She shuddered.
I smiled.
I loved her so fucking much I was beside myself with it. I felt as if I were gonna burst out of my own skin. If I were to fart right now, it’d be escaping as rainbows and glitter.
“I need to wee.”
“What?”
“I need to wee, and I need help with my dress.”
“That’s why you need Sasha?”
“Yeah.”
She stared down at my chest as she answered. I curled my index finger under her chin and tilted it up so her eyes met mine.
“I’m your husband, helping you out of your wedding dress is my fucking job, no one else’s.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t need helping out of it, I just need someone to hold it out of the way so that I don’t wee on it.”