Page 124 of Wedding Crasher

The water rippled as Sandie stepped out of the water, Bond-girl-esque, and his heart twisted back into shape and expanded a little as she stepped out of her wet bikini. He picked up a fresh towel and opened it wide.

‘Come here, baby.’

The bells of the chapel rang out clear and true across the village, calling them all to gather and bear witness. Come, come and see the love.

‘Stop fidgeting with your shirt collar,’ Sean chided Jonny gently as they lounged together in the chapel doorway. ‘Anyone would think you’re nervous.’

Jonny scanned the street outside for cars. ‘It’s alright for you, you just have to sit there and look devastating. I’ve got to conduct the ceremony for two of our best friends. What if I fuck it up?’

‘Jonny. You’re good at everything you do, and you love these people. You won’t fuck up.’ Sean fixed his husband with the look, the one guaranteed to put the brakes on Jonny’s tendency towards hysterics. ‘Now. Big breaths.’

Jonny’s eye’s glittered with laughter as he glanced down at his chest and then back up at Sean. ‘Yeth. And I’m only thicksteen.’

Sean rolled his eyes. ‘The old ones are the best,’ he muttered, letting his fingers linger against Jonny’s adams apple as he straightened his collar properly for him. ‘Look lively. I spy wedding guests.’

By ten to twelve, the chapel was packed, women in summer dresses showing off sun-pinked shoulders, and men in open necked shirts. Informal and relaxed had been the happy couple’s requested dress code, the same approach they’d applied to their choice of decoration for the chapel. Vases of delicate sweet peas, peonies and vintage cream tea-roses filled the deep chapel windowsills, their petals fringed with palest pink.

Gabe and Tom sat in the front row, their heads close together in conversation.

‘You’ve definitely got the ring?’

‘Same place it was last time you checked, bud.’

They both glanced up as Jonny stepped up to the lectern with a discreet nod towards Sean to start the music, and a hush fell as the opening bars of “On Days Like These,” lilted from the sound system. The congregation stood in excited acknowledgment of the appearance of four people in the doorway.

Marla, beautiful in a nude pink silk and lace dress that skimmed her curves, her red hair in lush waves around her shoulders. A simple circlet of burnished gold leaves scattered with diamonds lent her the appearance of a beautiful woodland nymph, an image made all the more earthly by the presence of baby Isadora on her hip.

At the front of the chapel, Gabe caught his breath. He’d loved Marla Jacobs from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, but never so much as in that moment with the sun framing her face like a halo.

A few steps ahead of her, Emily moved slowly, radiant in floor length cafe-au-lait lace, hand in hand with the proudest five-year-old boy in the land. Adam had a look of concentration on his face, the expression of someone trying hard not to make a mistake. Imperceptibly, Emily squeezed his fingers in reassurance and sent him the most discreet of winks, making him beam and puff his chest out with pride.

Tom stood at the front of the chapel, finding it hard to see his family through the film of tears in his eyes. Emily shone, from her glossy dark set waves to the tips of her toes. He loved this woman, and she loved him back. Nothing else mattered.

They’d danced to the same song on the beach on their wedding night, barefoot and tipsy on local rum. Back then he’d never imagined that their marriage would be such a rollercoaster. Not that he’d have changed anything with the benefit of a crystal ball, except maybe taken care to fasten Emily’s seatbelt a little tighter. He’d almost let her fall. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice in one lifetime.

As the procession reached the front of the chapel, Adam’s eyes flickered to Gabe, who gave him a thumbs up and a nod, the secret signal he’d agreed with the little boy to give his mum and dad his own special surprise.

On Gabe’s nod, Adam lifted his mothers hand formally to his lips and pressed a kiss against the back of it, and then held it out towards Tom, an official handover. Tom swallowed the ball of love in his throat as he accepted his wife’s hand from their child. Adam watched on with round, solemn blue eyes as Tom mirrored his actions, raising Emily’s hand to his lips. He heard Emily’s small intake of breath, and lifted his eyes to hers as his mouth brushed her skin.

The familiar scent of her favourite perfume. The feel of her hand in his. The look in her eyes at that very moment. He wanted to commit every second of the day to memory.

Gabe mussed Adam’s hair in approval for a job well done as he came to sit beside him. The little boy looked up with a gap-toothed grin, and Gabe looked down into Dan’s laughing eyes. His best friend had never breathed a word, but Gabe had long since realised that Adam was his son. He was in no doubt that Tom knew the truth too, and his faith in love was only deepened by the fact that they’d all somehow made their peace with it. The fabric of life wasn’t made up of plain cotton and simple running stitch. It was fine velvet next to the coarsest hessian, stitched together with embroidery silk here and rough twine there. Rough and smooth. Beautiful, unexpected and unique.

He turned and dropped a kiss on Marla’s shoulder as she sat beside him with Isadora on her knees, noticing the way the sun had sprinkled freckles on her fair skin.

As the last notes of the music faded, Tom straightened from kissing Emily’s hand and impulsively drew her against him, his lips lingering on hers.

Happiness soared like a bird in Emily’s chest. If she could have pressed pause right at that moment, she would have, because she knew with complete certainty that she could never be any happier. Had she have had the chance to look at that freeze-framed scene, she’d have seen the reverential way that Tom’s hand cradled her face, his other hand on the base of her back as she arched into him.

As it was, she felt the fleeting perfection of the moment as Tom’s lips moved over hers, his thumb brushing the tear from her cheek.

She wanted to kiss him forever. Everyone else in the place faded. There was just Tom. Tom’s warm hands, Tom’s lips, Tom’s heart beating steady against hers.

And then there was Jonny, coughing dramatically at the lectern.

‘Easy tigers, there’s kids in the room,’ he said, and things swam back into focus as a small laugh rippled around the chapel.

Tom and Emily drew apart a little, their hands still clasped as Jonny welcomed everyone to their vow renewal ceremony.

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