Had he actually just proposed to her?
The vicar was going through the marriage ceremony. She should listen. Hard to concentrate, though, with Euan’s ongoingeeching in her ear.
Euan had actually just proposed.
What if this was the only proposal she ever got and it was a) inappropriately timed, becausesurelyit was rude to propose to someone at someone else’s wedding in case the proposee told someone and stole the bride and groom’s thunder; and b) rubbish, because shouldn’t a proposal be romantic in some way, like on a famous bridge in the moonlight, or on a beautiful beach, or in a lovely restaurant? Or just out for a quiet walk. Anywhere, basically, other than in the middle of a crowded church during someone else’s wedding ceremony.
Itwouldbe a good story for the grandchildren:I was so shocked when your grandfather proposed that I inadvertently headbutted him.
Grandchildren. With Euan.
They’d be very sensible grandchildren.
Euan made a weird gurgling sound. Evie turned back towards him to see what was wrong.
‘I think my tooth’s loose,’ he whispered, as the vicar asked the groom if he’d take Lucie to be his wife.
‘Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry. I hope not,’ Evie whispered back, trying simultaneously to look at Euan’s mouth and watch the ring exchange that was now happening at the front of the church.
It was one of his front teeth. Clearly, an important tooth. Well, all teeth were important. But front teeth werereallyimportant. If itwasloose they should do something about it immediately. But they couldn’t stand up and go anywhere because they’d disrupt the whole ceremony. They’d have to make a dash for it at the end.
Euan gurgled and moaned away – very understandably – next to her during the remainder of the service until Lucie and her new husband processed down the aisle, hand in hand, looking both gorgeous and gorgeously in love.
As they walked past the end of Evie and Euan’s pew, Evie’s mind conjured up an image of herself walking down an aisle hand in hand with Euan. It was a stretch to imagine either of them having eyes only for the other in quite such a besotted way. Euan would probably be finessing some financial calculations in his head, maybe discussing aspects of them with Evie, and Evie would probably be… a bit bored.
No. She was being unfair. He was lovely. Sensibleness and prudence were great attributes.
‘Can wedosomething about my tooth?’ he said, dribbling a bit more blood.
It was totally understandable thing to say, and Evie shouldnotfind the whiny tone to his voice atallannoying. And yet… She could see Max, Sasha’s other brother, out of the corner of her eye. He’d had the most horrendous accident in his late teens, and Evie had never heard anyone in the family whine about it, ever.
But Euan was clearly in a lot of pain and everyone reacted differently to things and probably a lot of people would be whining right now. And they did need to do something about it as soon as possible.
‘Let’s find a loo and clean you up a bit and check your mouth properly and then we’ll go and find a doctor or dentist as quickly as we can,’ she said.
‘It’s definitely loose,’ Euan said five minutes later, peering at himself in the cracked mirror outside the church’s one – brown-carpeted – loo, as he touched his tooth gingerly.
‘Okay. Why don’t I call your dentist and ask them what to do?’
‘Fine.’
An answer machine message told Evie that Euan’s dentist was closed on Saturdays.
‘Okay. We need to do something. I’ll order a taxi. Do you think we should go to A&E?’ Evie tried very hard to squash any feeling of disappointment about missing the rest of the wedding, which she’d been looking forward to. Obviously, her possible-fiancé’s loose tooth was infinitely more important than a wedding, even if the bride was Lucie, who she’d known practically her whole life.
‘I don’t know. Can’t you google it?’ She understood why Euan was tetchy, but did he have to soundquiteso irritable? It wasn’t like she’d headbutted him on purpose.
When she and her mum had been moving a big chest in the summer and Evie had dropped her end and it had landed on her mum’s foot and broken a bone, her mum hadn’t been tetchy at all. Evie had apologised alotand her mum had told her alotthat it hadn’t been her fault and it was just one of those things. Euan clearly did not feel like that. But maybe it was different between mother and daughter. Maybe you’d always be reasonable with respect to your daughter because you loved her so much.
Although, shouldn’t a manreallylove the woman he’d just proposed to and not blame her for something that she obviously hadn’t done on purpose? If your relationship with your husband was going to be worse than your relationship with your mother, what was the point of getting married? Not a comfortable thought to be having as you googled broken teeth.
‘What does itsay?’ Euan said.
‘Well, Google isn’t conclusive,’ Evie told him. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘This is ridiculous. It’sGoogle.Did you even look properly?’
Evie took a big breath and didn’t snap back at him. He was in pain, after all. She had a sudden brainwave.
