Shiiiit. Dervla reached out and grabbed Evie’s arm as she nearly tripped headlong.
‘Thank you,’ she mouthed. The floor of the church was so uneven. She’d better start paying a lot more attention to where she was walking and think a lot less about Dan and Hannah.
Angus was standing at the front looking adorably anxious and proud at the same time. ‘You lookamazing,’ he said in an extremely loud whisper to Sasha when she joined him, and the guests in the front few pews all laughed.
Fifteen minutes later, the service was in full flow.
Sasha, who Evie had been best friends with since they were both six years old, was getting married to her soulmate,right now. Laura, the vicar, was gloriously sarcastic. The service was lovely. Everyone was happy. This was literally the most wonderful wedding Evie had ever been to and she should be drinking in every moment of it. She should totally not be thinking very frequently about Dan sitting a few feet away as she stood near to Sasha during the ceremony, and the stunning Hannah sitting at the back.
Dan did lookgoodin his tails and fancy tie, and he did have a particularly gorgeous twinkle in his eye today, but still; he shouldn’t be occupying so many of her thoughts.
Max did a beautiful reading about love and then Angus’s grandmother, who was French, did oneinFrench, which also sounded beautiful and which Evie was pretty sure had something to do with boats. Odd. She’d have to ask someone who spoke more than GCSE French about that later.
Evie got shivery goosebumps during the hymns, though if she was honest it was more from Dan’s baritone a few feet away from her than the familiar and deeply meaningful words.
It was obviously because Dan was right behind her when Laura did the you-may-kiss-the-bride thing that Evie’s mind leapt to when she and Dan had had their kissing-straight-after-the-marriage-ceremony moment. She’d tried really hard all year not to think of that. And now she was feeling it right to her stomach.
Anyway, time to pull herself together and proceed out of the church with Angus’s best man, a very nice man called Seb, who had a lot of hair and a kilt.
The photographer was a very enthusiastic man named Kev, who, in his quest to produce the perfect wedding portfolio, wasn’t letting anyone off the hook, no matter how young, old, infirm, desperate for the loo (or a beer) or freezing cold (the temperature was about ten degrees below the August average but all the women were in summer dresses) they might be.
Evie stood up from arranging the hem of Sasha’s dress for the photos and bumped straight into Dan, who was holding the auburn-haired baby.
‘Oh my goodness,’ she said. ‘Is this Katie?’
‘Yes,’ said Dan, rocking her slightly and looking at her withthemost gorgeously proud expression. ‘Say hi to Evie, Katie.’
Evie said, ‘Hello, Katie,’ and Katie smiled at her, windmilled her arms and connected with Evie’s necklace. She was like some kind of baby ninja; she had her fingers firmly wound in the necklace chain within no time at all and was pulling with surprising strength.
‘Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,’ Dan said while Evie choked a little. He prised Katie’s fingers open and got the necklace away from her.
‘Thank you.’ Evie took a step backwards. ‘I should have remembered that you should always keep a good distance from a baby when you’re wearing any kind of dangly jewellery,’ she said, hoping that no-one would realise the effect Dan’s fingers briefly touching her chest just then had had and also that she wasn’t sounding rude.
Katie had turned her attention to Dan now and had her fingers twisted in the knot of his tie.
‘Wow,’ said Dan, a little red-faced, when he’d disentangled himself. ‘My daughter’s got some serious strength in those fingers. Just going to shift her around a bit so that she can’t reach anyone’s neck attire.’
‘Can you clap?’ Evie asked Katie, clapping her own hands together.
Katie gurgled and swiped at Evie’s hands. Dan and Evie both laughed.
‘Bride’s family and bridesmaids,’ hollered Kev.
Evie found herself standing next to Dan and Katie in several of the photos. It felt like they were together in that moment, and it was hard not to feel like she was blossoming under the strength of that feeling.
‘And this is the final one before the big one with everyone,’ Kev announced. ‘Friends and siblings of the bride.’
Hannah took Katie and now, somehow, Evie and Dan were squashed right up against each other within the group, so much so that Evie could feel Dan’s solidity and the warmth of his body against her side. She wriggled a little to try to dispel the feeling of raised hair on the back of her neck. God, she wassoconscious of him. She was wearing high heels, and if she turned towards him now, her mouth would only be a couple of inches below his.
‘And a big smile from everyone in my direction,’ instructed the photographer, pulling the kind of face a kindergarten teacher might pull to get very young children to laugh. Everyone laughed obligingly, and Evie felt Dan’s warm breath against her forehead.
‘And now everyone,’ Kev shouted. Hannah brought Katie over to Dan and everyone piled in together. Evie had no option but to stay where she was, so now instead of being deliciously close to Dan like it was just the two of them together in a sea of people, she was clamped pretty much between Dan and his ex and their baby. Really not great.
Kev hadn’t actually needed that many takes on his other photos but on this one he just would not stop snapping, so Evie held herself rigid, a fixed wide – possibly rictus – smile on her face, for what felt like a really long time.
Eventually, Kev said, ‘And we’re done. Cracking photo, everybody.’ He clapped and all the guests joined in with the clapping too. Probably not so much because they were pleased with the photos but becausefinallythey were going to a) be able to go inside – it wassocold for August; and b) get a drink. ‘I’ll be taking more,’ he shouted over the clapping, which then stopped pretty abruptly, ‘but mainly inside the venue.’
‘Thank God for that,’ Dan said in Evie’s ear as the clapping re-started, and she smiled. And then felt really awkward because she couldfeelHannah’s presence on her other side. And thinking of Hannah and the fact that she was Dan’s ex suddenly reminded her that she had a boyfriend and that she should therefore not be feeling this attracted to Dan.
