AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
We had three engagement parties. We’d decided not to have engagement parties until we set the date for the wedding. It had just taken longer than we expected to set the date.
One party was in Auckland with all our friends. There was music and laugher and wine and much to eat. Black humour and dirty jokes. Back slapping and jelly shots.
One was in Hamilton with my aunts and cousins. Cakes and coffee and delicately wrapped presents. Mum flittered about from one guest to the next, so happy, so proud, beaming.
The last was with Sean’s family in Otorohanga. Lamb steaks and fish kebabs on the barbie. Gin and punch and raucous laughter.
Everyone was so happy.
Everyone was so sure.
They were sure enough for me.
* * *
The day of our wedding was sunny. Not a cloud in the sky.
My dress was beautiful. Everyone said I was beautiful, too.
Sean looked dashing in his suit. My niece and nephew looked cute in their outfits.
Wine flowed freely.
We toasted absent friends.
We toasted each other.
I’m not sure why it bothered me, but Sean shouldn’t have painted his ring finger’s nail red so I would know which one to put the wedding band on.
The red looked a lot like blood.
* * *
We honeymooned in Australia. Ate too much. Walked too much. Drank just enough.
I was married.
I worked in a big city.
I had so many friends and wonderful opportunities.
The Service sent a gift basket.
Sean told me we were lucky.
“Kylee,” he said. “We’re like the Homecoming King and Queen. Everyone loves us.”
They loved us enough for me.
* * *
Sean took a roster in Warkworth. Unlike Silverdale, it wasn’t four-on; four-off. It was seventy-two-hours-on; seventy-two-hours-off. As far as rural stations went, Warkworth was the Homecoming King.
“That husband of yours can do anything,” April told me when I visited her in Comms.
“Yeah,” I said. “He’s a go-getter.”
