The Bastard Takes a Wife (23 page)

“Excuse me, may I be of assistance?” An
attendant wearing the obligatory Qantas uniform, complete with
scarf knotted at a jaunty angle on her neck, addressed me.

“Yes. You can. That little girl in there,
Paige Richards-Shaw, is my charge.” I pointed through the door.
“She ran away from school earlier today. Her parents are at home
with the Police right now. I’ve come to collect her.”

“Oh my. Can I verify your name?”

“I’m Millie McIntyre. Look if you want to
ring her parents, go right ahead but she shouldn’t be here.”

The attendant consulted her computer screen.
“It seems she’s booked in as an unaccompanied minor on the 4.10pm
City Flyer to Sydney.”

“That would make sense. She wants to meet
One Direction
.”

“Who?”

“The boy band.”

“Oh. Look, everything sounds okay but I can’t
release her to you without some parental consent. An adult must
have bought her a ticket, after all.”

“No. I think she bought it herself. She’s a
bright little thing.”

I handed my mobile over to the attendant who
pressed the button to dial Adele and Brian. I could hear the relief
in Brian’s voice as they spoke.

“Yes,” the attendant nodded. “I’m with Millie
now. Paige is quite safe. Okay. Right. Thanks.”

She hung up the phone and handed it back to
me.

“That seems to be in order. I spoke to the
Detective too. I’ll just go and get her for you.”

“Thanks ever so much,” I smiled.

Then I called Sam.

A minute or two passed and Paige appeared at
the door. I ran to hug her. “You are so naughty. What made you
think you could hop on a plane by yourself? Mummy and Daddy were so
worried about you. We all were. Even Sam’s been helping.”

Her face dropped at the realisation of what
she’d done. “I wanted to go to the Logies. And you and Sam aren’t
getting married anymore, so I didn’t need to be here.”

“You’re a little girl. You can’t go off
around the countryside.”

“I’ve been on a plane by myself heaps of
times.”

“You know what I mean. It’s dangerous.
Anything could have happened.” Then I remembered. “How did you get
the ticket anyway?”

“Mummy’s credit card. I know the numbers by
heart. I remembered them from when she got me to order the Fair
Trade coffee beans from Brazil.”

“But when did you get time to do that?”

“In Maths. Jennifer’s a dufus at sums and
while Mrs. Sutton was helping her I went on the Internet on my iPad
and bought a ticket. All I had to do was go to the library at lunch
and print it out.”

She seemed rather pleased at her own
ingenuity.

“You do know you’re going to get punished for
this? It may mean the end of Logies watching on Sunday night.”

Paige paled. “They wouldn’t.”

“They might. Guess we’ll have to wait and
see.”

After Paige had been safely returned and
given a stern talking to by her parents, Sam and I sat on the sofa
in the tiny living room that was attached to my bedroom at the
house. It seemed like only yesterday that we’d had that ‘night of
passion’ after our fight. I had thought Sam was cheating on me but
the whole time he’d been with his dying grandma. Our entire
relationship had been filled with moments like that. Misconceptions
that lead to assumptions that led to arguments. We were both quick
to jump to conclusions and I’d thought we were getting better at
seeing the positives rather than the negatives. Until last
Saturday. Now, I had to find a way to apologise, to make Sam
understand that I did love and want to marry him.

“I want to tell you something, will you
listen for a minute before you speak?”

“Is it another tirade about what a liar I am?
Or have I done something else?” He looked at the wall like a sulky
child. It was patently clear he wasn’t going to forgive me
easily.

“No. It’s nothing to do with that. Going off
and playing last Saturday was the last thing in a long line of
things. I was right to be cross with you for doing that because you
have wrecked any hope we ever had of having nice sensible wedding
photos but I was wrong to say what I did.”

Sam seemed to relax.

“I love you Sam. And I’ve thought about this
a lot over the past few days, so much that it made my head hurt, in
fact. I know I’ve been very confused. My brain’s been like mush. I
want to marry you but I don’t want a big fancy wedding. I don’t
want to be the centre of attention and be on
Sixty Minutes
.
I want to be us.”

I went on to explain to him all the things I
hadn’t before. I hoped he believed me when I said I’d never meant
to hurt him.

“So you’re blaming this on stress?”

“No. I blame myself for getting caught up in
it when I didn’t want to and then treating you like shit over,
well, nothing. I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”

“You still want to marry me?”

“Only if we can have a small wedding with our
TEN closest friends and family on the beach at the house in
Lombok.”

“And a massive get together at the club when
we get back?”

“Definitely. For a week.”

“My mother won’t like it.”

I had to stand up for myself now. “I don’t
care. It’s our wedding. Anyone who doesn’t like getting sand in
their toes can stay home.”

Sam smiled. “Now that’s the girl I know and
love. Welcome home, Babe.”

Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out
the box containing my ring. Looking deeply into my eyes, he kept a
very straight face.

“Millie McIntyre, will you do the honour of
marrying me? Again?”

“I think we’ve just broken some sort of
record for the amount of times you can get proposed to by the same
man for the same marriage,” I giggled, as he took the ring and put
it back in its rightful place on my finger. “But the answer is
‘yes’, Sam Brockton. Yes, I will marry you and your silly rugby
team.”

“Can we do it next Saturday?”

“We’ll never get it organised by then.”

Sam sat up. “Leave it to me. I’ll organise
it. All you have to do is get on the plane.”

Then he kissed me. A big knee-trembling, melt
your bones kiss that made me realize all over again why I loved
him. It was lucky I was sitting down.

Much to my absolute delight and surprise, the
day of our wedding went off without a hitch. During the week, Sam
had been very secretive about his plans but by the time I arrived
in Lombok on Friday afternoon, I could see he’d been hard at work
making my every wish come true.

The B & B was bustling with activity.
Extra staff had been employed so that each room had its own private
butler and the regular house staff had cleaned the house until it
sparkled. Out in the garden, an open-air marquee had been erected
for the party afterwards. Swags of gauzy white fabric fluttered
against the backdrop of the garden and a long red carpet designated
its entrance from the beach. Inside, it had one long table for all
the guests decorated in a tropical theme with frangipani branches
in tall vases along the centre. Two gilded chairs graced one end
where Sam and I would sit. On the back of each, Sam had had custom
signage made. I couldn’t help but laugh at his final attempt at a
joke. One chair read ‘Mr. Right’ and the other ‘Mrs. Always Right’.
A small table graced the corner ready and waiting for the ‘new’
scaled down version of our wedding cake ~ another surprise I wasn’t
to see until the day ~ along with a dance floor and stage decorated
with clear fairy lights and mountains of candles.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, as he gave me a tour,
revealing surprise after surprise. “This is gorgeous. How did you
ever do it in such a short amount of time?”

He’d been gone from Perth for the entire week
but still, I couldn’t fathom such a large amount of planning in
such a short space of time.

“I like, totally, helped him,” chirruped
Kirby who had appeared from behind a curtain. “I’m on holidays
anyway and after I, like, saw how it easy it was when you had that
Angus man, I thought ‘Kirby, you could totally be a wedding
planner.’ So this is, like, my first official function.” She beamed
at me proudly. “Do you, like, totally love it? I sent out personal
invitations and, like, rang everyone to double check they received
their flight and accommodation packages. And I cancelled everything
in Perth for you, well except for the photographer and
videographer. They’re flying over tomorrow and the band is, like,
totally coming from the Sheraton in Kuta. Sam’s organised the
overflow accommodation and the food and everything.”

“Flowers too?”

“All sorted. Your bouquet is being, like,
freighted from the international florist in Kuta in the morning.
With the buttonholes and corsages for the parents and Sam.”

I opened my mouth to reply but words would
not come out. Stunned. That was what I was. Kirby and Sam had
organised my wedding and it was going to be perfect. “I love it. I
just can’t believe it.”

I kissed them both.

“Neither could I,” Sam said. “I always pegged
Kirby as being a bit of an airhead.”

“God, you’re an arse,” she smiled.

“So you’re going into business for yourself?”
I asked.

“Uh-ha. I’ve, like totally, had enough of
David Jones. It isn’t fun any more. And this is way funner. You
don’t mind if I use some of your wedding pics for my website do
you? I want everything, like, up and running by the time I get to
the
Bridal Expo
next month.”

“You have a website?”

“Yep. Here’s my card.” She flipped a pink
glittered business card from out of her shirt pocket. “I’m going to
be like J. Lo in
The Wedding Planner
only cooler and not,
like, Latino.”

Oh. My. God.

“I think I need a drink.”

Sam led us over to the verandah, where we sat
at the table overlooking the lawn. The late afternoon sun shone
through the trees and glistened on the water of the newly installed
pool. Glasses of fruit punch appeared in front of us. How had this
happened? Kirby and Sam had morphed into the wedding planning
dynamic duo. It was unbelievable. I shook my head and took a sip of
my punch. It was probably a dream. In a few minutes, I’d wake up in
my bed and find that Sam had fucked up our whole wedding or ordered
everything in
Hornets
colours or a Guard of Honor made by
Western Force
players or something. Then I’d really have to
kill him.

*****

The next morning, the morning of the ‘Big
Day’ I was a bundle of nerves. I couldn’t sit still, I couldn’t eat
and despite the fact that I had nothing in my stomach I still
managed to throw up three times.

In her role as wedding planner, Kirby had
organised hair and makeup for myself, Paige ~ who had arrived with
complete with tiara and high heels ~ and Alex. It took every scrap
of patience I had to sit while they worked on me. All I wanted was
to get married and I wanted it to happen now.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked, as she did up the
last of the ivory buttons on the back of my gown. The dress
designed by Lisa Ho, altered to fit those sneaky kilos that had
crept on, was the only remaining item from our previously organised
wedding. “You’re awfully jumpy,
Chica
.”

“I’m fine. Just excited and a bit nervy.”

Alex’s hand came to rest on my bare shoulder.
“You’re not having second thoughts again?”

“Definitely not. I’m ready to get married.
I’m a bit queasy, that’s all.”

“Have a glass of bubbly. That’ll do the
trick.” She went to a table by the window and took a bottle of
vintage Moet from the ice bucket, filling up a glass. Handing it to
me, then filled her own.

I stood with the glass in my hand as Alex
turned back. “Here’s to you and Sam. It might not be a match made
in Heaven but you tamed the bastard.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. That man is gooey for you. He
loves you more than the bloody
Western Force
. And from the
look on his face this morning, I’d say it’d be a sad and sorry
person who tries to come between you and him tying the knot
today.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this. I thought
it’d never happen.”

“I can’t believe Sam grew some balls and
stood up that witch of a mother of his. You should’ve heard her
going on about the venue and the cost and what people would
think.”

“What did he say?”

“He told her he loved you and if this was
what you wanted then you’d have it. Then he told her to shut up and
enjoy the day and if she couldn’t she was to stay at the hotel
because nothing was going to ruin this for you.”

I grabbed a tissue. God, she was going to
make me cry. “He really does love me.”

“Yep. His mum started on about the place
settings, and I swear to God, if I weren’t such a lady I would have
slapped her one myself. But Sam just glared at her and then he told
Kirby to move her place card to the other end of the table for the
dinner. She won’t have anyone to whine to now except Womble and
Rambo and neither of them will listen after the red wine comes
out.” She gave a little chuckle and then putting down her glass,
smoothed a hair on the side of my head. She added a small amount of
spray to keep it in place.

“Thanks for being here for me, Alex. I know I
haven’t been much fun lately.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. You’re my
best friend.”

Leaning forward, she gathered me into what
was left of her ample bosom, the cleavage of which was well and
truly on show today. As gingerly as I could, I returned the hug.
Alex was my best friend in the world. No wedding planner or fitness
instructor would ever be able to change that.

A quiet knock interrupted our moment.