‘Where the fuck are we going?’ Jameson asks his brothers when they pull into St Pancras International.
‘To your wedding. Duh!’ Hugo says good naturedly.
‘Blow me Hugo.’
‘No thanks I already ate.’
Hudson and Jackson smack Hugo on the back of his head.
‘Are we taking the train to my wedding?’
‘Something like that. Come on we have to hurry before the train leaves.’ All four brothers leg it to the platform, Jameson following their lead, when they ducked into a train door as the guard blows the whistle.
Was that a photographer he saw on the platform?
‘Woah.’ Jameson stops, seeing his family and friends in one carriages, awaiting his arrival. ‘What are you guys doing here?’ He takes a moment to look around, and only now did he notice that this was not simply any old Eurostar train, it is the Orient Express.
‘We’re here to see you get married son.’ Summer answers her son’s question, cupping his face in her hands. ‘Your father and brothers will take it from here darling.’
‘What is going on?’
‘You’re getting married.’ His brothers answer in unison.
‘On the train?’
‘Your girl planned it so it must be so.’ Hudson says, leading his brother away by the elbow.
Meanwhile in another carriage set up as the bridal suite, Sawyer and her bridesmaids, sister and mother are getting all dolled up for her wedding. The divine Chanel gown hands regally against the window. Her hair is in giant rollers, whilst munching on a pizza as the team go to work on her hair which is curled up giant rollers.
‘They made it.’ Bax informs her, ‘Ola just text, he is now in the groom suite.’
‘See? Everything is coming up roses.’
‘Roses indeed.’ Delphine Duchamp walks into the bridal suite. ‘Mon petite bijoux. Sawyer… incroyable.’
‘Delphine…’ shock ripples up Sawyer’s spine. Her ex-mother-in-law who is not yet aware of that new development. ‘What are you doing here?’
Sawyer didn’t notice that her friends and family had left the carriage to give them privacy.
‘How are you my dear?’
‘Bien merci.’ Sawyer is in a trance.
‘Your mother and mother-in-law came to see me.’
‘They did?’
‘Yes. They showed me the videos.’
‘Oh shit.’
‘Why didn’t you feel like you could tell me?’ Delphine takes the hand of the woman she has come to love as a daughter. Sawyer is in a class of her own, different to all the women her son has dated and brought home. Intelligent, kind, from a good family and is not at all into the flashy life like he is. She often prayed they would stay together long enough, because she knows Marcel, knows the kind of scoundrel he is but the extent of his betrayal had floored her. The fact that he’d sought to blackmail her into marrying him was the lowest of the low and he’d done some low things.
‘I… I didn’t want to let you down. To disappoint you. I didn’t…’ Sawyer cannot get her words out. This woman who’d been nothing but kind and welcoming to her.
‘You could never disappoint me my dear. Never.’ Delphine takes Sawyer’s hands in hers. ‘No one deserves to be treated the way he has treated you. His father and I are absolutely livid with him. That he had you followed and invaded your most intimate moment knowing what he did is unforgivable and I am so sorry for that. So, so sorry.’
‘You don’t owe me any apologies.’
‘But I do because I should have seen the signs.’ She rose, Sawyer rising with her. ‘I wish you every happiness with this young man and I hope it lasts longer than you have planned for it to. If you don’t want to go through with it, you don’t have to. Marcel will be no trouble for you I can promise you that.’
‘What did you do to him?’
‘Wrote him out of the inheritance.’
‘What!?’ Marcel must be absolutely fuming at that. His share of the Duchamp heritance is in the billions.
‘I told you, Victor and I are livid. He will have to earn his way back into the family. The cars, the apartments, the access to the private jets, the allowance, everything is all gone. Please know that we had no idea about his relationship with this woman and it appears he’s been carrying on with her for over a decade, longer than he admitted to you. I would never have allowed it to continue or even start had I known. But as I said he will be no trouble for you anymore. Your young man is wonderful, and he comes from a good family, Summer Summers is an icon for the ages. My son did not deserve you, but I hope you know you are worthy of love and respect, and this young man sounds like he does both to you. If it is okay with you, your parents have invited me to stay for the wedding-’
‘Of course. If you are not going to see me marry your son, you should get to see me marry someone.’ Sawyer laughs.
‘You look absolutely beautiful. Tres belle.’
‘Merci.’
Sawyer sits for a spell trying to wrap her head around everything that has happened. Her ex-mother-in-law is here to see her get married and Marcel is now getting his just desserts. She laughs to herself easing into the moment. This is her day, and she is going to make the most of it.
Her family file back in and the team get the show on the road; they are twenty minutes late for the wedding.
‘My darling I am so happy for you.’ Rosalie says, taking her daughter’s face in her hands, careful not to ruin the makeup, ‘you look like a star today and every day and I know this is not how we wanted it for you, but it is how it is meant to happen. I see your heart and I know you my baby girl. I send you off with my fondest wishes and prayers.’
‘Thank you mummy. Please don’t make me cry.’
‘Good God how can she not cry?’ Caroline, her older sister says, wiping a tear from her eyes. Both her children will serve as flower girl and ring bearer and she the chief bridesmaid.
‘Bloody hell you too.’
Henry walks into the bridal suite, ‘I hear my services are needed.’
‘Yes daddy, one last one to give away.’
‘Oh my dear girl, look at you. You look positively radiant.’
‘Thank you daddy.’
Caorline tends to her sister’s wiping a wayward tear.
‘Ready to get this show on the road?’
‘As I’ll ever be.’
A half hour later than she was expected, Sawyer and her father walk down the aisle of the carriage to the alter which has been decorated with flowers and fairy lights, where her groom awaits.
Jameson, on hearing the traditional wedding song heralding the bridal procession turns to look at her and you could have knocked him down with a feather.
‘This idiot is in love.’ Hugo says to Jacobs and the two of them giggle like schoolboys telling off colour jokes to each other.
Hudson flicks Jacob on the ear.
‘Ow.’
‘Shut the fuck up.’ Jackson whispers.
Sawyer arrives at the altar and is handed to Jameson with her father’s blessing.
‘Hey.’ Sawyer whispers.
‘You look beautiful.’ Jameson says.
‘You look so handsome.’ She winks at him.
‘Dearly beloved…’ the reverend father starts the intimate ceremony surrounded by family and close friends of the couple. Sawyer and Jameson hold hands as the priest continues his ceremonial sermon to marry the couple.
‘And now I believe the couple have written their own vows and will recite them together.’
‘You first.’ Both of them say in unison.
‘Ladies first.’
‘Gentlemen before.’ Sawyer says with a little cheek.
Jameson shakes his head with a little laugh, and their guests join in on the adorable moment. ‘Is that a rule from one of your romance authors?’
‘You bet it is. Now you lead, I’ll follow.’
‘Nice save.’
All of this is playing out before their wedding guests who are charmed by the moment.
‘I Jameson take you Sawyer to be my lawfully wedded wife.’
‘I Sawyer take you Jameson to be my lawfully wedded husband.’
‘To always wake you up with a cup of coffee and a croissant because breakfast should always be served to you even before you wake up.’ Jameson turns to their audience and stage whispers, ‘she’s not a morning person but she also loves breakfast.’ And as expected, they laugh.
‘To never learn to make coffee the way you do, because you make the best cup of coffee ever.’
‘To always call it football and never soccer because I am not a heathen.’
‘YES!’ Several of their friends in the audience clap causing the entire room to burst into laughter.
‘To never obey when you tell me not to break the legs of our son or daughter’s schoolyard bully.’
Jameson chuckles, ‘to hold your hand as we watch Basket Case, the worst horror movie of all time, that scares the bejesus out of you, but you insist on watching it anyway.’
‘To always steal your blanket and share it with you.’
‘To make you laugh until your sides hurt and to never be the reason you shed a tear.’
‘To hold you close always and never let you go.’
‘And to let go when I must but always stay close by you.’
‘To always share my plate with you even when you have yours.’
‘To never sleep on my side of the bed therefore almost toppling us over because I am an atrocious sleeper who actively refused to be sleep trained as a baby.’ Sawyer turns to her parents, and mouths, ‘sorry’ her mother chuckles resting her head ever so lovingly on her father’s shoulder.
‘To always be the one who tries to fix you. Because I will always try.’
Sawyer shakes her head swooning, because that is a paraphrased line from her favourite song by Cold Play.
‘To be your light in the dark.’
‘To light the roads that will guide your footsteps home to me.
‘To carry you in my heart always because there you’ll always have a home.’
Together they say, ‘because where we love is home, our feet may leave but never our hearts where we’ll always be.’
Applause and wolf whistles break out for the couple after reciting their vows and they are presented as man and wife. Mr and Mrs Summers.
In honour of Jameson’s lineage, they jump the broom that has been in their family for generations, much to Summer’s delight. All her sons have now jumped the broom, and their loves have lasted and will last a lifetime. Jameson’s too.
‘How did you pull this off?’ Jameson asks Sawyer as they sit to the wedding meal as they train journeyed on to Paris.
‘I called in my favours and cashed my cheques. Do you like it?’
‘I love it, and this is very reminiscent of our first day.’
‘That’s the point, I wanted our family to feel what we felt. What I felt and do feel. I wanted to capture the magic of that moment.’
‘Thank you. This is magical.’
‘Good I’m glad.’
There is dancing and singing and toasts that induces lots of laughter for the happy couple as the train chugged along to Paris where they will alight for more celebrations; Sawyer had arranged a private dinner at one of Paris’s finest restaurant catered by her favourite chef, Thomas Keller. Her parents have booked out La Reserve for their guests over two days where they will indulge the couple. The following morning, they are to have a special post wedding brunch with more celebration of the couple before they depart on the Mulberrys’ private jet to their honeymoon in Venice.
They are surrounded by love, by the love of the good people in their lives, it was not lost on either of them that everyone in this room, including Delphine, is a well-wisher to whom they can turn and hold on to.
‘You look happy bro.’ Sez approaches his best friend with two glasses of Macallan whisky from the well-stocked open bar.
‘I am. You think its mad?’
‘No Jamie.’ Only very few people are allowed to call Jameson by this nickname, it started out as a tease on the playground, “baby-faced Jamie” then moved to the basketball court and then when another boy called Jameson by that name, Sez beat the shit out of him. Jameson is also the one who nicknamed him Sez, his full name being Osezua. They grew up together, from kindergarten and have been in each other’s orbit. Sez is like a brother to the Summers and vice versa. ‘You look happy, you feel lighter, the lightest you have ever been since… Brandy. You look well. Doesn’t matter what the particulars are, you look well. And this is the first time you have not flinched at the mention of Brandy’s name. Buddy, she looks really good on you and you on her. Take it. Be in it.’
The two men clink glasses, both looking at the woman about whom this moment is.
The DJ switched songs to Let’s Groove by Earth Wind and Fire.
‘Okay ladies let’s take it to the dancefloor. You know who you are, get on the dancefloor now!’ Alana says over the DJ’s microphone, ‘Jameson, you are about to see the other side to your lovely bride. Welcome to the insiders club.’ She raises her glass of champagne to Jamie before joining her best friends, including the bride, on the dancefloor. In a connected stance start with the robot and break into the California shuffle with the other guests egging them on.
‘Your girl’s got moves.’ Hugo joins Jameson and Sez. ‘Did you know this about her?’
‘No.’ Jameson watches his girl take it to the floor at the direction of the song to down and she sways arse bringing it back up. ‘No, I did not.’ Damn he’s swooning. They bumped hips and showed off their version of the electric slide to much applause.
As the song winds down, the wedding band, a New Orleans jazz band, takes up where the DJ left off and Jameson sweeps his bride in his arms, showboating to the jazzy tune from the live band.
‘Are you happy?’ Sawyer asks Jameson as he twirls her to the tune.
‘I am. You?
‘Ecstatic.’ He pulls her in for a kiss just as canons of confetti are released. And the train kept chugging along to Paris for more amour.