Things I Want My Daughters to Know_ A Novel - Elizabeth Noble [162]
Mark’s voice broke on the last sentence, and he paused, looking down at the tablecloth. Hannah saw her dad’s knuckles whiten, his fists clenched by his side, and felt a shiver of pure pain pass through her. But he recovered and raised his gaze again to the crowd.
“So…this is what I think she would have said, if she’d been here. I think she would have said that she adored you, Lisa. That you’d made her proud every day of your life. That she had a million memories of you stored away and that the pair of you were laughing in nearly every one of them. I think she would have said that she was so, so glad you were marrying Andy. Some of you”—and he glanced from Jennifer to Lisa—“know the part, even though she isn’t with us anymore, that she played in getting the pair of you here today. She thought he was perfect for you, you know. I remember what she said about you, Andy, the first time we met you. We were washing up, after Sunday lunch, I think, and watching the two of you in the garden, and Lisa was laughing at something you had said. Barbara said you were what Lisa needed. She said you were the sort of bloke who’d make her laugh and understand her cry. I said that she was ridiculous, of course. No offense, Andy. But we’d only just met you. Turns out I agree with her. I think she knew you so well because the two of you were so much alike. And so if I’m right, Andy, mate, and Lisa turns out to be like her mum, my beautiful wife, then you’re in for a magical, enchanted, marvelously happy roller coaster of a life together. So let’s drink to that.”
He held aloft the glass of wine.
“To a magical, enchanted, marvelously happy life together. To Lisa and Andy.”
Everyone stood and repeated, “To Lisa and Andy!”
ANDY WAS FUNNY, AND WARM, BOTH TOGETHER. HE COULDN’T keep his hands off his bride and kept squeezing her shoulder as he spoke. She would lay her head against his hand, gazing up at him as he spoke. His best man was funnier, not so warm, and had brought visual aids documenting the checkered history the two of them had shared since primary school. He told a hilarious joke involving keys and women planted in the audience that might have got lesser men into hot water, but in his hands had the whole marquee falling about. And then the music started.
“Nice one, Dad” was Hannah’s verdict. She was the first of her sisters to get to him, planting a quick kiss on his cheek on her way to the dance floor, determined to show off the dress to best effect. “Not too sad, not too sentimental. Just right. You did good.”
He blew her retreating frame a kiss. “Thanks, kid.”
Amanda threw him a double thumbs-up. She was already dancing with Ed, auburn hair flying. Mark watched Ed kiss Amanda, openmouthed. Heard Hannah, swinging past them with Vince, entreaty them to “get a room!”
Jennifer came up to the table. Stephen veered off to the left, off to the bar, it seemed. She hugged him.
“I loved the speech, Mark,” she said, smiling directly at him. “Mum would have loved it, too, and I know Lisa did. You made her cry. You made us both cry.”
“Thanks, Jen.”
“You’ve been a brilliant stepfather,” she suddenly said. “I feel like an idiot when I think of how I didn’t appreciate it, when I should have. You loved my mum, and, even when you two had Hannah, you never ever once made us feel like we weren’t important to you. Never once.”
He didn’t know what to say to that.
“Just wanted you to know. And you’ll be the greatest granddad.” She laid her cheek against his, very briefly, and then walked toward Stephen. Mark caught her hand as she passed and squeezed it tightly.
“DO YOU REMEMBER OUR WEDDING DAY?” STEPHEN ASKED HER.
“Of course I do. Every wonderful second of it. Don’t you?”
“God, no—not every second! I couldn’t tell you what my mother was wearing, or what we ate or what color the flowers were. I don’t even remember what time we got married. I’m a man; we just don’t have the right software for that sort of thing.”
“But you remember some of it. Tell me you