Page 123 of Kiwi Sin
I held my sister’s hand and said, “You’re good enough at being in love. You’re good enough atlove.How could anybody be better at it than you?”
Daisy said, “I’m not. I get overwhelmed sometimes. I go quiet. I need too much time to process. Sometimes I get annoyed.”
I said, “That’s not the definition. How much more love could there be than what you’ve done? You’ve risked everything, over and over again. You’ve walked into danger. You’ve been hurt, and you’ve come back anyway to help the people you love. Why wouldn’t Gray want a woman like that? How could he do better?”
Daisy said, “I’m damaged.” It was a whisper.
“So am I,” I told her. “So is he. We’re all damaged. That’s the point, don’t you see? That’s what love does. It knits our wounds and heals our hearts. Don’t you want to do that for him?”
“Yes,” Daisy said. “I do.” She’d moved forward to see around the corner, and I moved with her.
Handsome, smooth Hayden, the celebrant, standing with the leather folder that held the marriage service. And beside him, two men. One dark, and one fair. Gabriel raised his eyes, they met mine, and a thrill went through me like electricity. As for Gray? He was looking straight at Daisy, and I heard the breath catch in her throat.
“Then marry him,” I said. “And heal his heart.”
She said, “I need to do that.”
“Yes. You do.” Her hand was cold in mine, but it wasn’t shaking anymore. I asked, “Ready?”
“Ready,” she said. And started to walk.
* * *
Gabriel
Oriana walked to me the same way she’d walked through everything. Holding her sister’s hand, and supporting her, because Oriana was love.
Beside me, I could see Gray’s hands shake where they’d been clasped. He’d thought Daisy wouldn’t come, because when you’d had enough things go wrong, it was hard to believe they could go this right. That you could ever get that thing you wanted most. That she’d walk to you and take your hand and promise you everything.
She came, though. They both did, but I only saw one. Oriana, shining like the moon, a smile on her lips and in her eyes, walking to me like destiny.
We held each other’s hands as Hayden talked, and we waited to make the promises. We’d say the words today, and we’d mean them, but the most important thing, we’d already done. We’d promised in our hearts.
“When I was a child,” Hayden read, “I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
A pause, and I looked into the eyes of the woman I’d always wanted. The woman who was mine, body and soul, the same way I was hers. Face to face. Knowing everything.
A man couldn’t be this happy, but I was.
“And now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three,” Hayden said. “But the greatest of these is love.”
53
NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN
Gabriel
Around us, the barbecue went on. Kids ran on the grass, and babies cried. My mum kissed Oriana, and my cousins shook my hand.
How long did we have to stay?
I looked at Oriana, and she looked at me. I asked, “Do you want to get out of here?”
She said, “Yes.”
The B&B I’d booked for tonight was only a few streets from the sunny flat, with its deck and its view over the hills, where we’d be moving in another week. After our honeymoon, that is, which we were spending in a bach at the northern end of the South Island, near Abel Tasman National Park. I wanted to swim in the Mermaid Pools and out in the sea, with its warm water and golden sand. I wanted to walk on the forested track and hold Oriana’s hand. I wanted to start to see the world.
And then I wanted to take her home and see everything.
