Page 56 of Wedding Games
Charlie laughed and kissed her hand before peeling it away.
‘You were just saying how much you were looking forward to my speech,’ he said. ‘Weren’t you, sweetheart?’
Valentina smiled. ‘Yes, Charlie. That is correct.’
Charlie stood, taking a microphone from Sam. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, all that has come before was merely a warm up. An aperitif for the main event and the only reason you’re really here.’
People laughed, and there was a chorus of whistles from the table at the back.
Rory sighed, and Zoe whispered in his ear. ‘Valentina promised it would be okay. He won’t dare cross her.’
Rory harumphed in return.
‘Yes, ladies, gentlemen, and the numpties that are Mike, Ivor, Hugh and Eric—’
There were more whistles from his army friends.
‘You’re all here for the best man, and let’s face it, that’s me.’
Rory shook his head and flipped Charlie the bird.
Charlie winked back.
‘So, let’s take you back to when I first met the future Earl of Kinloch, aged eighteen.’
A picture of Rory and Charlie, both sporting buzz cuts and attempting to appear menacing but looking stupidly young in their army fatigues, flashed up on the screen.
Zoe gasped. ‘Your hair!’
‘We were young,’ Charlie continued. ‘We were dumb… We were full of…confidence.’
The screen lit up with more photos of the two of them holding guns, their faces smeared with war paint. Zoe had never seen any of these before. It was like seeing a whole new part of Rory that she’d only ever imagined from his stories.
‘We served together for many years, finally achieving our goal of getting our own special forces sunglasses.’
The two men stood in the desert, their arms around each other. The photo had been edited to show black bars across their eyes.
‘But it wasn’t all fun and games,’ Charlie continued, his face sombre. ‘We lost many friends and nearly our own lives. I wouldn’t be here giving this speech today if not for Rory. He saved my life on more than one occasion and also kept me sane during some dark times. If you know him well, you’ll know he’s a man of very few words. The most I can normally get out of him are “mate”, “fuck off”, and “you twat”.’
Rory nodded as everyone laughed.
‘But when he isn’t slagging me off, he’s the best friend and comrade a man could ever have. I trust him with my life and would lay down my own for him in a heartbeat.’
Valentina was blinking rapidly as she stared at Charlie, and Zoe felt the lump rise again in her throat.
‘When Rory first told me about Zoe,’ Charlie continued, ‘I thought he was hallucinating. He claimed he’d found his ideal woman in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. But when he told me she called him a mutant hobbit and threw a tin of baked beans at him, I not only knew that she was real but also that she was perfect.’
Charlie held Zoe’s gaze. ‘Zoe, you’re epic. Thank you for making my best mate so ridiculously happy and for enabling me to see more of him than I have in the last few years.’
She nodded at Charlie, too emotional to speak.
‘Finally,’ Charlie said to the room. ‘I want to tell you all a story I’ve never shared with anyone outside of our unit before. This incident scarred us all for life, and it’s very difficult, even now, to talk about it.’
He broke off, bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Zoe looked at Rory, raising her eyebrows in question.
He pulled a confused face and shrugged in response.
