Page 7 of Four of Hearts

‘Then why do you look like a horse?’

That question threw Matt immediately.

‘A horse? I don’t look like a horse.’

‘Long face,’ said Ethan.

Matt looked at Ethan, at Harry, at Ethan, then back at Harry again.

‘I haven’t got a long face!’ he blustered. ‘I just don’t understand why you thought it was the right thing to do, to go off and get married, without any of us there to celebrate it with you! Can you not see that?’

‘Of course I can,’ said Harry.

‘This is a big deal, Harry,’ Matt said, clearly not hearing what Harry had just said. ‘Everyone knows you’re not big on large gatherings, or people in general, really, but surely you could’ve made an exception for getting married?’

‘We have.’

‘Because, and this isn’t something you’ll find me saying much, by the way,’ Matt continued, clearly still unaware of anything Harry was saying in response, ‘despite your gruff, grumpy, grouchy exterior, we?—’

Matt paused, stared at Harry, looked around the room, then back at Harry.

‘What did you just say?’

‘I saidwe have, Matt,’ Harry smiled. ‘By which I mean, of course I can see how it would be very important to have all of you there to celebrate with us, and that we have, actually, made an exception.’

‘Then why weren’t any of us invited, Harry, that’s all I’m asking;why?’

‘Because, Matt, we want to do the celebration our way, not the way the rules say we have to. All we’ve done is get the legal bit out of the way. Now we can celebrate in whatever way we want! We can have you parachute in with a speech, get Dave to do some kind of weird goat dance, who knows? But all we’ve done, and I hope you can see this, is make the celebration of us being married, the most special part of the whole thing. Simple as that. We weren’t keeping it a secret; we just weren’t making a big deal out of signing some legal papers. And we all knew that if we let the cat out of the bag too early, everything would get a little bit crazy, wouldn’t it?’

Harry could see that Matt looked rather shell-shocked.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘I didn’t ... I mean ... I ...’

Matt stared at Harry for another few seconds, clearly trying to decide whether he was annoyed, embarrassed, or relieved.

Eventually, he seemed to settle on all three.

‘So let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘You’re telling us you sneaked off to get married, purely so you could have the actual celebration your own way?’

‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you. The reception will be at the Fountain. Grace cleared it with Mandy first thing this morning, on her way to work. We’re also going to be doing a ceremony down by the river, where Gordy spread Anna’s ashes, because we all agreed that we want her there, too, in spirit. I sent a message to Margaret about that on my way here, as we want her to officiate. Judging by her response, she was expecting it.

Matt looked around the room.

‘And everyone else knew this before me?’

‘Only Jen, actually,’ said Liz. ‘But that’s only because I blabbed about it all over a little too much wine a couple of weeks ago. She promised to keep it quiet. You’re just taking it the worst, that’s all.’

That got a chuckle from everyone, including Matt, though he tried very hard not to.

Dave raised a hand.

‘Just for the record, I’d like it officially noted that I’m extremely excited about this goat dance Harry mentioned earlier.’

‘There is no goat dance,’ Harry said.

‘There is now,’ muttered Ethan.

Laughter lit the room like a firework.