Take a Chance (42 page)

Before them, Jem appeared, looking radiant in a long sleeved bridal gown with an upraised lace collar plunging to a v neckline over a lined lace bodice and ending in a full floor length skirt made of satin.  Soft pink roses had been tucked in her hair which she wore down over her shoulders.

Eben saw her blush as the compliments on her appearance flowed in. Then Freddie stepped to one side and everyone took that as a sign to stand back which they did.

This left Eben out in the open, feeling very vulnerable with all the extra eyes upon him.

If he stuffed this up he’d have to move to Alaska.

No pressure.

He walked forward, feeling extremely nervous, his heart racing and he tamped down the urge to visit the toilet.
Again.

Been there, done that.

He stopped in front of Jem who looked hopefully at him.

“You
’re finally here,” she said softly, admiring how he filled out the black formal suit he was wearing.

“You look exquisite,” he said at the same time
, his eyes darkening to a very familiar steely blue.

They both smiled at each other in the awkward silence that followed.

Eben cleared his throat then clumsily extracted a sheaf of papers from his jacket pocket.

“Last time I
proposed I messed it up and despite having it in writing that you’ll marry me I want to do this properly,” he began. “Someone wisely suggested I write down all the reasons I want to marry you so I don’t leave anything important out.”

“That was me!” Cherie interjected from where she
stood beside Jess’s wheelchair to a small burst of laughter.

“A
nyway, as you can see, my reasons are legion,” Eben continued, proud to keep the tremor from his voice. Even though he only had eyes for the woman in front of him, saying everything in front of an audience was a lot harder than he thought it would be.

He moved to unfold the papers and his unsteady fingers fumbled with them. In shocked silence he watched as half of them fell to the floor.

Now what do I do?

Everyone was silent and he heard the ticking of the clock on the
family room wall nearby. Eben closed his eyes briefly and heard his heartbeat racing in his ears. He opened them again and looked into Jem’s attentive blue eyes. After a few moments of indecision he let the remaining pages fall.

He took her hand which felt comfortingly warm in his and moved it close to his heart. He cleared his throat again.

“I love you Jemima Flint and promise to be solely responsible for mowing the lawns and the rubbish collection. Will you marry me?”

He nervously waited for her response.

Perhaps moving to Alaska wasn’t going to be far enough.

“I love you,” Jem said steadily and smiled.
Eben smiled back in relief and the heavenly scent of Bulgari wafted to her. She breathed in deeply. “Yes, I would be honoured to be your wife.”

Around them everyone cheered
and Jem’s cheeks pinkened.

Instead of embracing her as she had expected, Eben stood stock still, waiting.

Jem caught the twinkle in his eye and her lips twitched.

“And I promise to keep the fridge stocked with Speights,” she added to further laughter as she rolled her eyes.

Eben took the opportunity to tug her into his arms and place what he initially intended to be a simple kiss on her lips but Jem’s hands gripped his arms and the kiss deepened.

“Are they married now?” they heard Daisy ask her mother.

“Not yet,” Jess answered as they continued kissing.

“I don’t have to kiss anyone like that, do I?” Daisy asked.

“No,” Jase told her firmly to more laughter.

Aunty Beryl walked back into the room
to see what was taking them so long to follow her.

“
Okay, that’s enough practising!” she told them. “You can have another go
after
the ceremony. Come on. People are waiting.”

Jem poised at the entrance to the marquee
, bouquet in one hand, the other on Freddie’s arm as Cherie tied back the door for entry. Straight ahead of them a string quartet stopped midway through a piece they had been playing and started Wagner’s Bridal Chorus.

At the abrupt change in music many heads turned around and upon seeing Cherie
, people started standing. Cherie crouched down and whispered something in Daisy’s ear. Daisy nodded and set off down the aisle with Cherie pushing Jess in the wheelchair behind her.

As the
y all progressed down the aisle Jem recognised co-workers, Eben’s sister amongst a group of people who looked similar enough to be his family, as well as friends of Jase and Eben’s and their employees. Even her neighbours the Pearsons and Mrs Dwyer from down the hall were present.

She was touched by the number of people who had come and how not even one of them had hinted about this wedding being put together.  But then she conceded that the distraction of
preparing for shifting to another country as well as suffering morning sickness would be enough to make her only catch the most blatant of references.

At the end of the aisle Jase stood
beside a proudly waiting Eben. After the bridesmaids moved to the side Eben took Jem’s hand in his warm grip and tugged her to his side.

They were still holding hands when Uncle Ted began.

The ceremony was sweet although there were a few moments of desperation as Eben patted down every pocket looking for the rings.

Amongst stifled
laughter Jase took pity and handed them to him. The rest of the service flowed without drama and concluded with the standard permission given to the groom.

“You may now kiss the bride.”

Intending a peck on the lips, Eben was pleased to find Jem cling to him so he deepened the kiss. They could have continued like that but the raucous calls from friends and the disgusted “Gross!” from Jeremy sitting a row away convinced him to stop.

Amongst flashes from cameras they pulled away from each other and he was pleased to see that Jem appeared as breathless as he felt.

Uncle Ted moved in front of them.

“I present you with Eben and Jem Stone!” he announced.

Cherie caught Jem’s shocked reaction to her new name and nudged Uncle Ted.

“Jem might want to hyphenate,” she suggested to Uncle Ted behind her hand.

“That is to say, Mrs Flint-Stone,” corrected Uncle Ted loudly.

There were a few laughs.

“Yabba dabba doo!” called out some wit looking to be unfriended on facebook.

Cherie smacked her forehead with her hand.

“I think Jem Stone is cute,” Eben told his new wife.

“It appears to beat the alternative,” Jem replied wryly as friends and family closed in to congratulate them.

Among them was Daisy who asked to see Jem’s ring.

“It’s bee-yoo-tee-ful and sparkly,” she said after twisting Jem’s hand in different directions to watch the diamond in the engagement ring reflect the light.

“It’s a diamond,” Jem told her. “It’s my birthstone too which makes it extra special.”

“I want one of these,” Daisy said to her father who was holding a wriggling Aidan upside down. “What is my birthstone?”

“Cubic zirconia,” Jase answered to laughter inspired by his quick thinking.

After posing with friends and family for photos Eben and Jem had only a short time to get ready to catch their flight. Cherie helped Jem quickly change out of the dress in the bedroom.

“I don’t know how you managed all of this. You’re the best friend anyone could have,” Jem told her as Cherie slipped the gown back into the suit bag.

“I have been a pretty amazing fairy godmother,” Cherie agreed smugly. “That’s why you’re giving me naming rights.”

She glanced meaningfully at Jem’s stomach.

Jem placed a hand to her stomach.

“It’s all real, isn’t it?” she said in wonder. “I’m now a married woman and I’m going to be a mother.”

“Yep,” said Cherie eloquently.

“If there is anything I can ever do to return the favours you’ve done for us just let me know,” said Jem.

“You can count on it,” Cherie replied with a grin.

By the time they were back in her living room someone was distributing champagne and a serving trolley with a three tiered chocolate cake had been wheeled out of nowhere.

Among flashes of cameras Eben and Jem cut the cake and fed each other a piece then waited while flute
s of champagne were being passed around.

“I’m so glad you
agreed to marry me now because it would have sucked sitting beside each other on the plane to Hong Kong and not speaking for ten hours,” Eben confessed to her in a low voice as they waited for the final glasses to be filled.

“You’re coming with me?” Jem asked in surprise. “I confess I hadn’t really thought that part out.”

“I’d better be seeing as I’ve booked our wedding night in a five star hotel in Hong Kong,” Eben said. “And after that I’m going to be consulting for Sachs Wall between work I’ll be doing remotely.”

Jem’s response was to pull him forward for an excited kiss and a hug.

“You’ve got plenty of time for that later!” someone called out cheekily.

“Speech, speech, speech,” someone
else chanted and others joined in.

Glancing at the clock Eben knew they had little time to get to the airport.

“This has to be quick as we have to make our flight,” he said and endured interjections about
make our flight
being a euphemism for something else. He waved down the noisemakers and held his glass aloft. Realising a toast was being held, everyone held their glasses high.

“To all our single friends, I just want you to know that this is not the end,” Eben said then squeezed the hand of his new bride “but just the beginning of our happy ever after.”

Glasses clinked and champagne flowed.

Eight months later.

A large group had gathered in Jess and Jase’s family room consisting of them and their children, Eben’s parents, sisters and their families, Uncle Ted and Aunty Beryl as well as Cherie who had become a frequent visitor in the intervening months. They had gathered on this particular Sunday afternoon so that everyone could hear the news at once.

Cherie was still amazed that Eben had needed to drag Jem out of the office to get her to the hospital this morning when her contractions were
fifteen minutes apart. If it had been her she would have already been there signing whatever document was required to give her the good stuff at the first twinge.

She
knew that Jem’s dedication was more a final reassurance that she was on top of everything and she was. All of her staff was eminently capable of carrying on with only minor input. Even so Jem had bargained down her maternity leave with Eben and insisted upon working one half day a week for the first three months then part time. Eben would be working out of the office part time so he would know if anything would be needed to be brought to her attention in the interim.

Cherie thought
the reason that Jem was still keen to work after having the baby was more to do with having something mentally stimulating to do rather than being worried that she was being like Coco and was financially dependent on her husband. They certainly didn’t need the money as a few months after arriving Eben had secured a huge contract writing software to control eftpos transactions for retailers in China.

They now lived in an amazing apartment on Hong Kong Island with views of the harbour and had the usual expat arrangement of an amah doing the cleaning. Cherie had asked Jem whether they would have a nanny for when she was working but Jem said she didn’t want one and that she and Eben would share looking after the baby.

Cherie was looking forward to seeing how that worked out for them. She couldn’t imagine it would be any easier than all the upheaval they’d recently gone through at Sachs Wall’s head office. A forensic accountant had been brought in to trace account discrepancies and although Celeste had not been caught she had been sloppy when shutting down bank accounts and they had leads on her in Sydney.

The investigators had found
traces of midazolam, a sedative with amnesic properties in Nate’s whiskey decanter and believed that Celeste had routinely given the drink to Nate in the evening to prevent him from getting frisky. Mark had been relieved to hear that it was likely he had been given the same thing as it explained why he couldn’t remember anything. Celeste’s lover had got her pregnant so she had set Mark up to believe he was the father as leverage to get him to do what she wanted.

The entire experience had changed
Mark for the better. It had taken him a while to adjust to life in Christchurch but he worked hard and had the sales to prove it. He was now living with an executive he had met during one of his presentations and they had recently got engaged.

Nate was also thriving in Christchurch. Without the drugs in his system his memory had improved and Mandy had forgiven him… eventually.

The phone rang and Cherie watched a fully recovered Jess beat Eben’s mother to it by a mere second.

Jess
stuck her finger in one ear in an attempt to drown out the background noise as she listened to the phone. She caught her husband’s eye and gave him the look.

“Quiet!” Jase bellowed. “It’s
the
call.”

Everyone silenced and waited expectantly.

“Is Jem okay?” Jess asked.

“She is? Good.”

“And the baby?”

“Lots of dark hair and blue eyes and getting weighed now,” Jess repeated.

“Are you still in the delivery room?” she asked, astonished.

“As of eight minutes ago? Wow, you don’t waste any time,” Jess said, impressed
.

“Are you going to tell me the sex?”

Jess toyed with her growing fringe as she listened to the answer then put her hand over the receiver.

“It’s a boy!” she announced triumphantly.

Amongst the congratulations being offered to Eben’s parents on their first grandson Jase patted Cherie on the back in condolence.

“I know you were hoping it would be a girl so she would be named for you,” he said in a low voice so only she could hear.

“It’s okay,” Cherie said, forcing a smile while trying not to feel disappointed.

On the phone Jess was continuing her enquiries.

“Do you have a name for him yet?”

“No. You’re kidding me. Whose idea was
… Jem’s? And you’re okay with it? You are?” said asked, sounding surprised by the answer.

“Okay, I’ll let you go. Give our love to Jem,” Jess said.

She pressed the off button, put the phone down and picked up one of the glasses of champagne that Uncle Ted had been busy pouring since the birth was announced.

“I want to propose a toast to the birth of my new nephew,” Jess said.

Everyone hurried to pick up a glass and raise it, including the children with their cups of apple juice.

“To Thor!”

Cherie smiled widely.