Somebody so much better.
“Can everybody hear me?” Richard Martin’s voice boomed out over the loud speakers. “If you’ll give me your attention for a few minutes I’d be very grateful. I just have a few words to say.” He held a microphone in one hand, a thick pile of crumpled paper in the other. From the size of it, Ember was certain there were more than a few words there.
“Already?” Will muttered, glancing at his watch. “I need to go.” He quickly weaved his way through the crowd, leaving Ember and Lucas standing there.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we make a run for it?” Lucas whispered.
She looked around. Everything at the party had come to a standstill. People had crowded onto the dance floor where she and Lucas were standing, and they were all looking at Richard. If the two of them wanted to escape to the beach they’d have to push their way out.
“I think they will,” Ember whispered back. “Let’s stay for the speech and then we can leave right after.”
Richard cleared his throat again, then lifted the microphone back up to his mouth and launched into his speech.
“As you know, and as a few of you remember, forty years ago today this beautiful woman agreed to be my wife.” He reached his hand out to Janice’s, pulling her beside him. She gave him a big smile, one that melted Ember’s heart.
“I said then, and I mean it even more now, I’m not just the luckiest man in Angel Sands, but the luckiest man in the whole world.”
A collective ‘aww’ came from the crowd.
“The year we married I’d just graduated from law school. I didn’t have much money to my name, and I definitely couldn’t afford to buy the kind of ring a woman like Janice deserves, yet somehow she actually said yes to me.”
“You bought me a better ring later,” Janice said, winking. “So I’ll forgive you.”
Richard smiled at her. “This woman has the patience of a saint. We both agreed to wait awhile before we started a family. I wanted to get my career started, and at the time, Janice was still in college herself. What we didn’t realize was that it would take ten years before we felt settled enough to have a family, and though we would’ve loved to have a big family, we felt very blessed to have our only child, William.” He nodded at his son, who was hovering beside the deck. “Will, come up here and bring Norah, too.”
Will’s new girlfriend was here? Ember swallowed hard. Lucas’ arms tightened around Ember’s shoulders. She stared at the stage, curious about what Norah looked like.
Will joined his father on the deck, holding the hand of a small brunette. She was smiling widely as Richard embraced her. Janice, however, hung back, then turned to her husband, a look of horror on her face. “Richard, I—”
“No, don’t worry, dear. I’ll be finished soon, I promise. Just let me get this over with.” The crowd laughed, as he lifted his piece of paper to his eyes, squinting at it through his reading glasses.
“As you know,” he continued, “Will has moved to San Francisco so Janice and I were delighted when he and Norah accepted our invitation to come down and join in our celebrations today. We were even more delighted when he told us he and Norah had a big surprise for us.”
Janice leaned in to whisper in his ear, but he shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, darling,” he said, giving her a bemused smile. “I just want to introduce Norah to the family.”
A low hum of chatter broke out across the crowd. Ember frowned, looking around to try and work out what people were saying. Will immediately took Norah’s hand and pressed his lips against her cheek.
“I know not everybody here has met Norah, but I’m sure you will in the years to come. Her name is currently Norah Davidson, but very soon she’s to become Norah Martin. Next month, she and Will are to be wed.”
Janice’s face looked pale, but she said nothing.
“What about the baby?” Richard whispered to Will, forgetting the microphone was still near his mouth. “Can I tell them about that?”
The chatter among the crowd got louder. Ember’s mouth turned as dry as the breeze surrounding them. Janice was staring at her husband, saying nothing, as though he’d struck her dumb with his sheer lack of propriety.
“I guess I just did,” he said, shooting his son a sheepish look. He never had been a man known for taking a hint. “Um, I’m absolutely delighted to share with you all that Will and Norah are also expecting a baby. In a few months’ time, Janice and I are going to be grandparents.”
It happened in slow motion. One second, Ember was holding on to the stem of her almost-empty cocktail glass, the next it was falling down to the floor, smashing in shards across the concrete. Ember’s lips parted, but she couldn’t form any words. All she could do was try to breathe, in spite of the pain in her chest. She felt like an island surrounded by a sea full of waves as people fussed around her, picking up the pieces of glass and making sure n
obody stepped on them.
“Ember?” She only vaguely heard Lucas above the thud of her heartbeat. “Are you okay?”
“Her foot’s bleeding,” one of the people picking up glass told him. “There’s a shard stuck in her foot.”
The blood rushing through her ears drowned out every other sound. She stood as compliant as a child as Lucas slowly pulled the glass out, his fingers deft and warm against her skin.
“Does it hurt?” he asked her, as he pressed a paper towel to her skin.