Free How To Marry Your Husband by Anne Brooke Page A

– Olivia has enough to worry about for herself and Kieran without adding other people into the mix.
    Then, of course, there’s the whole question of Kieran’s best man. She has no idea who he may ask, as he isn’t particularly close to his family, though he has one or two work friends he may approach. Like her – at heart – her fiancé is a bit of a loner and doesn’t like getting too close to the people around him. In fact, in the early days of the two of them going out together – though they’d been friends in their church group for longer – he’d once told her how alike he thought they were.
    When Olivia laughed, he explained the truth was he himself said nothing to anyone to avoid giving away anything personal, whereas she said lots and lots of things for exactly the same reason. There was depth and wisdom in what he’d said and she’s never forgotten it.
    Maybe they should look at doing things differently then, just as they’ve always done? Olivia makes a mental note to raise the issue of bridesmaids and best men with Kieran at the earliest opportunity. She could well have made an actual note too, but by now she’s feeling suffocated by lists, and can take no more of them.
    Her opportunity comes at the end of the week when she and Kieran meet up at their usual mid-town winebar before heading home. Usually she would steer clear of wedding subjects as she thinks of winebar time as “their time” but Kieran asks her how everything is going and whether there are things he can helpfully do.
    She smiles at him as she takes another swig of the chardonnay – she isn’t the kind of woman who sips at anything – and then remembers her earlier mental note.
    “Darling,” she begins and at once Kieran looks at her as if she’s suddenly turned in to his worst nightmare. She can’t help laughing. “What’s that look? What have I done now?”
    “Nothing,” Kieran shrugs. “But I’ve learnt over the time we’ve been together that when you start a sentence with ‘darling’, it tends to mean I’ve done something horribly wrong or – worse – I’m about to.”
    Olivia assumes an expression of innocence and raises her eyebrows at him as if this is news to her. Of course it isn’t.
    “Harsh but fair,” she says. “But this time it’s different. I’ve been wondering about bridesmaids and best men.”
    “I see. Are we for them or against them?”
    “Both or neither at the moment. You see, I’m thinking about not having any bridesmaids at all, but it depends on whether you’d thought about a best man. I mean if you wanted one, and if so if you’d already got someone in mind. If you have, that’s fine, and I’ll pick a bridesmaid or two, but I wondered if none might be an option.”
    At the end of this blur of words all bundled together, Olivia takes another swig of her wine, finds – how did that happen? – she’s finished it, and orders another one, plus a second beer for Kieran. Glasses in pubs must be getting smaller these days.
    As she takes her change from the barman, Kieran nods. “It might be radical, but it would be very much us. Then again, what would your mother think?”
    Olivia ponders his question. “She probably wouldn’t mind at all. Just as long as she can be there to see her only daughter get married, and get to wear a hugely extravagant hat, she’ll be happy.”
    “In that case,” Kieran says, finishing his first beer and starting to pour the second into his empty glass. “In that case, why not have the wedding without them? Though, won’t it look odd if I stand at the front of my church on my own? And, anyway, who will you walk down the aisle with? Your mother? Your stepfather? Both?”
    Olivia hasn’t thought about that issue in any depth either, but she supposes she has to walk down the aisle with someone, especially if there are no bridesmaids. And maybe it’s mean to get Kieran to stand on his own in church, waiting for her to arrive. The last thing she