The World According to Vince - Jane Harvey-Berrick Page 0,65

he had it in him. He must have picked up a few tips from me over the years after all. I cheered louder than anyone.

And then Rick smashed a glass on the floor and Cady stomped it into smithereens.

“Mazel tov!” we all yelled.

I’d been to weddings where there had been breakages before, but not where it was deliberate. Still, the night was young.

Then the wedding party signed the ketubah, a marriage contract, which spelled out the duties and obligations of the bride and groom, and I was a witness along with Grace. I liked seeing our names together. I liked it a lot. Then Rick and Cady signed the official marriage register.

I’d planned to tell Grace how beautiful she looked, but the words got caught on my tongue and didn’t make it out of my mouth. I stood there like a love-struck fool just gazing at her.

“Gracie, Grace,” I choked out. “You … you … fook me, you’re so hot, talk about global warming!”

Her forehead wrinkled before she burst out laughing. “Thank you, Vince. You look great, too.”

It hadn’t been quite the compliment I’d intended to pay her, but good enough, and we stood there holding hands like a couple of muppets, if muppets had hands and not trotters … or maybe that was just Miss Piggy. She was hot, too.

After that, we posed for a thousand photos while the photographer made sure everyone in the wedding party was pictured with Rick and Cady.

Finally, we were finished, and everyone was ready for the real party to get started. I’d heard that Jewish weddings could get a bit crazy. I was really looking forward to that because I was loving all of this; I’d even wondered if I had a bit of Jewish in my family tree. And then I wished I hadn’t had that thought because I was an orphan and had nobody left to ask. But before I could get too sad, Grace touched my arm gently.

“Are you alright?”

“Never better,” I grinned, and kissed the back of her hand.

“You can tell me,” she persisted. “You know that, right?”

I shrugged. “Just thinking about my parents,” I admitted.

She squeezed my fingers, letting her warmth and kindness flow into me. I lapped it up like a starving dog.

Then the music began and some bloke started warbling Hava Nagila. All the men dived into the middle of the room and I started to follow when … woah! The dancefloor was spinning! That was wicked! I sidled over to the events coordinator who’d introduced herself when we’d arrived; Jenna, I think her name was.

“This is great!” I said, nodding at the slowly rotating floor.

“Yes, we’re very proud of it here in the Rainbow Room—it was first installed in 1934.”

“Can it go any faster?” I asked. “That would be a laugh.”

She gave me a chilly look before she walked away, stating, “It’s not a carnival ride, sir.”

Huh. No sense of fun, some people.

I sprinted back to the circle in the middle and pushed my way in next to Rick as we danced around the room.

“This is brilliant!” I yelled above the noise.

Rick grinned widely, but his eyes were on Cady who was being hoisted up in a chair by the chuppah bearers, and as they heaved her up and down, it looked like the chair was dancing. Four more of us hoisted Rick up, and he was no lightweight either. My mate was 200 pounds of muscle, the bastard.

The chair dipped up and down, and I broke into a sweat as we danced around the room. I saw Gracie laughing and cheering, and I managed a quick smile as we staggered past. Then Cady started waving her hanky in the air and I remembered that Rick had to grab it so they could jig about joined together.

We danced over there, sweating like politicians with a polygraph test. Every time Rick tried to grab Cady’s hanky, he lurched forward and nearly fell off his chair, then leaned back gripping onto the seat, wild-eyed and desperate.

Cady laughed like a blocked drain, waving her hanky at him furiously.

And then she leaned too far toward Rick, flailing that damned hanky.

I could see that she was going; I could see her falling, so I ditched Rick to the three losers staggering along without me, and dived toward Cady.

It was like something out of a Tarantino film—the slo-mo bit before everyone gets iced in gory detail.

I caught Cady in my arms but got splatted on the floor as she landed on