Page 1 of Falling for the Guy Next Door

ChapterOne

Layla

Icouldn’t put my finger on it. It was a feeling, a sense of satisfaction, happiness, a moment in time when everything lined up perfectly. It reminded me of the time I won the talent contest in school with a flawless baton twirling routine. My main competitor, Arnie Foreman, sneezed during his piano performance, throwing off his concentration and tempo so badly he had to give up mid-song. Nonna had winked at me as I walked out holding my trophy. She said, “Layla, my tiny treasure, the stars don’t always line up like that, but when they do, it’s always nice.”

That day, it was easy to trace my joy back to the talent contest. Today, there was no clear evidence, no ill-timed sneeze or flawless baton routine to point the way to the perfectly aligned stars. It was a lovely day on the cove—blue sky, emerald green water gently rolling in, and just enough breeze to cool our skin under the blazing summer sun. “Postcard perfect” was what my sister Ella liked to call it, but postcard perfect days were common in our little slice of the cove. The idyllic setting was one I’d found myself in many times. It wasn’t our heavenly section of beach giving me that feeling of joy. I just couldn’t put my finger on the source.

I glanced around the circle of beach chairs. We’d dragged them down to the cove for our wedding planning lunch. Isla, the second eldest of the fabulous five Lovely sisters, had recently gotten engaged to Luke Greyson, a man who’d had all of us at the word “hello.” He was handsome, rich and, most importantly, he adored our sister.

Aria, the eldest Lovely sister, had a pad of paper on her lap. She’d been writing down suggestions for wedding locations. Ella, the middle sister, had carried her laptop down to the sand and connected it to her phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot. She was the professional writer of the family, and she was rarely without her computer. She was also the expert researcher, and, as location ideas were tossed out, Ella’s fingers would fly over the keyboard to look up cost and availability. Ava, the adventurer of the group, kept suggesting exotic locations like a beach in Belize or a winter ski wedding in the Alps. Those locations were fitting for the wedding of Luke Greyson, heir to a massive old money fortune, but Isla liked things kept simple. And then there was me, Layla, the youngest. I had little to add. Not that I wasn’t thrilled about Isla’s engagement to Luke, but her marriage came with the sad reality that one of my sisters would be moving out of the tiny cottage that the four of us shared. Nonna’s storybook cottage had been our home and the cove below had been our backyard for years. After the profound heartbreak of losing our mom to illness, our busy dad shipped us off to live with our grandmother. Nonna welcomed us with open arms. Growing up in her tiny, creaky and drafty cottage was nothing short of magical.

I’d had the least amount of time with our mom, but I remembered her holding my hand while I sounded out the words in my books, and she always brushed my hair, reminding me only a few people in the world were blessed with copper-colored hair. (Of course, I’d found that hard to believe because Aria had the same copper hair.) Still, she always made me feel special, and I remembered feeling an ache through my whole body after Dad told us she was gone forever. I was young enough to still wonder if forever was a long time. Now I knew, and yes, forever was a really long time.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but this wedding stuff has made me hungry.” Isla leaned over the cooler we’d carried down. “Let’s see, cheese and ham, no mayo for Ava.” Isla had placed a sticky note on each sandwich wrapper to make sure we got the right one. “Ella, extra mustard.” Isla winked as she handed the sandwich over to Ella. “Extra cheddar for the big sis of the group.” Isla handed the sandwich to Aria. “And here’s mine.” She sat back with a slight grin, knowing full well I didn’t have a sandwich yet. We were all grownups, but my four sisters still loved to tease me. “Oh, that’s right.” She leaned into the cooler and pulled out my sandwich. “Cheese only for my baby sister.”

Everyone laughed, as if it had been a real “gotcha” moment. And as they laughed, it hit me—the reason I felt so completely happy this afternoon. I could finally put my finger on it. In the past few years, every one of my sisters had found their soulmate. Isla, of course, had dreamy Luke. Aria had found Dex, a man who’d come with some baggage, some family strife and a heart that was nearly as massive as his build. Ella had stumbled unexpectedly on the man of her dreams while pursuing a story about a cursed house, and recently, even Ava, the one sister I’d counted on to stay single and unattached with me, had discovered true love with a man who she’d considered an enemy until they realized they were madly in love with each other. For months our gatherings had included at least one or more of their respective soulmates, but today, it was just us, Nonna’s fabulous five.

Ella caught me grinning into my bottle of iced tea. “What’s going on with you, smiley?”

I shrugged. “Nothing. This is nice.”

Aria looked out at the water. “It is. The weather is great today.”

“No, not that,” I said. “I mean, the weatherisnice.” I realized I’d started something that would have been better kept to myself. But that wasn’t really my style, as all of my sisters could attest. “It’s just nice to be here, all of us.Justus,” I added.

Isla, who was always the most intuitive, caught on first. She smiled. “You’re right, Layla. It is nice—just us for a change.”

Heads nodded in agreement.

Now that we had sandwiches free from their wrappers, a group of gulls moved in with curious orange beaks and black beady eyes. We watched them as they watched us.

“Look, Layla, isn’t that Peggy?” Ava asked. “There, at the end of the group.”

A gull with a black streak on her beak was standing in the group. She wore an orange band around her leg. Peggy was one of the gulls the wildlife rescue used to keep track of the flock. “Yep, there she is. Haven’t seen you in a while, Peggy.” I’d named the gull Peggy after a girl in middle school. One day, I’d removed my friendship bracelets to wash my hands in art class, and when I went to put them back on, my orange one was gone. As we left class I spotted it on Peggy’s wrist. When I confronted her about it, she told me it belonged to her.

“I wonder what ever happened to Peggy,” Ella said.

Aria lifted a brow. “Uh, she’s right there, staring at your sandwich.”

“No, I meant the bracelet thief, Peggy,” Ella said.

“How long do they live?” Isla asked.

We all looked at her in confusion.

She laughed. “I guess that wasn’t the smoothest transition. I meant the gulls. Seems like we’ve been seeing Peggy out here every summer for years.”

We all looked at Ava for the answer because she was the flora and fauna expert. “I think if they avoid all the usual pitfalls of being a gull out on the water, they can live about fifteen years. Peggy’s getting up there in bird years.”

I raised my bottle of tea. It caused the birds to shift around in anticipation that something might be thrown their way. “Oh, relax, guys, and raise your little beaks in toast. To another fifteen years, Peggy.”

My sisters lifted their drinks and joined in the toast.

We returned to our lunch.

“Audrey leased her cottage to a long-term renter,” Ella said as we each reached toward a bag of grapes that Isla held up. We all glanced instinctively up the hill to the small cottage at the top. Beach peas covered the hillside with papery blossoms that ranged from lavender to royal purple. The vines grew all the way up to the patio at the back of the house. Audrey was our neighbor growing up, but she no longer lived in the cottage. She decided to keep the place as a beach rental, which was a great relief to all of us. Developers were constantly trying to get their hands on Audrey’s and Nonna’s cottages because they were built on what was considered prime real estate. The views from our cottages were the finest on the cove, and both houses had a short trip downhill to what was, without a doubt, the finest strip of beach for miles.

“She doesn’t usually rent long-term,” Aria said. She was already wearing her oldest sister stern brow, newly concerned about the renter. “Who are they?”

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