Page 3 of Falling for the Guy Next Door

We all looked at her.

“Here, right here on the cove,” she declared.

A few looks of confusion crossed the half-circle. “My wedding. We could get married right here on the cove, my favorite place in the world. Our favorite place in the world. We’ll keep it small, just close friends and family.”

Aria laughed. “Uh, did you forget about your future mother-in-law, Cruella de Vil on steroids? Do you think she’s going to go along with a small, intimate wedding on the cove?”

“Who cares what she thinks?” Ava asked.

But Isla was already rethinking her idea. Some of the enthusiasm washed out of her expression. “You’re right. She’ll put up a big stink.”

Ava sat forward. “You’re the bride, right? See what Luke thinks before you cross the cove off your list. I personally think it’s a brilliant idea.”

“It’ll be the closest thing to having Nonna at the wedding,” I added.

Isla’s smile was back. “You’re right, Layla. It would be like having her nearby. I’ll talk to Luke about it later.”

Aria and Isla were the first to get up. Chairs were folded and Ella and Isla grabbed the handles on the cooler for the hike up the hill. I stayed seated and pulled out my phone.

Ava folded her chair. “Aren’t you coming up?”

“Nope, unlike the rest of you, I don’t have any commitments right now, so I’m going to stay and work on my tan.” I pulled my straw hat out from my bag and pushed it on my head.

My phone rang as I rested back. I hoped it was Dustin cancelling our ice cream date. My sisters were right. I needed to break it off with him. I figured three months of dating deserved an in-person breakup. I could do it over a cone of rocky road. The ice cream might soften the blow.

I pulled out the phone. It was my best friend, Emily. We’d been best friends since fifth grade. Back then, Emily and her parents were new in town, and Emily had made the unfortunate decision to wear a red pair of shorts with a yellow T-shirt on her first day of school. The other kids started calling her “ketchup and mustard,” and she ended up alone and in tears at recess. I felt bad for her and walked over to talk to her. She was funny and smart, and we became instant friends.

“Hey, Em, what’s up?”

“What’s up? ‘What’s up,’ she asks,” Emily said as if talking to a group of people about the phone call.

“Uh, yeah, seemed like a reasonable way to answer the call.” Ella had left behind the bag of grapes, so I helped myself to one while I waited for Emily to tell me the apparently big news she was bursting to share.

“I’ll tell you what’s up, bestie. You know that band, Moonstone, that I love?”

“You mean the one that you talk about incessantly because you are obsessed with the lead singer? Yep, I remember. It’d be hard to forget since you send me a constant stream of Moonstone social media.”

She scoffed. “You exaggerate.”

“Actually, I might even be understating the whole thing. What about them? Don’t tell me. You reached out to the singer, and the two of you are going to elope to Hawaii this weekend because he realized he just couldn’t live without you.”

“Well, that’s almost verbatim the way my daydream went this morning, but since you’re being so flippant about it—” She pretended as if she wasn’t going to tell me, but I knew better.

“Sorry, flippant mode turned off. What’s going on with Moonstone and their dreamy, hunky singer?”

“They’re going to be playing at the Comstock Bar tonight over in Fairview. We’ve got to go see them in person. I’m planning to make myself quite visible to the singer. Who knows? Maybe a Hawaiian elopement isn’t that far in the future.” It was what I loved most about Emily. She always dreamed big. Although this wasn’t all that big. Emily was pretty and funny, and while it seemed the lead singer of the band had an impressive following, mostly starry-eyed groupies like Emily, it wasn’t as if he was a superstar. “So, you’ll go with me, right? I don’t want to go alone. Please.”

“All right. I could probably use a margarita or something tonight. I’m going to break up with Dustin this afternoon.”

“It’s about time. It was so obvious that you two weren’t a match.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m still holding out hope for a fairy-tale ending like my sisters all managed. Just don’t think it’s in the cards for me.”

“Well, the bass guitarist is kind of cute, although I think he is supposed to be temperamental. He once smashed a guitar on stage.”

“I think they all do that. Anyway, that’s all right, Emi. I’m going on a man hiatus after I break up with Dustin. It’s been one disappointment after another, and my sisters’ boyfriends have all set the bar very high.”

“Ugh, here comes the boss,” Emily lowered her voice. “I’ll pick you up at eight, and expect several fashion photos before then. My outfit has to be perfect. I need to catch his attention while he’s up on stage.”

---