Love on Beach Avenue (The Sunshine Sisters #1) - Jennifer Probst Page 0,2
head won’t stop pounding,” Bella moaned. “Who plays endless hip-hop at a Catholic wedding?”
Avery snorted, swallowing past the dryness in her throat that no amount of water seemed able to take away. Not after an eighteen-hour workday with no time to sit. “I think that’s discriminatory. We asked the DJ to bleep out all the expletives.”
“Which was unnecessary since they didn’t even play Drake,” Taylor pointed out. “I thought you talked the bride into including some songs her grandparents could dance to. They were getting bored.”
Avery arched a brow. “Is that why you started a Bingo game at the back table?”
“Yep.”
Bella shook her head. Lustrous blonde strands of hair that rivaled Goldilocks’s swung across her shoulders. “You’re brilliant, T. I don’t know why you keep saying you hate your job. You have a natural talent for giving people what they want before they know it.”
Avery caught the slight flush of pleasure in her youngest sister’s cheeks, but it was quickly squashed. Taylor’s usual sarcastic sneer settled on her red lips, which complemented her pink hair. “After today’s debacle, you’re still wondering why I don’t believe in marriage? Honestly, I don’t get you two. It’s obvious the bride still has feelings for the cheater. She just chose the good guy because she wanted a settled relationship. What was once safe will eventually become boring, and they’ll be divorced within five years. It’s textbook.”
Avery swore she wouldn’t fight, not at this hour, but it was hard not to defend and explain. “No, I told you I spoke with him, and he was just feeling lonely.”
“I said her. Not him. His douchey move intrigued her enough to start thinking of the cheater, which is the beginning of the end.”
Bella groaned. “Stop. I don’t have the energy to listen to your conspiracies against love and marriage. I have to get up in three hours for Zoe, and you both stuck me with the afternoon tea party. Can we just cut this meeting short and go to bed?”
At the end of an event they worked together, they’d meet in the war room to go over the details—both good and bad—and give themselves some time to come down from the exhausted high of a wedding. Many times, they toasted with a glass of champagne, spent some time bonding, then retired to bed. But right now, Avery sensed an aura of impatience with her sisters. A weariness that wasn’t physical but mental. Were they beginning to regret their choices to take over the business?
When their parents announced they were moving to Florida and leaving Sunshine Bridal in their daughters’ capable hands, they’d all agreed on an even split. At first, Taylor had refused, citing her dream to travel and experience a worldly life without social constraints, but big plans required big money. She’d told them she would give it three years and planned to take off after that, giving them enough time to replace her. Bella had always expressed an interest in being part of the family business, and as a single mother of a five-year-old, this gave her the stability she needed.
As for Avery? She had been born to be a wedding coordinator. She’d believed in fairy-tale love and marriage from the time she was young. Watching her parents grow and change as they raised their children, yet still retain the close bond between them, proved it existed. Sure, she was thirty-two and hadn’t experienced her own fairy-tale relationship, but dammit, she believed.
Her past relationships had been basically healthy, but she’d never fallen in love. Caring and deep affection? Yes. Passion? Yes. But not the vibrating knowledge in her core that told her she’d met her soul mate. She dreamed of the day she’d finally find her true companion. She didn’t want a string of one-night stands or men who didn’t believe in commitment. When she fell, it needed to be with a man who was brave enough to love her back and say it out loud—preferably with a ring and on bended knee not too long afterward.
That’s why she loved all the trappings and rituals that revolved around a wedding ceremony, even with the craziness popping up amid difficult relatives, jealous bridesmaids, other PITAs (Pain in the Asses), and endless minutiae. It all became worth it each time Avery watched someone walk down the aisle with all that wild hope, joy, and love etched on his or her face. Knowing she was a part of their permanent memories gave her a slice of immortality.