Page 19 of Searching for Sunshine

STELLA

“Are you ready to do this?” Avery asks me the next afternoon as she helps me put the finishing touches on my makeup.

“Yeah. Ready or not, right?” I ask with a laugh, fluffing my hair. “Are you sure this dress is the right move?

“Absolutely,” she reassures me, looking down at the short white dress I found in the back of my closet. “You look beautiful, babes.”

“Thank you, Aves. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I admit.

“Of course. I seriously can’t believe you’re getting married today.”

“Me either, honestly,” I admit and we both laugh. “All right, I guess we’d better go ahead and head that way.”

Avery nods, and we head out to her car to make the short drive over to the docks. “Will it just be us and the guys who we were with last night?” she asks as I give her directions.

“Yeah, I mean I’m not expecting anyone else. We both know this isn’t a real wedding so I don’t see any reason for anyone else to com—” I start but stop as I see the full parking lot of the dock.

“Uh, are you sure about that?” Avery asks, looking out at the crowds of people setting up lawn chairs on the dock. “Oh my god, did you know there were going to be flowers? And twinkle lights?”

I stare in shock at the scene in front of us. “Um, I’m pretty much at a loss for words.”

“Same,” Avery admits. “Let’s go see what this is all about.”

We walk toward the hut labeled as Crestbrook Charter Company, and every couple of feet, someone stops me to congratulate me on the wedding.

“Stels, what the hell is going on?” Avery asks me with wide eyes.

“Not a fucking clue,” I admit, smiling at the people around me. “I mean, I remember a few of these people from when I spent the summer here, but I’ve never seen a lot of them before in my life.”

“Do you think Wyatt did all of this?” she asks, and I shrug.

“I mean, surely not. I know he said he was going to handle putting everything together, but we never talked about inviting anyone.”

As soon as we step foot into the small office space, Wyatt runs over, clearly aggravated.

“Hey, you look nice,” he says before gesturing to the crowd. “I’m so sorry about all of this. Fucking Miss Agatha and her inability to mind her own business.”

“I’m confused. Who’s Miss Agatha and what does she have to do with all the people outside?”

Wyatt sighs. “She’s the town busybody, and she runs the local newspaper,The Cove Column. Somehow she found out about the wedding, and she put an invitation in the fucking newspaper without telling me. And some of the ladies in town heard that we weren’t planning to decorate, and they took it upon themselves to decorate while I was out on my last charter.”

Avery burst into laughter beside me. “Oh my god, living in this fucking town is gonna be a hoot.”

“Okay, so now that they’re here, what are we going to do about it?” I ask as I look out the window at the people continuing to pile out of their cars. “And how much weight can this dock hold? Because there's at least a hundred people out there.”

“God, I don’t wanna deal with this shit today. But okay, this is what we’re gonna do. There’s no way we’re getting rid of them now that they know what’s going on. But we can tell them they have to sit on the shore. I’m sure none of them came with a microphone or anything like that, so there’s no way they’ll be able to hear us. It’ll be like they aren’t even there,” Wyatt suggests, and Avery nods in agreement.

“Honestly, I think that makes sense, Stels. I don’t see any way out of it, so this seems like the best scenario for now,” she says and I have to admit she’s right. “I’ll leave you two to talk for a moment, and I’ll start redirecting people.”

“Good luck,” Wyatt says with a laugh. “Trent should be out there in the chaos somewhere. Get him to help you.”

“Not a problem,” Avery says, leaving the two of us to stare at each other.

I laugh at the absurdity of the whole situation.

“Oh my god, this whole thing just keeps getting more and more out of control. Do they know this marriage isn’t even real?”

He shakes his head. “Listen, Stella. I don’t think it’s a good idea to broadcast that. The more gossip we give them, the more obsessed with us they’ll be.”

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