Page 23 of Searching for Sunshine

That’s all I can think of as I walk up to theFin and Tonicand see that someone tied hundreds of helium balloons to the rails. They range from a mix of wedding rings and cake designs, all of them withJUST MARRIEDwritten across them in bright sparkly letters. There’s also a huge sign hanging across the frontthat features a caricature drawing of Stella and me with hearts in our eyes.

“Damn, now that’s the way to celebrate a wedding,” my brother yells behind me, and I turn, flipping him off as he gets closer.

“Can you remind me why the hell I stayed in this goddamn town?” I grunt, before throwing up my hands in frustration. “What the hell am I supposed to do with all this shit?”

“Uh, that’s a great question, but it’s too fucking funny to be upset about,” Trent says, continuing to laugh at my expression.

“Seriously, Trent. On top of being really annoying, this is just so damn wasteful. Plus, they touched theFin and Tonic,” I grumble, walking over and starting to rip at the strings tethering the closest balloon. After it’s untied, I stab it with the knife I keep on board, shaking my head at the pop it makes as it deflates. “Are you gonna get your ass over here and help me or am I doing this shit by myself?”

“Chill, dude. I’m coming.”

Trent jumps over the railing and starts helping me pop the balloons before asking, “So, how are you feeling after last night? Don’t think I didn’t notice that you and Stella looked pretty happy at The Sand Bar last night.”

“I’m fine. And you know that Stella and I always had fun together. Don’t try to make this into a big deal, cause I’m not in the mood.”

“Big deal? Wyatt, you’re fucking married. You,the marriage isn’t ever gonna be for mebrother, volunteered to marry a girl you haven’t seen in a decade. And you expect me not to notice that you look happier than I’ve seen you in years? I call bullshit.”

I scowl at him, and he holds his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. I’ll drop it. But don’t think that Bennett, Everett, and I aren’t keeping an eye on you.”

“Well, that’s nothing new. I love y’all but the three of you can be annoying as fuck,” I tell him, and he chuckles while we continue taking down the balloons around the deck.

“Back at ya,” he responds, looking down at the large sign hanging off the boat. “Damn, someone really put some serious detail into this thing.”

“Just take the fucking thing down. We have a tour in thirty minutes, and we’ve gotta get all this shit gone.”

Trent shakes his head at me. “No, we don’t. I checked the email this morning and they canceled on us.”

“Damn it. We’re going to have to change our cancellation policy because this is the third time this month.”

“Wyatt, we don’t have any policy around here. Or a website. Or customers at the moment.”

I glare at my brother and fight the urge to punch one of these damn balloons in frustration. “Wow, Trent. Thank you so much for the update. I surely haven’t noticed that we’ve only done a quarter of the charters we had by this time last year. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Okay, sorry. You’re right. We’ll figure it out. Maybe with your wife revamping the Hideaway, we’ll get some new tourists. But either way, we’ll make it work. We always do,” he reassures me.

“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, since we apparently don’t have any tours today, I’m volunteering you to come help me move my stuff into the cottage. Let’s finish cleaning this shit up, and then we’ll go.”

CHAPTER 12

STELLA

“Okay, are we ready to start Operation High Tide?” Avery asks, collapsing onto the couch in the lobby.

“Yep, may as well get to it. This place isn’t gonna fix itself,” I tell her, rubbing the top of Duke’s head as he lies in my lap.

“You’re right. But also, before we get too far into this, I need to know how your first night as a married woman went?”

“Oh, obviously it was super eventful. We had a kinda awkward hug goodnight and then Duke and I went to the bed and spent a few hours cuddling until I finally fell asleep.”

Avery shoots me a look of disgust and shakes her head at me. “Why the hell was it awkward? If you ask me, the two of you should just bang and get it over with. There’s no way that it won’t happen sometime in the next year, and the sooner you rip the Band-Aid off the more hot sex you get to have.”

“Aves!” I yell, looking around the lobby to make sure no one’s around. “For one, you can’t talk like that out here! What if the guests hear you? And second of all, I’ve told you at least a hundred times in the last week that we’re just friends. Nothing is ever going to happen between the two of us.”

“Stels, I love you, but we’d have to have guests in order for them to overhear me. And fine, I believe you. But whenever it does happen, expect to hear I told you so,” she teases. “On another note, I thought you said that there would be staff here at the hotel. I’m pretty sure Hotel Management 101 says we aren’t supposed to just leave the lobby open like we did all day yesterday.”

“Uh, yeah. I think that might be something we have to add to our ever-growing list of problems. Mr. Marshall told me some of the staff is still around, but all I’ve been able to figure out is that Miss Clara was running it basically solo while she waited for us to show up. There’s a name for a housekeeper who comes once a week since we have so many uninhabited rooms, but that’s about it,” I say. “So it looks like it might be a two-woman show around here for a little while. Memaw left a little bit of money to go toward upkeep, but even with that amount, there’s no way we can afford to pay full-time staff members right now. I’m pretty sure we have exactly two guests right now.”

“Yeah, you’re right but that’s fine. Neither of us has ever minded a little bit of hard work,” Avery reassures me, pulling her pink laptop out of the bag at her feet. “I was having trouble sleeping last night, so I started to put together some ideas for a new logo and a social media strategy. This place definitely needs a little bit of upkeep, but I think with some new paint and a great website, we could really turn this place around.”

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